Mao’s Last Dancer (Review)

Boy from Chinese peasant family gets plucked from obscurity and is sent skyrocketing onto ballet stages. Boy travels to America, achieves stardom and falls in love, but is facing a forced return to his homeland. Boy faces dilemma – will he ever see his family again?

That essentially wraps up Mao’s Last Dancer, which is based on the true story of Chinese ballet dancer Li Cunxin (played by Chi Cao).

We Are from the Future [My iz budushchego] (Review)

It seems to be that stories of war, whether they are films, history books or otherwise, focus on one of two perspectives: the Anglo-American, or the German. It’s either English speaking diggers and GIs, or it’s blonde-haired, blue-eyed Nazi’s sauntering around and Heil-ing Hitler. It’s not often that Russian participation is considered, nor is the impact that World War II may still be having on the current generation of young Russians.

But We’re From The Future [...]

(500) Days of Summer (Review)

The disclaimer at the beginning says it all, “You should know up front, this is not a love story.”

And essentially, it is not. How can it be, when one of the parties does not even believe in the concept of love?

Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) hit it off when they meet at the greeting card company where wannabe-architect turned copywriter Tom works. From here, they vie for the title of [...]

Coco Avant Chanel (Review)

Coco Avant Chanel has all of the elements to be a potentially brilliant film. French? Check. Period drama? Check. Fabulous frocks and Audrey Tautou in the lead role? Check and check. But at first glance something seems to be lacking in this biopic about the revered French fashion designer Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel.

The film begins in the late eighteen-hundreds with the young Chanel being literally carted off to an orphanage with her sister, and moves on [...]

Is Anybody There? (Review)

“I used to have a beautiful wife and all my own teeth. Life changes… and not always for the better,” or so says retired magician Clarence (Michael Caine) in Is Anybody There? It’s a wise statement and a valuable thought to take on board – and it isn’t the first, or last, poignant moment of the movie.

Edward (Bill Milner) is a ten-year-old only child obsessed with mortality and the afterlife, a direct result of his house in the [...]

Chanel No.5 – Advertisement or short film?

Kidman and Luhrmann. Tautou and Jeunet.

Sometimes the combination of an actress and a director works magically across a number of films, but now these pairs have another thing in common – they have all played a part in the creation of extravagant Chanel No. 5 advertisements.

The latest Chanel advertisement, directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet, features Audrey Tautou in a fateful love story on board the Orient Express between Paris and Istanbul. [...]