Benoît Jacquot's cinematic version of Puccini's opera is by turns subtle and ostentatious. Rather than disguising its stage origins, he emphasizes its artificiality, thus putting the focus on the music, both vocal and instrumental — with Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna.
From its trailer, this flick looks an awful lot like Spy Kids, with a cute kid — in this case Frankie Muniz of "Malcolm in the Middle" — given a bunch of neat gizmos and trained in kicking ass who’s then called upon to save the world. Like most copycats, it doesn’t live up to the greatness of the original.
William Friedkin’s film, riddled with the crumbs of false hope that belie the promise of a whole cake, is really just one long chase sequence with a few brief bathroom breaks of deep-thinking ethical quandaries — with Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro.
Director Lee Hirsch’s auspicious debut feature documentary structures the history of the South African people’s oppression, struggle and liberation as an epic reflection of one man’s suffering, death and ironic resurrection. In doing so, he creates a moving new genre: the musical documentary.
South Korean director Im Kwon-Taek’s biography of a 19th century Korean painter is saved from respectful staidness by the fact that its central character is such an anarchistic mess. It's a beautiful looking film that allows us to see the painter's awesome vision, whose source remains a mystery to the end.