All articles by Mike Goodridge – Page 76
-
Reviews
Mean Creek
Dir: Jacob Estes. US. 2004. 87mins.One of the hidden treasures at the Sundance Film Festival this year, Mean Creek is a haunting teenage take on Deliverance in which a prank turns to tragedy. Sombre, gripping and often painfully true in its evocation of teenage concerns, it marks a stunning directorial ...
-
Reviews
The Machinist
Dir: Brad Anderson. Spain/US. 2004. 98 mins.The Machinist is a sinister and unsettling psychological thriller which has cult favourite written all over it. It's Donnie Darko meets Kafka, Repulsion meets Safe. Talented US film-maker Brad Anderson (Session 9, Happy Accidents) takes the Cold War paranoia re-invading US society under the ...
-
Reviews
Maria Full Of Grace
Dir: Joshua Marston. US/Colombia. 2004. 101mins.Yet further confirmation that HBO Films is now the beating heart of US independent cinema, Maria Full Of Grace is a riveting portrait of drug mules transporting heroin from Colombia into the US which is as much intense thriller as it is powerful social comment.A ...
-
News
Woodsman, September Tapes score Sundance sales
One of the Sundance FilmFestival's most acclaimed competition entries this year - Nicole Kassell's TheWoodsman - was sold yesterday toNewmarket Films for North America for a figure in the $1.2m range.The deal, closed yesterdayafternoon, was the end of a bidding war between six buyers for thecontroversial title which tells the ...
-
News
Sony Classics takes on North American rights to Zelary
Sony Pictures Classics (SPC)has acquired North American rights to Ondrej Trojan's Zelary, the Czech World War II epic which is this year'sCzech Republic entry for the best foreign language film Academy Award.The deal was struck betweenSPC and Neil Friedman of Menemsha Entertainment who had previously soldTrojan's production Divided We Fallas ...
-
News
Warner Independent makes first acquisition at Sundance
Two more deals were closedat the Sundance Film Festival yesterday and more are set to close before thefestival finishes this weekend, as the domestic buying frenzy continued.Warner Independent Pictures,which had made multi-million dollar bids on at least two pictures this week,finally closed on its first acquisition, taking North American and ...
-
Reviews
Employee Of The Month
Dir: Mitch Rouse. US. 2004. 97 mins.Few films deserved a slot in the Sundance Film Festival less than the repellent Employee Of The Month, a bungled attempt to blend gross-out comedy with double-cross heist thriller which had buyers walking out and audiences shaking their heads in dismay in Park City.Despite ...
-
Reviews
The Butterfly Effect
Dir: Eric Bress & J Mackye Gruber. US. 2004. 113mins.This efficient if wildly elaborate supernatural thriller, which world premiered at Sundance this week and opens through New Line on Jan 23, should be a moderate-to-strong moneyspinner for the studio which has become the home for smart, low-budget youth-oriented horror like ...
-
News
Sundance sees dynamite deal-making spree
Theannual Sundance Film Festival buying spree got off to an unexpectedly briskstart this year with five films finding at least North American distributionfor a collective price tag upwards of $18m. And that was after just three full andfrenetic screening days in Park City.Thekey acquisitions so far are:- Garden State, Zach ...
-
Reviews
My Architect
Dir: Nathaniel Kahn. US. 2003. 116mins.One of the 12 films shortlisted for the best documentary feature Academy Award and a healthy box office performer to the tune of $0.4m in its first two months of domestic release through New Yorker Films, My Architect is yet another theatrically marketable documentary to ...
-
Reviews
Along Came Polly
Dir: John Hamburg. US. 2003. 90 mins.John Hamburg, the co-writer of Zoolander and Meet The Parents, delivers a forgettable romantic comedy in Along Came Polly, his second feature as a director after the 1998 caper Safe Men. Although there are belly laughs along the way and a highly appealing cast, ...
-
News
Klockworx to take Weeping Camel into Japan
Klockworx has acquired allrights in Japan to the Toronto Film Festival hit The Story Of The Weeping Camelfrom sales agent MenemshaEntertainment. In addition, New World Pictures bought rights to the film inThailand.The picture, a docu-dramaset in the Mongolian desert, charmed Toronto audiences with its simple tale ofa camel who rejects ...
-
News
Hungary passes new film law, offers new tax rebates
The HungarianParliament has passed a new film law which should position the country as oneof the most attractive in the world for incentive-hungry internationalproductions.The law, which passed justbefore Christmas on Dec 22, offers two kinds of incentives. The first is astraight rebate system for productions shooting in Hungary which offers ...
-
News
Hungary passes new film law, offers new tax rebates of up to 20%
The HungarianParliament has passed a new film law which should position the country as oneof the most attractive in the world for incentive-hungry internationalproductions.The law, which passed justbefore Christmas on Dec 22, offers two kinds of incentives. The first is astraight rebate system for productions shooting in Hungary which offers ...
-
News
Hungary passes new film law, offers new tax rebates of up to 20%
The HungarianParliament has passed a new film law which should position the country as oneof the most attractive in the world for incentive-hungry internationalproductions.The law, which passed justbefore Christmas on Dec 22, offers two kinds of incentives. The first is astraight rebate system for productions shooting in Hungary which offers ...
-
News
MONSTER
Dir: Patty Jenkins. US. 2003. 110 mins.Two documentaries by Nick Broomfield may have told the Aileen Wuornos story vis a vis the American justice system and media, but Patty Jenkins tells the human story of the woman in her dramatization Monster, a low-budget character study which was released domestically at ...
-
Reviews
Monster
Dir: Patty Jenkins. US. 2003. 110 mins.Two documentaries by Nick Broomfield may have told the Aileen Wuornos story vis a vis the American justice system and media, but Patty Jenkins tells the human story of the woman in her dramatization Monster, a low-budget character study which was released domestically at ...
-
Reviews
Zelary
Dir: Ondrej Trojan. Czech Republic. 2003. 150mins.Ondrej Trojan, the producer of Czech hits Divided We Fall and Pupendo, returns to directing with Zelary, a sweeping World War II story set in a remote mountain community where a resistance worker takes refuge from the Nazis. One of those lilting, long films ...
-
News
Miramax reaches accord with Spain's Lauren
Miramax Filmshas reached an agreement with Spain's beleaguered Lauren Films whereby Laurenwill continue to handle the 18 as yet unreleased Miramax titles it had acquiredfor Spain and also exploit the library of Miramax titles it has amassed overthe last decade in business with the US company.Miramax COO RickSands told ScreenDaily ...
-
Reviews
Warriors Of Heaven And Earth
Dir: He Ping. China. 2003. 119 mins.He Ping, best known internationally for Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker, is better known in China as the pioneer of the so-called Chinese western like Sun Valley and Swordsman Of Double Flag Town which are set in the vast and unpopulated western territories. Warriors Of ...