As a child of the 1970s and ’80s, weaned on such seminal serials as Star Wars and Indiana Jones, I have always been baffled by my reaction to the Harry Potter mythos. Mine is not a feeling of love or hate but utter ambivalence over the fantastical universe of pubescent sorcerers, wizened minders and nefarious […]
Neil Morris
Posted inFilm & Television
The tasty morsels of Ratatouille
Ratatouille opens Friday throughout the Triangle. With such recent, highbrow attempts as Avenue Montaigne and Paris, Je T’Aime aiming to once again cinematically capture the joie de vivre of the City of Lights, it will come as a shock that the most genuine, breezy and incisive portrayal of that city since Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset […]
Posted inFilm & Television
A Mighty Heart
The docudrama can be just as emotionally involving as its so-called theatrical counterpartthere is no sequence on film this decade more affecting than in Paul Greengrass’ United 93 as the hijacked airline’s passengers, resigned to their fate, place goodbye air-phone calls to their loved ones. The expressive potential of the format derives from its air […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Tension builds down under in Jindabyne
In a film that genuflects so devoutly, even stolidly, over schisms running along the rote themes of racial, gender and familial strife, the overarching theme of director Ray Lawrence’s Jindabyne really revolves around the sundry shades of mortality. Whether it’s the young lady whose truncated life sets the table for the entire storyline, a middle-aged […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Triangle Jewish Film Festival
Entering the sophomore year of its phoenix-like rise from the ashes of the erstwhile North Carolina Jewish Film Festival, the Triangle Jewish Film Festival has high cause for optimism. Despite a year-long hiatus between the end of the festival’s six-year stint at Durham’s Carolina Theatre and its move to the Galaxy Cinema in Cary, a […]
Posted inNews
After the Wedding
Partly steeped in the precepts of Dogme filmmaking, After the Wedding is an exquisite emotional sledgehammer pummeling its audience with a barrage of overblown family melodrama. However, after wading through a torrent of misidentified paternity, terminal illness and marital infidelity, the joy of watching this Oscar-nominated film lies in the daedal dexterity of its auteur, […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Spider-Man 3 visits the dark side but returns entertainingly and intact
Declaring that Spider-Man 3 is the best third act in any movie series based on a comic book ought to be qualification enough for the film’s deification. Unfortunately, the worst thing to happen to Spider-Man since we last saw him in 2004 was Batman Begins, the genre redefining opus that makes director Sam Raimi’s friendly […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Hot Fuzz and Fracture
There is one scene in Shaun of the Dead that elevated the film from simply uproarious to my yearly Top 10 list. Early on, Simon Pegg’s Shaun goes about a mind-numbing daybreak routine of exiting his home, walking down the sidewalk, crossing the street, and entering a local market to purchase a drink, oblivious to […]
Posted inGuides
Full Frame ticket sales are up, but is the buzz down?
The annual slogan for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is “How much reality can you handle?” After attending the 2007 festival, I left pondering a quote from Salman Rushdie: “Reality is a question of perspective.” By almost all accounts, Full Frame’s 10th anniversary was a smashing success. A record number of tickets were sold […]
Posted inGuides
Full Frame: Ten years after
See also: Ten years after | Friend or Coe? | Of time and Charleen | Strange fruit | Capsule reviews “When I think of spring in Durham, I think of gorgeous weather, lots of pollen, and Full Frame.” filmmaker Cynthia Hill Marking its 10th anniversary, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is more than a […]
