Burn After Reading
Ever since BLOOD SIMPLE back in 1984, Joel and Ethan Coen have produced a steady stream of unrelentingly oddball features that totter on the border between melodrama and black humour. Now, after the unexpected success of last year's NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, it seems the Coen Brothers can do, well, whatever they please.
Man On Wire
In 1974, French tightrope walker Philippe Petit strung up a cable between two corners of the World Trade Centre buildings in New York and went for an awe-inspiring stroll. Suddenly, the up-til-then ambivalent public response to the new constructions was converted into a fever of art-fuelled patriotism.
David Lynch DVD Collection
Has David Lynch just become a friendly caricature of American oddness? I mean, once you turn 60, start evangelising about meditation, and release your own brand of coffee - how strange can you really be?
A new five-disc DVD collection gives a before-and-after glimpse of Lynch's career. You can start with the industrial nightmare of fatherhood that is ERASERHEAD, and then wash your mind clean afterwards with his early short films like the adorable THE FRENCHMAN AND THE COWBOY.
Sukiyaki Western Django
Sergio Leone has been a punchline for too long. Half the time someone faces off with an enemy - whether in comedy, soap opera, or sci-fi - suddenly we'll see close-up squinting and hear Morricone's whistled woo-WEE-woo-WEE-woooooo.
Yeah. They're like cowboys. We get it.
Cult-auteur Takashi Miike knows better, and his latest film is one long love letter to Leone.
WALL-E
Why does everyone love Pixar? Exhibit A: when Pixar became aware of footage showing someone who cried every time the hero of their latest film simply said his name, they flew her to the wrap party. They're that awesome.
Director Andrew Stanton's last masterpiece was FINDING NEMO and it opened with the massacre of almost an entire family of baby fish.
Waltz With Bashir
War might be hell, but it's also totally awesome, right? That's the message embedded in most war movies. François Truffaut even claimed it's impossible to make an anti-war film, as the big screen automatically turns bodies and bullets into fodder for spectacular cinematic ka-boom.
Ari Folman's animated kinda-documentary WALTZ WITH BASHIR makes a convincing case that Truffaut was wrong.
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
In HELLBOY, Guillermo Del Toro finds the big red muse that lets his artsy aesthetics and blockbuster tendencies combine into a glorious mess of pulp fiction.
PAN'S LABYRINTH? THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE? BLADE 2, even? Del Toro only has one story, but tells it with such heartfelt glee and attention to detail that no one minds.
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