It should be noted that the original title of Olivier Assayas’ well-received Something In The Air is Après Mai. For a film set in France in 1970, that inevitably means “after [the extensive riots of ] May 1968”. Let it be clear, however, that this is neither a political film, nor a film about politics. […]
AFI FEST
AFI FEST 2012 Film Review: Like Someone In Love (Dir. Abbas Kiarostami France/Japan 2012 )
Abbas Kiarostami has gone to Japan, and why not? Like Someone In Love is less obviously tricksy than his last, and his first outside of Iran, Certified Copy [2010]; and it reveals a little more of what was obvious all along – that Kiarostami’s interests lie in people, identity, and communication (between characters, and with […]
AFI FEST 2012 ‘Breakthrough’ Must See Selection: Nairobi Half Life (Dir. Tosh Gitonga 2012 Germany Kenya)
If you go to the AFI FEST website, and select Film Guide from the navigation menu, you will find all of the festival’s sections laid out before you, with an image from one film highlighting each. It should come as no surprise that Nairobi Half Life has been selected to represent the ‘Breakthrough’ section of […]
AFI FEST 2012 ‘Young Americans’ Must See Movies: The International Sign For Choking, Somebody Up There Likes Me, and Starlet
The ‘Young Americans’ section of the AFI FEST program is a place where emerging U.S. filmmakers showcase their recent works to the festival audience in the hopes that they will win the coveted audience award prize. There are eleven films in the section for the 2012 festival, three of which have made an incredible impression […]
AFI FEST 2011 Film Review: The Loneliest Planet (Dir. Julia Loktev, 2011, USA/Germany)
This is really a one idea movie, but it’s a very good idea (taken from a short story by Tom Bissell). Nica and Alex are young travelers in Georgia, engaged to be married, who depart on a trek with mountain guide Dato. And then Something Happens. To explain the Something would be to spoil the […]