Film, Gambit

Film Review: The Great Gatsby

Mon, 13 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then Baz Luhrmann's outrageously overblown adaptation of The Great Gatsby must be the first toll-free superhighway to the fiery depths. Co-screenwriter and director Luhrmann clearly has nothing but admiration and respect for F. Scott Fitzgerald's literary masterpiece, going so far as to invent a system of rules for condensing Fitzgerald's elegant prose that Luhrmann calls "Fitzlish."…

Film Review: Eden

Mon, 13 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Dating back to 1920s Hollywood and beyond, some films were known as "social problem" or "message" movies. From alcoholism and drug abuse to racism and juvenile delinquency, these earnest works arrived in a fairly steady stream until the exploitation films of the 1960s and '70s — masquerading as message movies — tacitly encouraged audiences to enjoy all the bad behavior happening on screen.…

Review: Blancanieves

Ken Korman — Mon, 06 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman on a Spanish film that dwarfs all the recent versions of Snow White by Ken Korman Hollywood tried and failed twice last year to make a worthwhile movie based on the Brothers Grimm's 19th-century fairy tale Snow White. So news of another movie inspired by the story — this one written and directed by Spanish filmmaker Pablo Berger — may not elicit much enthusiasm from potential audiences.…

Review: To the Wonder

Ken Korman — Mon, 06 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman says Terrence Malick's latest isn't his hoped-for late-career masterpiece by Ken Korman It can't be easy being Terrence Malick. After debuting with the powerful one-two punch of Badlands and Days of Heaven in the 1970s, he has worked only when he feels like it, making a total of six feature films as a director over the course of his 40-year career.…

Review: Mud

Ken Korman — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman on Matthew McConaughey's turn as a mysterious Southern drifter by Ken Korman Firmly rooted in the Southern literary tradition of writers from Mark Twain to mystery novelist James Lee Burke, Mud is the engaging and atmospheric third feature from writer/director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter). With its story of two teenage boys who discover a mysterious drifter named Mud (Matthew McConaughey) hiding on a remote island on the Mississippi River, the film far exceeds what usually passes for a coming-of-age story in Hollywood.…

Review: The Company You Keep

Ken Korman — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman says Robert Redford's drama about 1960s radicals is uninspiring by Ken Korman It's easy to understand Robert Redford's attraction to the material and worldview in Neil Gordon's The Company You Keep, the 2003 novel on which director Redford's movie is based. The book fictionalizes the later lives of members of 1960s and '70s radical revolutionary group Weather Underground, imaging what might happen to them if their assumed identities were finally exposed after they spent 30 years hiding in plain sight.…

Review: Photographic Memory

Will Coviello — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Will Coviello on Ross McElwee's latest documentary by Will Coviello Anyone who enjoyed the odd documentary Sherman's March will instantly recognize the narrator in Photographic Memory. In Sherman's March, filmmaker Ross McElwee, ostensibly documenting Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's path of demolition in the Civil War, traveled across the South and asked former girlfriends why they broke up with him or why their relationships didn't work.…

Review: Oblivion

Ken Korman — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman appraises Tom Cruise's latest CGI-ridden blockbuster by Ken Korman There are a couple of red flags that always seem to pop up in movies that are not all they should be — especially as regards storytelling. One is that after mysterious or confusing events take place, the action stops and one character explains everything to another so the audience can make sense of what just happened.…

Review: Trance

Ken Korman — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman says Danny Boyle's latest may be overwrought, but it's hardly boring by Ken Korman English filmmaker Danny Boyle hit it big in recent years with widely acclaimed and not-quite-mainstream movies including Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. But he began his big-screen career with two films — Shallow Grave and Trainspotting — that revealed his signature style: crisp pacing, lush visuals, witty dialogue and a knack for infusing noir-ish crime thrillers with a punk rocker's anarchic sense of fun.…

Review: The Place Beyond the Pines

Ken Korman — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman on Ryan Gosling's turn as a tatted-up bank robber by Ken Korman There's no shortage of ambition in The Place Beyond the Pines, the third feature from writer/director Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine). Essentially three related but distinct 45-minute films, The Place Beyond the Pines reaches for epic scale in its story of fathers, sons and the inescapable legacies passed on to future generations.…

Review: On the Road

Ken Korman — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman gets Beat with Kerouac and Cassady in Walter Salles' new drama by Ken Korman It has always been difficult to imagine a faithful screen version of Jack Kerouac's autobiographical and hugely influential Beat Generation novel On the Road — difficult for fans of the book and for the many filmmakers who struggled (and failed) over the last 50 years to bring it to life on screen. With its impressionistic, free-form prose and defiance of conventional narrative, On the Road seems inherently resistant to cinematic adaptation.…

Review: Sound City

Will Coviello — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Will Coviello on the new documentary featuring Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and Nirvana by Will Coviello Rock solos should only go so long, but in the documentary Sound City, Dave Grohl doesn't care. With his charisma and musical talents and the lineup of rock stars he surrounds himself with in the film and studio, it works out really well, even with his personal indulgences.…

Review: No

Ken Korman — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman on Pablo Larrain's Oscar-nominated political thriller by Ken Korman Argo meets TV's Mad Men in No, an engaging, Oscar-nominated political thriller from Chilean director Pablo Larrain. No tells the fictionalized story of Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal), an advertising man in 1988 Chile who uses techniques borrowed from American TV to power an election campaign that would topple dictator Augusto Pinochet's 15-year reign — but only if he can persuade a reluctant and fearful electorate to vote "no" in a referendum called solely to placate Pinochet's international critics.…

Mountainfilm at Cafe Istanbul

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Wed. April 3 | The Telluride, Colo.-based touring film festival screens a slate of short films about outdoor adventure and environmental topics.…

FilmOrama at the Prytania Theatre

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Fri.-Thu. April 5-11 | A sort of mini-film festival hosted by the New Orleans Film Society and the Prytania Theatre, FilmOrama screens classics, documentaries and foreign films.…

Review: War Witch

Ken Korman — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman says Kim Nguyen's drama about African child soldiers is the best film of the year so far by Ken Korman Canadian filmmaker Kim Nguyen started writing his brilliant War Witch about 10 years ago, but the movie's basic building blocks may seem familiar from recent times. War Witch explores the resilience of an indigenous people living under impossibly difficult circumstances; stars a young girl of African descent who narrates the film and delivers an indelible performance; puts magical realism at the center of a wildly original story; features nonprofessional actors in all the key roles; and manages to feel spontaneous despite a meticulously crafted script.…

Review: A Fierce Green Fire

Ken Korman — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman on Mark Kitchell's documentary about environmental activism by Ken Korman Subtitled The Battle For a Living Planet, Oscar-nominated documentarian Mark Kitchell's A Fierce Green Fire traces the history of environmental activism in America and across the globe. Divided into five chronological acts with names like "Conservation" and "Alternatives," each with its own voice thanks to narrators including Robert Redford and Isabel Allende, A Fierce Green Fire gains most of its considerable power with rare vintage clips and photographs of the movement's watershed moments.…

Review: The Call

Ken Korman — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman says Halle Berry shouldn't have answered this one by Ken Korman There's nothing complicated about The Call. For the better part of an hour, it follows an abducted teenage girl in the trunk of a moving car, a 911 call center operator (Halle Berry) on the line to aher untraceable cellphone and LAPD doing its best to locate the vehicle and identify the serial killer behind the wheel.…

Review: Oz the Great and Powerful

Ken Korman — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman says Sam Raimi's take on Oz is blockbuster-by-committee by Ken Korman Did anyone really want Hollywood to revisit The Wizard of Oz? It takes nerve to make a prequel to the most beloved movie ever made, especially when the original came out 74 years ago.…

Review: West of Memphis

Ken Korman — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Ken Korman watches Amy Berg's documentary about the West Memphis Three by Ken Korman It's been a rough month for American justice on local movie screens. First Ken Burns' The Central Park Five documented innocent New York City teenagers railroaded into prison by zealous detectives and prosecutors.…

Preview: Found Film Festival 6

Will Coviello — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Will Coviello on the fest that scrapes the bottom of the VHS barrel by Will Coviello Found Footage Festival curators Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett have been collecting VHS tapes since 1991 and are known for compiling montages of the best scenes from the worst workout videos, training videos and infomercials and presenting outtakes from the most eccentric of community programming and other odd projects recorded for posterity. The mix of embarrassing and strange scenes come from goofy amateur videos, low-budget, lesser celebrity projects and individuals ranting to the camera.…

Review: T-Galop: A Louisiana Horse Story

Ken Korman — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Ken Korman on an unusual screening at the New Orleans Fair Grounds by Ken Korman Winner of the Louisiana Feature Film Prize at last year's New Orleans Film Festival, T-Galop: A Louisiana Horse Story surveys various horse-centered subcultures and practices in the rural southwest of the state. But it's hardly the kind of dry anthropological study you might expect from that description.…

Review: 11 Feathers

Ken Korman — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Ken Korman on an unsentimental coming-of-age drama from China by Ken Korman An unsentimental coming-of-age story from veteran Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai (Beijing Bicycle), the original Mandarin title of 11 Flowers translates literally to something along the lines of "I am 11." That is a more fitting name for an autobiographical film that does a remarkable job of getting across what it's like to be an innocent preteen boy.…

Review: The Central Park Five

Ken Korman — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Ken Korman on Ken Burns' new documentary about the Central Park jogger case by Ken Korman Tales of social injustice always seem a perfect fit for a long-form documentary film, where complex stories given cursory or sensationalized coverage in the news media can finally receive their due. The Central Park Five takes its correction a step further by illuminating a tragic series of events that were set in motion — at least in part — by the lazy or indifferent reporting of professional journalists working in the news capital of the world.…

Review: The Mystery of Old Bathbath

Will Coviello — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Will Coviello on a phantasmagorically low-fi filmed puppet show by Quintron and Miss Pussycat by Will Coviello The latest film installment of Miss Pussycat's (aka Panacea Theriac) Trixie and the Treetrunks puppet show and movie series gets its local premiere at The Prytania. In The Mystery in Old Bathbath, Trixie and Marsha realize their friend the magical Happy Tree, which delivers secret messages from the center of the Earth, is ill. There's also strife within the Trixie and the Treetrunks band as jazz drummer J.J. Suede harbors a deranged animosity toward the tree.…