Bayou Arcana
Artful gender collaboration
The Fall
Will Stone was left pondering an incoherent outing
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
A lively production imbued with politics
Film
Hero of the year
Friday 31 December 2004
JEFF SAWTELL and BEN DAVIS trawl through the highlights, the low points the truly nauseating disasters of cinema's offerings in 2004.
Scorsese misfires
Friday 24 December 2004
JEFF SAWTELL wonders why Martin Scorsese has failed to get his teeth into the life of playboy Howard Hughes.
Poetry in motion by Chinese master
Friday 24 December 2004
ALTHOUGH not as flamboyant as Hero, Zhang Yimou's new film House of the Flying Daggers is equally epic - poetry in motion, combining an artistic action film with a sumptuous love story, writes JEFF SAWTELL.
Family adventure to make Goebbels proud
Friday 24 December 2004
HOLLYWOOD holiday hokum - National Treasure is another from Jerry Bruckheimer, the action man producer of flag-waving films from Farewell My Lovely to Pirates of the Caribbean, writes JEFF SAWTELL.
Cinderella's satirical edge
Friday 17 December 2004
ELLA Enchanted is the best by far of the most recent takes on the Cinderella story. Which isn't saying much, since it's not an experience you can recommend without reservations.
Nauseating teenage film promotes Dubya's view of sex before marriage
Friday 17 December 2004
Sleep-through more likely.
Reflections on a feudal society
Friday 17 December 2004
FILM: Based upon Asada Jiro's best-selling novel When the Last Sword is Drawn, Yojiro Takita's cinematic adaptation is one of those long-drawn-out dramas about the last days of the samurai in 19th-century Japan.
Ever so wicked
Friday 17 December 2004
PICK: JEFF SAWTELL marvels at Jim Carrey's gurning as the grotesque Count Olaf in this slushy Christmas flick.
Inhumane beauty
Wednesday 15 December 2004
FILM: KARL DALLAS finds a beautiful, poetic work based around the ugliest construction on the planet - the Israeli government's apartheid wall.