The United States of Leland
January 31, 2005
The United States of Leland (2003) is a disturbing trip into the mind of a troubled young man named Leland Fitzgerald (Gosling). This 15-year old boy is in juvenile hall for killing the mentally handicapped kid brother of his girlfriend, Becky (Malone)....
Vanishing Point
December 21, 2004
Vanishing Point (1971) is one of the great existential counter-culture films of the 1970s. Like the similar-minded films, most notably, Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) and Duel (1971), this car chase movie features an anti-hero protagonist who equates the open...
The Village
December 16, 2004
There are those out there that consider M. Night Shyamalan to be this generation’s Hitchcock (albeit with a thirst for horror), and there are those who consider him a hack who relies on outlandish plot twists. If you didn’t like The Sixth...
Battle Royale – Two Disc Special Edition
December 12, 2004
A group of 40-or-so school kids are packed off, against their will, to a remote island with a heavy arsenal of weapons, with the only way off the island is to kill all their mates. You’d be forgiven in thinking that this was the pitch for the next...
I Vitelloni
December 11, 2004
I Vitelloni (1953) is the story of five friends growing up in a small, seaside town in Italy. Director Federico Fellini introduces them via a voiceover narration and a fluid tracking shot that Martin Scorsese would later employ for similar effect in both...
GoodFellas: Special Edition
December 8, 2004
“For as long as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster.” – Henry Hill From his early days making Mean Streets (1973), Scorsese was always fascinated by gangsters. As a child, he had grown up around them and was intrigued by...
Mamma Roma
December 1, 2004
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s short career was marked with controversy and notoriety. He made films that satirized and critiqued the political and religious conventions of Italy. Mamma Roma (1962) was Pasolini’s second film and his take on the Italian neorealist...
Roadkill
November 28, 2004
Roadkill (1989) is the first part of a loosely connected rock ‘n’ roll/road movie trilogy by Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald. The movie was something of a breath of fresh air when it debuted because Canadian film had, up until then, been traditionally...
Kill Bill, Volume 2
November 27, 2004
Quentin Tarantino concludes his epic ode to exploitation films with Kill Bill, Volume 2 (2004) and shifts gears visually and thematically. If Volume 1 was a homage to Asian cinema—specifically, martial arts and samurai films—then Volume 2 pays tribute...
The Shawshank Redemption: 10th Anniversary
November 27, 2004
The Shawshank Redemption is the stuff of legend, both in story and in its journey to the top five of just about every Greatest Movie list over the last five years. What began as a novella in Stephen King’s Different Seasons, ‘Rita Hayworth...
