Vincent Cassel

Film Review: The Artist’s Obsession in ‘Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti’

CHICAGO – The art masters, and the masterpieces they have created, become a background culture in our lives… even if we don’t necessarily know the artist. Paul Gauguin is one of those painters-as-cultural-influencer, and a vital point in his artistic life is told in the film “Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti.”

Film Review: Matt Damon is Fighting Mad in Tense ‘Jason Bourne’

CHICAGO – To come back to a character that everyone thought he had left behind, Matt Damon needed the right creative team. He got it again in co-writer (with Christopher Rouse) and director Paul Greengrass, and together they fashioned a paranoid spy tale in the rat-a-tat “Jason Bourne.”

2015 Sundance Diary: ‘Listen to Me Marlon,’ ‘Pervert Park,’ ‘Seoul Searching’ & Festival Wrap-Up

PARK CITY, Utah – This is the last batch of Sundance reviews I’ve got to offer. A tad late, but I couldn’t let these films go uncommented on, especially with their special offerings for those who seek them out. I hope that each of these films finds an audience.

Blu-ray Review: Danny Boyle’s ‘Trance’ Isn’t Hypnotizing Enough

Trance

CHICAGO – It may sound harsh but “Trance” will be a mere footnote in the career of Danny Boyle. It’s neither one of his best but also far from his worst film. The mega-talented director of “Shallow Grave,” “Trainspotting,” and “127 Hours” brings his confident style to the film but the convoluted script turns in on itself so many times that I think even Boyle got a little bored with it. Rosario Dawson overplays but Vincent Cassel once again intrigues and James McAvoy delivers. It will be a footnote for them all.

Film Review: Danny Boyle Nearly Mesmerizes with ‘Trance’

CHICAGO – Danny Boyle’s “Trance” is an undeniably well-made thriller that works back in on itself a few too many times for disbelief to stay suspended but delivers enough escapist entertainment to be considered a success. It’s totally ridiculous and yet never boring, propelled by the quick-cut style of the man who brought similar momentum to “Shallow Grave,” “Trainspotting,” and “28 Days Later.”

Blu-ray Review: Criterion Unleashes Young Fury of ‘La Haine’

La Haine

CHICAGO – With NATO protests about to descend on Chicago, “La Haine” seems to have as much power as it did on its release almost twenty years ago. It is a visceral, draining experience about class struggles, increased diversity in Paris, economic inequality, and unchanneled rage. In other words, it’s a perfect choice for a Criterion Blu-ray upgrade as the Occupy Movement prepares to descend on the Windy City.

Blu-ray Review: Great Actors Drive Intellectually Engaging ‘A Dangerous Method’

A Dangerous Method

CHICAGO – David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method,” recently released on Blu-ray and DVD, features four of the most interesting performances of 2011 and is certainly a conversation piece in the themes that writer Christopher Hampton has chosen to explore. I still wish it had more of the actual “danger” of Cronenberg’s early work but there’s more to like here than I first thought, especially in what was brought to the material by those cast to deliver it.

Film Review: David Cronenberg’s ‘A Dangerous Method’ Needed More Risk

A Dangerous Method
HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 3.5/5.0
Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – There are glimpses of actual danger in David Cronenberg’s divisive “A Dangerous Method” with Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen, and Keira Knightley, and the film has a lingering power as it’s easy to roll around your brain and contemplate its themes, but I wanted a bit more actual risk to the filmmaking. Easily the masterful director’s most straightforward work in some time (possibly ever), this is a worthwhile piece that nonetheless disappoints in the context of the rest of his filmography.

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1’ Offers More of the Same

Mesrine Blu-Ray

CHICAGO – Just as Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” and Olivier Assayas’ “Carlos” recounted the true tale of a controversial revolutionary over the span of at least two theatrically released pictures, Jean-François Richet’s 2008 double feature “Mesrine” stages the jaw-dropping amount of robberies and prison escapes committed by its titular French gangster. His resumé is impressive, but his life makes for rather redundant drama.

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