SilentLight Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Crank: High Voltage (Two-Disc Special Edition)
With Gamer out in theaters, the mini-debate about Neveldine and Taylor -- mad geniuses of action cinema or destroyers of all that is visually coherent? -- can continue. Never-say-die Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) comes roaring back to life for another adrenaline-fueled adventure, accompanied once again by the very game Amy Smart. It's the only new mainstream film out on DVD today, so be prepared to fight like a dead man if you want to rent a copy at your local shop. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

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Valentino: The Last Emperor
Why not try something a little more refined, a little more elegant, a little more ... Valentino? The legendary fashion designer himself is showcased in Matt Tymauer's doc, and by all accounts he's a charismatic, charming personality. In other words, no need to fear if you feign little interest in fashion; the film is more interested in listening to Valentino talk than in delineating the vagaries of changing styles, which may help explain why it became a box office success. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

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The Quick and the Dead
Sharon Stone got the lion's share of the attention during the film's original 1995 release, but her star billing could not eclipse the burning talents of young Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, not to mention the villainous Gene Hackman and the incredible supporting cast, including Gary Sinise, Pat Hingle, Lance Henriksen, Keith David, and Tobin Bell (the future Jigsaw). It all hangs on the ferocious, audacious direction by Sam Raimi. New on Blu-ray. Buy it.

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Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray picks, and Collector's Corner -- all after the jump!

Hey, what do you know, it's already the second weekend of 2009! Only 50 to go before 2010! Most independent-film distributors took a break the last couple weeks (as did most of mainstream Hollywood), but they're getting back into the swing of things now, and the Indie Spotlight is here, as always, to let you know what's playing beyond the multiplexes.

Your indie selections this weekend are: Cargo 200, Just Another Love Story, Silent Light, Yonkers Joe, and the After Dark Horrorfest 2009. Keep reading for the scoop on each of them.

Silent Light (pictured)
What it is: A quiet, slow, contemplative drama about a case of adultery in a small Mennonite community in northern Mexico.
What they're saying: I reviewed it for Cinematical at the Portland International Film Festival last year and described the cinematography as breathtakingly beautiful, the story simple and mesmerizing. I'm one of the 83% of critics at Rotten Tomatoes who liked it. Make no mistake, though: It's a slooow movie -- on purpose. The idea is to become absorbed in the thoughts and feelings of the characters.
Where it's playing: New York City (Film Forum).
More info: The official site is lovely to look at it, if nothing else.

Many of this year's foreign and indie releases showed up on some of the more obscure top ten lists of 2008, and will no doubt be rolling out across the country in various irregular patterns all year long. For example, Steven Soderbergh's Che turned up on more than half a dozen lists that I saw (including our own James Rocchi's), yet most people haven't seen it yet. I have seen it, and I doubt it'll be sticking around long, though I greatly admire it. It's a deliberate attempt to subvert the current biopic formula, and though it's somewhat cold and ultimately a bit one-sided, it's also endlessly mesmerizing. Silent Light, the newest drama by the great and peculiar Mexican director Carlos Reygadas (Battle in Heaven) is also due to show up this month. Matteo Garrone's Italian gangster movie Gomorrah and Steve McQueen's British based-on-a-true-story drama Hunger have also placed well on several top ten and awards lists, and will be turning up in February and March.

The two-time Cannes champs Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have a new one, Lorna's Silence, which I haven't seen, but that has a very nice poster. (It's supposed to be coming around in June.) And James Gray (The Yards, We Own the Night), who for some mysterious reason is quite beloved in France, opened his new film, Two Lovers -- starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joaquin Phoenix -- there to great acclaim. It's due here in February. And one of my contacts tells me that Roy Andersson's outstanding deadpan Swedish comedy You, the Living, which I saw early in 2008, will finally open to theaters sometime in 2009. I'm still waiting for a release date for Kathryn Bigelow's war film Hurt Locker, but it has enough buzz that I'm not worried. I'm a little more concerned about John Woo's Chinese epic Red Cliff, which will hopefully return that master to his former glory; so far there's no U.S. release date -- and no indication that the entire, uncut film will make it over here.

In case you don't read Entertainment Weekly and didn't see this week's double issue on "The New Classics," or you didn't see my post last week about their list of the best movies from the last 25 years, here's a sad fact: only six foreign-language films made the list. They are: Wings of Desire (#28); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (#49); The Lives of Others (#56); All About My Mother (#69); Y Tu Mamá También (#86); and In the Mood for Love (#95). OK, so 6% is not terrible for a mainstream entertainment magazine, but EW had to add insult to injury with an accompanying map labeled "Movies: Breaking Down the List," which points to a number of locations around the globe in which some of these new classics are set. The only continent on the map without any love is South America (Antarctica was not included in the visual aid).

Now, before I get into my love letter to new Latin American cinema, I have to note that no film produced in Africa made the list either. However, on the map the continent was at least given some minuscule bit of love via the filming locations for Casino Royale and Gladiator. Yet despite the fact that South America was definitely used as a location in a few of the 100 films, it's shown no respect. And on top of that, Central America isn't even included on the map. For some strange reason there's just a gap between Mexico and South America. Meanwhile, Latin America's sole representative on EW's list, Mexico's Y Tu Mamá También, is left off the map so that no location from this area of the world, from the Mexican-U.S. border to Cape Horn, receives any recognition.

More international festival news as Spain's Festival de Cine Iberoamericano de Huelva and Toronto's Reel Asian International Film Festival have both wrapped up and announced their awards.

At the 33rd Huelva Ibero-American Film Fest (as it's called in English), where movies from Spain, Portugal, and Latin America are spotlighted, the big winner was Silent Light. Directed by Carlos Reygadas (who was also awarded), the Mexican religious drama about adultery in a Mennonite community has already earned prizes at fests in Cannes, Rio, Stockholm, and Chicago. It is Mexico's entry for the Oscars' foreign-language category.

The screenplay prize went to Enrique Fernandez and Cesar Charlone for The Pope's Toilet (gotta love the title -- it's Uruguay's Oscar submission, too); best actor was Leonardo Medeiros for the Brazilian Not By Chance; and best actress was Sofia Gala in Argentina's El resultando del amor. That film also won the audience award for best film.

Back in North America, Toronto's Reel Asian International Film Festival concluded its 11th edition last weekend, with Zhang Yang's black comedy Getting Home taking the audience award. Best documentary was Koryo Saram: The Unreliable People, about ethnic Koreans in the Soviet Union who were forcibly removed by Stalin in the 1930s. The animation award -- or Animasion Award, as the fest cleverly calls it -- went to Yellow Sticky Notes, by Jeff Chiba Stearns.

[Reel Asian news via IndieWIRE.]