The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009)
Where is Alice Creed?
Filmmaker(s): J Blakeson
A rich man's daughter is held captive in an abandoned apartment by two former convicts who abducted her and hold her ransom in exchange for her father's money.
19 Feb The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009)
Expectations No one can know, can they? But we always seek to. This small project explores that notion. It is highly abstract: there are four characters, three of whom we see. There is a literal and disturbing kidnapping, but this connects because the universal analogies...
Edge of Darkness (2010)
Some secrets take us to the edge.
Filmmaker(s): Martin Campbell
As a seasoned homicide detective, Thomas Craven has seen the bleakest side of humanity. But nothing prepares him for the toughest investigation of his life: the search for his only daughter Emma's killer. Now, he is on a personal mission to uncover the disturbing secrets surrounding her murder, including corporate corruption, government collusion and Emma's own mysterious life.
19 Feb Edge of Darkness (2010)
Knowledge Aforehand Careful, this contains not only spoilers for this film, but the original teleplay as well. I’ve had the opportunity to see this close to the extraordinary original. In a fascinating superposition, both are by the same director. The original is one of the...
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (2009)
There's A Storm Coming
Filmmaker(s): Daniel Alfredson
After taking a bullet to the head, Salander is under close supervision in a hospital and is set to face trial for attempted murder on her eventual release. With the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his researchers at Millennium magazine, Salander must prove her innocence. In doing this she plays against powerful enemies and her own past.
16 Feb The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (2009)
Invisible Ink I found this trilogy a drudge, getting more tedious in the later chapters. Yes, it is another all-powerful conspiracy story with a dogged detective who triumphs. The only attraction I can see is the border that is straddled here. Our girl is alternately...
Inside Job (2010)
The film that cost $20,000,000,000,000 to make
Filmmaker(s): Charles Ferguson
A film that exposes the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, Inside Job traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia.
16 Feb Inside Job (2010)
Frippery Okay, with everyone else on the planet, I suffer because the economy broke. And I was curious about a documentary supposedly Oscar-worthy. This is very good storytelling, and economical filmmaking. But it is pretty damning to say of anything that Oliver Stone‘s simplification was...
The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
This case is a dangerous game of life and death.
Filmmaker(s): Brad Furman
A lawyer conducts business from the back of his Lincoln town car while representing a high-profile client in Beverly Hills.
16 Feb The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
Reverse Indemnity What an amazingly lucky form the courtroom has presented filmmakers! It allows us to have one film where we sit in our seats with others making sense of a narrative, where we watch another ‘film‘ where a lawyer presents a narrative to a...
Tokyo Drifter (1966)
Filmmaker(s): Seijun Suzuki
After yakuza boss Kurata dissolves his own criminal empire, a rival kingpin offers a position to Kurata's top operative, Tetsuya "Phoenix Tetsu" Hondo. When the fiercely loyal Tetsu declines, Otsuka taps unstoppable Tatsuzo the "Viper", a ruthless gun-for-hire, to assassinate him. As the Viper trails his target through the countryside, the agile Phoenix Tetsu grows concerned that one of his former associates has betrayed him.
15 Feb Tokyo Drifter (1966)
Holy Cheese Knives If you are fed up by ordinary manufactured campiness, but still have normal levels of humour.. Which is to say if you find Austin Powers not only boring but trivial, you might check this out. It is high camp. It is ridiculous...
Mother (2009)
She'll stop at nothing.
Filmmaker(s): Bong Joon-ho
A mother lives quietly with her son. One day, a girl is brutally killed, and the boy is charged with the murder. Now, it's his mother's mission to prove him innocent.
15 Feb Mother (2009)
Torque Sheer Most storytellers want to take you somewhere into the soul, but all they have to work with is the externalities, the actions of humans. You don’t have many strategies to work with. A common one is to place the examined soul in the...
Inspector Bellamy (2009)
Filmmaker(s): Claude Chabrol
A well known Parisian inspector becomes involved in an investigation while on holiday.
14 Feb Inspector Bellamy (2009)
Woman-defined Identity I was never a champion of Chabrol, but I am amazed at what he left as his last film. The film is superficially framed as a detective story but as it progresses it slowly turns inside out as it becomes a discovery about...
The Mystery Man (1935)
Stark Drama! A Shadow Creeping Through the Night!
Filmmaker(s): Ray McCarey
Hard-boiled newspaper reporter Larry Doyle (Robert Armstrong) goes a bit too far in celebrating a work bonus and wakes up on a train bound for St. Louis with only a buck on his person. To remedy the problem, Doyle pawns the revolver he's carrying. When the gun is subsequently used in a murder, Doyle's problems only multiply. In the meantime, he's also fallen in love with a comely stranger (Maxine Doyle) he convinced to impersonate his wife.
