Ajami (15)
(Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani, 2009, Isr/Ger) Shahir Kabaha, Ibrahim Frege, Eran Naim. 125 mins.
If any situation justifies the multi-angled Crash/Amores Perros-style treatment, it's modern-day Israel. Co-written and directed by an Israeli and a Palestinian, mostly using non-professional actors, this is more hip, streetwise and even-handed than we're used to. Set in a mixed neighbourhood of Tel Aviv, the plot skilfully juggles intertwined stories of feuds, families, drugs and violence involving characters from all faiths.
Trash Humpers (18)
(Harmony Korine, 2009, Us/UK) Brian Kotzue, Travis Nicholson, Rachel Korine. 78 mins.
Korine preserves his enfant terrible reputation with a scrappy, seedy home video following a group of masked delinquents around. It's a vaudeville of depravity (they literally hump dustbins) that manages to be grimy without being explicit.
Wild Grass (12A)
(Alain Resnais, 2009, Fra/Ita) André Dussolier, Sabine Azéma. 104 mins.
Veteran Resnais crafts a silky, genre-hopping middle-aged romance that's full of wonders and mysteries.
(Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani, 2009, Isr/Ger) Shahir Kabaha, Ibrahim Frege, Eran Naim. 125 mins.
If any situation justifies the multi-angled Crash/Amores Perros-style treatment, it's modern-day Israel. Co-written and directed by an Israeli and a Palestinian, mostly using non-professional actors, this is more hip, streetwise and even-handed than we're used to. Set in a mixed neighbourhood of Tel Aviv, the plot skilfully juggles intertwined stories of feuds, families, drugs and violence involving characters from all faiths.
Trash Humpers (18)
(Harmony Korine, 2009, Us/UK) Brian Kotzue, Travis Nicholson, Rachel Korine. 78 mins.
Korine preserves his enfant terrible reputation with a scrappy, seedy home video following a group of masked delinquents around. It's a vaudeville of depravity (they literally hump dustbins) that manages to be grimy without being explicit.
Wild Grass (12A)
(Alain Resnais, 2009, Fra/Ita) André Dussolier, Sabine Azéma. 104 mins.
Veteran Resnais crafts a silky, genre-hopping middle-aged romance that's full of wonders and mysteries.
- 6/18/2010
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The first of many events commemorating the upcoming 200th anniversary of the Lewis & Clark expedition of 1804-06, this National Geographic-produced Imax film will be traveling leisurely around the country. Since April 20, distributor Destination Cinema's "Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West" has opened in big-format venues in Nebraska, Texas, Missouri, Utah and Michigan, with the rest of the big country beckoning. Next up May 18 is Jersey City, N.J.'s, Dome Theater at the Liberty Science Center.
A reteaming of director Bruce Neibaur and producer Lisa Truitt, who collaborated on National Geographic's Imax hit "Mysteries of Egypt", "Lewis & Clark" is a fine introduction to the subject matter by way of a documentary-like re-creation that condenses the epic 8,000-mile journey into 42 minutes while filming in locations as close as possible to the ones described in historical journals.
One of our prouder moments as an emerging nation, the Thomas Jefferson-inspired exploration by river of America's vast Northwestern interior is of historical significance for not always good reasons. Uncharted by non-natives but hardly unoccupied, the land is teeming with new species and new people. Indeed, a young woman named Sacagawea (Alex Rice) becomes a crucial member of the expedition, while the Native American world they travel through will soon suffer a calamitous decline.
Led by Jefferson's private secretary Meriwether Lewis (Kelly Boulware) and soldier-explorer William Clark (Sonny Surowiec), the ambitious expedition to map the Missouri River, cross the Continental Divide and find passage to the Pacific Ocean (on the Columbia River) left St. Louis on May 14, 1804, and returned Sept. 23, 1806. With little conventional dialogue, but with the performers convincingly re-enacting selected portions of the journey, "Lewis & Clark" is ultimately all about the scenery.
To this end, special effects are needed to show such past wonders as a massive herd of buffalo and Montana's Great Falls. Overall, the film proudly celebrates Lewis & Clark's achievement and makes good use of the Imax format. Along with the narration read by Jeff Bridges, the film's reverential attitude toward the pre-industrial wilderness and its fauna both human and animal is a noble sentiment in the current climate of increased consumption of fossil fuels -- not to mention the management of rivers and problems of pollution.
LEWIS & CLARK: GREAT JOURNEY WEST
Destination Cinema
National Geographic Television and Film
Credits:
Director: Bruce Neibaur
Screenwriter: Mose Richards
Producers: Lisa Truitt, Jeff T. Miller
Director of photography: T.C. Christensen
Editor: Stephen L. Johnson
Music: Sam Cardon
Narrator: Jeff Bridges
Cast:
Meriwether Lewis: Kelly Boulware
William Clark: Sonny Surowiec
Sacagawea: Alex Rice
Charbonneau: Greg Jackson
York: Toby Tyler
Running time -- 42 minutes
No MPAA rating...
A reteaming of director Bruce Neibaur and producer Lisa Truitt, who collaborated on National Geographic's Imax hit "Mysteries of Egypt", "Lewis & Clark" is a fine introduction to the subject matter by way of a documentary-like re-creation that condenses the epic 8,000-mile journey into 42 minutes while filming in locations as close as possible to the ones described in historical journals.
One of our prouder moments as an emerging nation, the Thomas Jefferson-inspired exploration by river of America's vast Northwestern interior is of historical significance for not always good reasons. Uncharted by non-natives but hardly unoccupied, the land is teeming with new species and new people. Indeed, a young woman named Sacagawea (Alex Rice) becomes a crucial member of the expedition, while the Native American world they travel through will soon suffer a calamitous decline.
Led by Jefferson's private secretary Meriwether Lewis (Kelly Boulware) and soldier-explorer William Clark (Sonny Surowiec), the ambitious expedition to map the Missouri River, cross the Continental Divide and find passage to the Pacific Ocean (on the Columbia River) left St. Louis on May 14, 1804, and returned Sept. 23, 1806. With little conventional dialogue, but with the performers convincingly re-enacting selected portions of the journey, "Lewis & Clark" is ultimately all about the scenery.
To this end, special effects are needed to show such past wonders as a massive herd of buffalo and Montana's Great Falls. Overall, the film proudly celebrates Lewis & Clark's achievement and makes good use of the Imax format. Along with the narration read by Jeff Bridges, the film's reverential attitude toward the pre-industrial wilderness and its fauna both human and animal is a noble sentiment in the current climate of increased consumption of fossil fuels -- not to mention the management of rivers and problems of pollution.
LEWIS & CLARK: GREAT JOURNEY WEST
Destination Cinema
National Geographic Television and Film
Credits:
Director: Bruce Neibaur
Screenwriter: Mose Richards
Producers: Lisa Truitt, Jeff T. Miller
Director of photography: T.C. Christensen
Editor: Stephen L. Johnson
Music: Sam Cardon
Narrator: Jeff Bridges
Cast:
Meriwether Lewis: Kelly Boulware
William Clark: Sonny Surowiec
Sacagawea: Alex Rice
Charbonneau: Greg Jackson
York: Toby Tyler
Running time -- 42 minutes
No MPAA rating...
National Geographic's first foray into IMAX territory, "Mysteries of Egypt" makes an ideal companion to a certain animated feature playing in regular movie houses.
A visually exhilarating, intimately detailed excursion into the secrets of the Nile (and with Geraldo nowhere to be found), "Mysteries" beats the heck out of traditional travelogues, despite misguided attempts to supplement gorgeous cinematography with starchy historical re-creations and a clunky linking device featuring Egypt's own Omar Sharif as a kindly grandfather playing tour guide for his King Tut's curse-obsessed granddaughter ("The Secret Garden"'s Kate Maberly).
The filmmakers, led by director Bruce Neibaur, received unprecedented access to ancient relics from the Egyptian government, lending the large format spectacular glimpses into the sacred, long-buried tomb of King Tutankhamen as well as the sun-burnished, sand-swept Valley of the Kings, the great pyramids at Giza and the mighty Nile.
It's certainly a nation that can live up to out-of-proportion IMAX scrutiny.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the narrative, which weaves black-and-white footage re-enacting the archeological quest that led to discovery of the teen pharaoh's tomb with scenes detailing how his body was prepared for eternal life, all while hypothesizing how the mighty pyramids were constructed.
They're intertwined with even stagier sequences involving Sharif and Maberly as the proceedings are narrated by Sharif in reverent, breathy tones.
It would have been much wiser to let the magnificent pictures do most of the talking. Like Playboy magazine, venerable National Geographic has never been noted for its stirring text.
MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
National Geographic Films
and Destination Cinema
Produced in association with NOVA/WGBH Boston,
Museum of Science and Industry-Chicago,
Canadian Museum of Civilization
and Centex Investment Ltd.
Director:Bruce Neibaur
Screenwriters:Bruce Neibaur, John Pielmeier
Story:Bruce Neibaur
Producers:Scott Swofford, Lisa Truitt
Executive producers:Tim Kelly, Ed Capelle, Richard W. James
Director of photography:Reed Smoot
Production designer:Michael Buchanan
Editor:Stephen L. Johnson
Music:Sam Cardon
Color/stereo
Cast:
Narrator:Omar Sharif
Granddaughter:Kate Maberly
Running time -- 40 minutes
No MPAA rating...
A visually exhilarating, intimately detailed excursion into the secrets of the Nile (and with Geraldo nowhere to be found), "Mysteries" beats the heck out of traditional travelogues, despite misguided attempts to supplement gorgeous cinematography with starchy historical re-creations and a clunky linking device featuring Egypt's own Omar Sharif as a kindly grandfather playing tour guide for his King Tut's curse-obsessed granddaughter ("The Secret Garden"'s Kate Maberly).
The filmmakers, led by director Bruce Neibaur, received unprecedented access to ancient relics from the Egyptian government, lending the large format spectacular glimpses into the sacred, long-buried tomb of King Tutankhamen as well as the sun-burnished, sand-swept Valley of the Kings, the great pyramids at Giza and the mighty Nile.
It's certainly a nation that can live up to out-of-proportion IMAX scrutiny.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the narrative, which weaves black-and-white footage re-enacting the archeological quest that led to discovery of the teen pharaoh's tomb with scenes detailing how his body was prepared for eternal life, all while hypothesizing how the mighty pyramids were constructed.
They're intertwined with even stagier sequences involving Sharif and Maberly as the proceedings are narrated by Sharif in reverent, breathy tones.
It would have been much wiser to let the magnificent pictures do most of the talking. Like Playboy magazine, venerable National Geographic has never been noted for its stirring text.
MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
National Geographic Films
and Destination Cinema
Produced in association with NOVA/WGBH Boston,
Museum of Science and Industry-Chicago,
Canadian Museum of Civilization
and Centex Investment Ltd.
Director:Bruce Neibaur
Screenwriters:Bruce Neibaur, John Pielmeier
Story:Bruce Neibaur
Producers:Scott Swofford, Lisa Truitt
Executive producers:Tim Kelly, Ed Capelle, Richard W. James
Director of photography:Reed Smoot
Production designer:Michael Buchanan
Editor:Stephen L. Johnson
Music:Sam Cardon
Color/stereo
Cast:
Narrator:Omar Sharif
Granddaughter:Kate Maberly
Running time -- 40 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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