November 14, 2011
The Arts Desk’s Film Reviews On The Week’s Movie Releases
From the disturbing to the entertaining to the downright baffling, a range of movie releases have been looked out this week.
Frank Piasecki Poulsen’s extraordinarily courageous documentary film ‘Blood in the Mobile’ was shocking and unsettling. It saw the fearless Danish film-maker venture into the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo, risking his life to bring to light the shocking story of atrocities linked to the mining of materials used by huge mobile phone corporations.
‘The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn’ certainly has the Steven Spielberg stamp on it but it is faithful to the original story. The adventures of the recognisable ripping boy is featured in the film, but it also throws in beautiful semi-human CGI animation and plenty of action-movie sequences.
‘The Ides of March’ is George Clooney’s new film – a fine political thriller directed, co-produced and co-adapted by the man himself. Playing the main part of Stephen Mayers as the ambitious and opportunistic young press secretary working on his campaign however, is Ryan Gosling. It’s a complex story of ambition, loyalty, guilt and political chicanery that is brilliantly acted all-round.
Lynne Ramsay’s much-anticipated adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s bestselling novel ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ delivered on several levels. The story packs a hefty emotional punch but deals with its subject matter imaginatively and with a deft hand. Imbuing this horrific tale with audacious style and a bleak kind of beauty, director Ramsay lives up to the promise she’s shown in her earlier films.
Nagisa Ôsima’s Seventies art-house takes on sex and violence, ‘In the Realm of the Senses’ and ‘Empire of Passion’ still managed to shock in this week’s DVD releases. Meanwhile, Miklós Jancsó’s inscrutable Seventies art-house take on 19th century revolution, ‘Red Psalm’ was entirely mystifying and experimental, almost to the point of parody.
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