Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:37:27 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Martin Tsai :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Martin+Tsai istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/latinbeart-2008-the-heart-of-latin-america-is/85225/ Fri, 5 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Latinbeat, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's annual survey of Latin American cinema, kicks off its 11th annual edition on Friday with a program of 28 films from 11 countries. Also included in the series are a handful of sidebars, including Spotlight on Chile, the centennial celebration of the Brazilian author Machado de Assis, and a tribute to the Oscar-nominated Puerto Rican filmmaker Jacobo Morales. In some regards, the event is larger in scale than the New York Film Festival, which... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/lifetimes-to-go-in-old-mexico-my-mexican-shivah/84860/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST 'My Mexican Shivah" is a surprisingly universal story, even if its title implies otherwise. John Sayles serves as an executive producer, but the film is unlike his Spanish-language "Men With Guns" or any mainstream Latin-American films in recent memory. In fact, it's somewhat difficult to place — unmistakably about the Jewish Diaspora but also conjuring elements from the particular brand of familial hysteria found in so many Latin-American comedies. Director Alejandro Springall's sophomore... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/also-opening-this-weekend-young-people-f-ing/84852/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Martin Gero's directorial debut, which opens Friday at the Village East Cinema, depicts five parallel sexual encounters. In spite of its explicit title, there is nothing erotically edgy or even remotely titillating here. There are so many warped tales of dysfunctional sex lives presented in such a short span that the few people who see this film will probably come out of it relieved that they didn't choose a career in marriage counseling. Abby (Kristin Booth) introduces a sex toy in an attempt... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/traitor-cuts-to-the-chase/84562/ Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST When Paul Greengrass's "United 93" and Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" were released in 2006, many in the press wondered aloud whether the country was ready for the Hollywood fictionalization of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Fortunately, neither of those films was guilty of the sort of grotesque manipulation and exploitation that are commonplace in today's movie business. Fast-forward to two years later, and we have writer-director Jeffrey Nachmanoff's "Traitor." The film... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/moma-snatches-two-from-the-art-house/86541/ Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Two films from last year's New York Film Festival lineup are returning to the city this week for their theatrical engagements on the eve of the festival's latest edition. Béla Tarr's "The Man From London" opened Monday and Carlos Reygadas's "Silent Light" opens today, both at the Museum of Modern Art. Based on the novel by crime author Georges Simenon, "The Man From London" concerns railroad switchman Maloin (Miroslav Krobot), who witnesses a murder and recovers a suitcase full of stolen money... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-all-of-us/86184/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The documentary "All of Us" follows a young doctor doing her residency in the South Bronx and working with predominantly black female AIDS patients. It would be easy to haul a preconceived notion into the theater of what this film is going to be about, but prepare to be surprised and enlightened. As the title aptly suggests, this is a film and subject matter that concerns just about everyone. Documentary films tackling political or social subjects too often take on an activist slant that... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-fraulein/86185/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST "Fräulein," a new film about sisterhood, shared heritage, and maternal instincts uniting two expatriates who have little else in common, is the cinematic equivalent of a sweet and satisfying short story. It's sincere and somewhat sentimental, but never overtly manipulative. A synopsis of the plot really doesn't do the film justice, because the premise of director Andrea Staka's Tribeca Film Festival entry reads like the most hackneyed chick flick imaginable. Ruza (Mirjana Karanovic) is a... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-greetings-from-the-shore/85685/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST "Greetings From the Shore" is the kind of unassuming picture that relatively few moviegoers will take the time to check out. But it'll certainly grab their attention from the get-go, as it ambitiously tackles such weighty subjects as illegal foreign workers, xenophobia, and date rape all within the first 30 minutes. Anyone who accidently wanders into the auditorium or, more likely, stumbles onto the film when it inevitably ends up on cable television, is likely to take a seat or put down the... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/flow-it-must-be-something-in-the-water/85397/ Tue, 9 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST 'The United States does not keep active records of how many people get sick from our water supply every year," the former senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, Erik Olson, says in Irena Salina's documentary "Flow." "A lot of people think they don't have to worry about their water supply because they go out and buy bottled water. Well, we have news for them. In fact, a lot of your exposure to many of the chemicals comes from the simple act of showering in them." That's just... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/also-opening-this-weekend-babylon-ad/84853/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST "Babylon A.D." marks Vin Diesel's anticipated return to action after unimpressive forays into comedy ("The Pacifier") and drama ("Find Me Guilty"). The story is something like "The Transporter" meets "Children of Men," with Mr. Diesel's character escorting a young woman (Mélanie Thierry) from Kazakhstan to Manhattan in the war-torn not-too-distant future. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a genetically modified messiah. Director... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/korean-film-fest-makes-its-own-mark/84386/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST The New York Korean Film Festival, which begins its 10-day program Friday at Cinema Village and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is delivering the latest offerings from Asia's most vibrant movie industry while they're still hot. Indeed, 11 of the 14 titles to be screened are making either their international, North American, or American premiere at the festival. There's something for every taste, as well. Hee-chan Ra's superb policier "Going by the Book" doubles as droll social satire. The lush... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/one-bad-cat-art-and-the-transformed-man/83928/ Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST An outsider artist based in Cleveland, the Reverend Albert Wagner gained national attention by creating art from his experience as a black man living in America. Recurring themes of race, sex, violence, addiction, and spirituality in his work convey cautionary tales that are more customarily rendered as sermons. The self-taught artist did not find his calling until he was 50, yet his passion and conviction led him to create more than 3,500 pieces before he passed away in 2006 at 82. Thomas... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/ida-brings-docs-back-to-life/83421/ Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST The International Documentary Association's 12th annual DocuWeek showcase, which runs between Friday and next Thursay at Village East Cinema and IFC Center, highlights 14 nonfiction features that have been generating considerable buzz on the festival circuit. Most of the films are making their local premieres at the series, while a few others were highlights at the recent Tribeca and Human Rights Watch festivals. For much of the past two or three years, the documentary field has been... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-red-71/82599/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Patrick Roddy's "Red 71," which begins its run at the Pioneer Theater on Friday, is a whodunit with Lynchian aspirations. The film revolves around the mysterious death of Charley (Ted Parks), owner of the nightclub Red 71. Among the suspects are his wife Lorain (Michelle Belegrin), his mistress (Hilary Gayle), her boyfriend Del (Justin Kreinbrink), and the club's patron saint Shane (Nathan Ginn), who has an unrequited love for Lorain. "Red 71" overuses the dramatic lighting and extreme... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-late-bloomer/82600/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Gô Shibata's "Late Bloomer," which opens Friday at the Pioneer Theater, is a curious story of a serial killer who is severely disabled. The film initially seems like a documentary because the protagonist has the same name as the actor who plays him, Masakiyo Sumida. Although the film leaves Sumida's ailment unexplained, it depicts him getting around in a motorized wheelchair and communicating through a keyboard-operated speech aid. The film documents his laborious daily routines, heavy beer... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/with-normandy-philibert-returns-to-the-scene/82603/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Nicolas Philibert is best known for his documentary "To Be and to Have," which chronicles a year in a one-room school in the Gallic countryside. It is one of France's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful documentaries. It established Mr. Philibert as one of the world's leading documentarians. It also turned one of its subjects, the unwaveringly patient and selfless teacher Georges Lopez, into a national hero at home. But Mr. Lopez fell out of favor with the public when he sued... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-felon/82134/ Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Jailhouse dramas inevitably invite comparisons to Tom Fontana's groundbreaking HBO prison soap opera "Oz." Problem is, that television show has set the bar so high that few ever manage to withstand the comparison. Boasting a solid cast that includes Stephen Dorff, Val Kilmer, and Sam Shepard, writer-director Ric Roman Waugh's "Felon" would have been noteworthy had we not seen it all before. Mr. Dorff plays Wade Porter, who chases a fleeing unarmed home invader, beats him to death, and then... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-transsiberian/82135/ Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Director Brad Anderson's "Transsiberian" is a throwback to railroad thrillers that were a staple of Hollywood's Golden Age. Even the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, made a number of such films. But the concept ran out of steam in the second half of the 20th century, when interstate highways and air travel became more popular than the rails. Given that the notion of a fast-paced thriller based on Amtrak is absurd, the genre needs something such as the treacherous network of railways... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/bravo-rio-momas-premiere-brazil-2008/81869/ Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Considering its critical acclaim, international success, and Oscar nominations, it's not a stretch to say that Fernando Meirelles's 2003 film "City of God" put Brazilian cinema on the map. But such an assertion does a disservice to a great movie tradition that began in the 1920s. The Museum of Modern Art's Premiere Brazil, 2008, which starts July 17, seems to go out of its way to prove that there's more to the country than favelas riddled with drugs and violence. Indeed, this sixth edition of... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/days-and-clouds-and-eight-miles-high/81654/ Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The sluggish economy has, in recent years, inspired films about upper-middle-class types grappling with unemployment. Laurent Cantet's "Time Out" offered a metaphysical meditation on the nature of vocation, while Costa-Gavras's "Le Couperet" took a more satirical approach. The two movies are vastly different, but they share a common viewpoint: Work not only provides financial stability, but also a source of pride and identity. Silvio Soldini's "Days and Clouds," which opens in the city on... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-diminished-capacity/81184/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Ferris Bueller may be grown up, but he's still a Cubs fan. "Diminished Capacity," a new film opening Friday and starring Matthew Broderick, is as much a story about dementia as it is about Chicago Cubs mania. Mr. Broderick plays Cooper, who loses his short-term memory and his Chicago newspaper column after suffering a concussion in a bar brawl. He travels to a rural section of Illinois on a mission to persuade his senile uncle Rollie (Alan Alda) to surrender himself to a nursing home. When... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/japan-cuts-far-out-in-the-far-east/81094/ Wed, 2 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Do you ever wonder what the Japanese think of Hollywood's interpretations of "Speed Racer," "Transformers," or even "Memoirs of a Gesiha"? For those who want to experience that reverse lost-in-translation feeling firsthand, the second annual Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film, which begins today at Japan Society, offers a healthy swath of selections that will do the trick. What's more, the lineup is reflective of how the country's film industry is grappling with its global reach while... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-elsa-fred/80771/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Not many movies have the autumn of life at the center of the story. Those that do are most often thinly veiled Viagra commercials with Jack Nicholson or Sean Connery cavorting with leading ladies young enough to be their granddaughters. Even serious-minded independent films about seniors, such as Roger Michell's "Venus," deal with the same old geriatric fantasy that is hypocritical in its blatant sexism. But as regulars of any of the uptown movie houses can attest, there is a large, underserved... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-hair-extensions/80349/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST As any J-horror aficionado will tell you, the long-haired, vengeful female ghost is one of the staples of the genre. But there's so much more to the not-so-aptly named "Hair Extensions," which opens Friday at the ImaginAsian theater. It's actually a pastiche of serial-killer thriller, torture porn, domestic nightmare, and good old atmospheric J-horror. The film provides comparisons and contrasts among these diverging subgenres. It's the survival of the fittest, albeit not in the traditional... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/catherine-breillat-bares-her-romantic-side/80352/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Catherine Breillat isn't a fire-breathing feminist. At least, she never set out to be one, even if that's how critics and scholars have characterized the filmmaker and her work in her more than 30 years of writing and directing. Indeed, Ms. Breillat's reputation has grown out of a singularly fiery and sexualized vision of comfort and suffering. What little else we know about the French auteur, whose new film, "The Last Mistress," arrives in theaters next Friday, stems in large part from Anne... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-quid-pro-quo/79938/ Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Carlos Brooks's Sundance entry "Quid Pro Quo" involves a bizarre subculture of able-bodied people who fervently hope and pretend to be paralyzed. Had Hollywood not previously exposed us to other secret cults, such as the masked hierogamy in Arthur Schnitzler's "Traumnovelle" (in "Eyes Wide Shut") and the bare-knuckle brawling in Chuck Palahniuk's "Fight Club," "Quid Pro Quo" would make you feel as if you had entered the Twilight Zone. Nick Stahl plays Isaac Knott, a New York radio personality... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/at-lincoln-center-all-roads-lead-to-italy/79436/ Fri, 6 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST 'Italy's cinema is again flying high," the veteran critic Paolo Mereghetti declared at last month's Cannes Film Festival after the country nabbed the hotly contested Grand Prix and Jury Prize, respectively, for Matteo Garrone's "Gomorrah," a gritty film about the criminal underground in Naples, and Paolo Sorrentino's "Il Divo," a satire on the nation's former prime minister, Giulio Andreotti. The triumphs have lent the country's fading industry some much-needed resuscitation, even if it still... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/here-comes-the-snide-bellocchios-the-wedding/79235/ Wed, 4 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Marco Bellocchio has rejuvenated his career and his world-class reputation in recent years with a series of visually classical yet thematically absurdist moralist parables. The feisty 68-year-old Italian tackled Catholicism with "My Mother's Smile" in 2002, and revisited the Red Brigade's assassination of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro with "Good Morning, Night" in 2003. Next to these projects, his 2006 film "The Wedding Director," which begins a one-week engagement at the Museum of Modern... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/cinema-village-doesnt-need-two-hours-to-tell/78931/ Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Short films have forever been bridesmaids and seldom brides. Occasionally, you might catch one at the IFC Center or the Landmark Sunshine that successfully diverts the attention of those waiting for the main attraction to start. Even at film festivals, shorts generally serve to warm up the screen before the features. The World According to Shorts has been an eight-year tradition at BAMcinématek that packages numerous short films into one marketable single ticket. As with the now-defunct... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/new-york/lincoln-center-film-series-honors-israels-industry/78723/ Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Israeli cinema has enjoyed a banner year in 2008. In addition to the war drama "Beaufort" scoring an Academy Award nomination, "The Band's Visit," "Jellyfish," and "My Father My Lord" have all made relatively successful commercial runs in the city. One would be hard-pressed to name another country with this many cinematic exports to America in the same six-month span. As various institutions around the city honor Israel's 60th anniversary, it's only fitting that the Film Society of Lincoln... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-postal/77324/ Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 EST On its face, "Postal" seems to be a relevant slapstick satire despite the fact that it has been awaiting its American release for nearly a year. Like "Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay," Uwe Boll's new film is a politically incorrect farce "inspired" by the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. If that doesn't raise a big enough red flag, the film also boasts the Canadian Dave Foley as a Warren Jeffs-esque polygamist cult leader, as well as a Sean Bell redux in the... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/tornatore-explores-the-other-side-of-paradise/77328/ Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Nineteen years ago this month, Giuseppe Tornatore's second feature film, "Cinema Paradiso," claimed the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The following year, the nostalgic coming-of-age tale won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and became one of the most successful — and perhaps one of the most beloved — foreign films America has ever seen. Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who distributed it during the halcyon days of their storied Miramax tenure, have often hoped to... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/good-german/76560/ Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 EST "Yella," an award winner at this year's German Film Academy Awards, is a picture from the M. Night Shyamalan school of theatrics, hinging on a climactic final twist. But whether characters in the film might be seeing dead people is beside the point in this expertly created thriller. Christian Petzold's film takes the all-too-ordinary fear of being caught by one's past and makes it as creepily unsettling as the supernatural forces lurking in Mr. Shyamalan's work. Nina Hoss (who took best actress... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/beyond-borders/76162/ Fri, 9 May 2008 00:00:00 EST "I don't really respond to movies that are about topics — 'Oh, this is the immigration movie, or the drug-trafficking movie, or the abortion movie, or what have you,'" the director Tom McCarthy said recently. His new film, "The Visitor," centers on the friendship forged between a Connecticut college professor and an illegal immigrant couple living, without his knowledge, in his unused Manhattan apartment. "But I do respond when you have characters, like in this movie, who are dealing with... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/movies-in-brief-xxy/75744/ Fri, 2 May 2008 01:48:50 EST The Argentinean film "XXY," which opens Friday at Cinema Village after making its New York premiere last month at Lincoln Center's New Directors/New Films showcase, centers on an intersexual child who was born with the reproductive anatomy of both genders. The subject matter may be unusual, but it sets in motion a series of all-too-familiar coming-of-age themes such as teenage angst, conflicted parents, and peer pressure. Hermaphroditic Alex (Inés Efron) was raised as a girl but has now reached... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/iron-curtain-call/74713/ Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST Romania has enjoyed considerable success at the movie theater in the past few years, claiming major prizes at the last three Cannes Film Festivals (with Cristi Puiu's "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," Corneliu Porumboiu's "12:08 East of Bucharest," and Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days"). But the cinema of one of the darkest of the former Soviet satellites cannot be called an overnight sensation. Indeed, Romania's international success on the big screen is unsurprising precisely... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/hou-adds-his-own-spices-to-a-french-recipe/73767/ Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST Hou Hsiao-hsien should be no stranger to any cinephile. The 60-year-old pioneer of the Taiwanese New Wave has been a fixture at the world's top film festivals and counts some of the film world's most influential critics among his admirers. Still, Mr. Hou remains an enigma to the American audience. Of the 18 features he's made since 1980, only four received theatrical releases domestically, while another four went straight to DVD. His latest, the Juliette Binoche headliner "Flight of the Red... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/faithfulls-handheld-return-to-comedy/73391/ Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST In her 1960s heyday, the British pop tart Marianne Faithfull recorded a few hits, had a stormy affair with Mick Jagger, spun the revolving door of detoxification a few times, and graced her share of tabloid headlines. Her iconic presence leaped onto the big screen as well, notably with appearances in cult films by Jean-Luc Godard and Kenneth Anger. Ms. Faithfull is also, according to many, the first person to ever utter the four-letter "F" word in a major motion picture — in her movie debut, no... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/haneke-explains-his-makeover/72912/ Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST You might think little could faze the filmmaker Michael Haneke, who has shown the world Isabelle Huppert's genital self-mutilation in "The Piano Teacher" and Maurice Bénichou's self-decapitation in "Caché." The 65-year-old Austrian auteur admits, however, that he fears illness more than anything. He isn't kidding, either. Recently, as he twirled a black scarf twice around his neck, he instructed a publicist to remember to crank up the heat the following morning. "I don't want to be sick when I... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/on-the-run-from-the-cycle-of-abuse/72931/ Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST Maybe Charlize Theron is onto something. Whenever this glamorous South African blonde goes ugly to play American salt-of-the-earth types, the Academy bestows a nomination (2005's "North Country") or an award (2003's "Monster") on her. As the producer and co-star of the Sundance Film Festival entry "Sleepwalking," Ms. Theron has chosen to cast herself in another role straight out of a country-western song. But what at first glance might seem like mere mining for more Oscar gold is perhaps... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/big-screen-country/72954/ Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST Before it ultimately became a sleeper hit and scored a couple of Academy Award nominations, Sarah Polley's "Away From Her" was just one of the many films showcased in the Museum of Modern Art's Canadian Front series last year. The annual event takes the pulse of cinematic offerings from our northern neighbor by presenting a mix of festival favorites and commercial hits alike, including the works of distinguished filmmakers such as Guy Maddin, Bruce McDonald, Thom Fitzgerald, and Robert Lepage... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/turning-that-smile-upside-down/72476/ Fri, 7 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST In a world where Miramax is without the Weinstein brothers and New Line Cinema is without its own founder, Robert Shaye, gone are the days when some video store clerk could max out his credit card to finance a feature film and become the talk of Sundance overnight. That hasn't deterred Ronald Bronstein from getting his film made, though. The Brooklynite has spent the last five years working as a projectionist in various art houses around the city, all the while assembling his first feature... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/forest-for-the-sleaze/72532/ Fri, 7 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST Remember the Japanese freak show that was "Lost in Translation"? Few people took Sofia Coppola to task for such a one-dimensional portrayal of a culture (the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in fact, gave her an award for it). And frankly, Ms. Coppola's depiction seems almost generous when compared with some of the crazy Japanese cultural phenomena we've been exposed to recently, notably Food Network's "Iron Chef," Spike TV's "MXC," the underwear-clad boy-band parody Yatta... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/two-victims-find-something-to-believe/72063/ Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST Now that most politically minded documentarians have turned their attention to clearing the fog of the Iraq war, the impetus to make films about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, seems to have faded. With the investigatory and social angles nearly exhausted, and dramatized accounts such as "United 93" and "World Trade Center" in the books, the event as a dramatic subject is approaching cliché. So why is Beth Murphy's "Beyond Belief" arriving after all this time? Can her portrait of... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/someone-needs-a-tudor-in-history/72074/ Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST Were it not arriving in the theaters in the immediate aftermath of the awards season, Justin Chadwick's "The Other Boleyn Girl" would look like surefire Oscar bait on paper. Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, and Eric Bana do the British accent in a 16th-century costume drama from the screenwriter of "The Queen" and "The Last King of Scotland," and the producer of "No Country for Old Men." What might have packed an auditorium or two at the Angelika on Christmas Day now seems like so much... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/bams-salute-to-ifc-opens-with-loach-gem/72111/ Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST Beginning this weekend, the Brooklyn Academy of Music will pay tribute to IFC Films, the eight-year-old distributor that scored its first major hits with "Y tu mamá también" in 2001 and "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" in 2002. Lately, IFC has found its niche in simultaneous theatrical and video-on-demand releases of critical favorites such as Cristian Mungiu's 2007 film "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," and the new series at BAM will add another rung to that ladder. Aside from highlighting sneak... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/true-brit/71003/ Fri, 8 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST The new thriller "London to Brighton" revolves around a group of British lowlifes, of the sort that swarm England's seamy underbelly — or at least its recent cinema. But writer-director Paul Andrew Williams's film, adapted from his 2001 short film "Royalty," is actually a departure from the recent slew of cool-Brit crime capers, which some critics have disdainfully dubbed "mockney." In fact, Mr. Williams's assured feature debut is more in line with the gritty realism of Mike Hodges, Ken Loach... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/vicious-family-circle/70187/ Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST "Alice's House" is a messy domestic drama that applies the vérité aesthetics typical in Brazil's national cinema to a crass, telenovela-worthy tale of sex and adultery. Alice (Carla Ribas) is a middle-aged working mother in an unremarkably middle-class household populated by generational types. Her vision-impaired elderly mother (Berta Zemel) slaves over a multitude of thankless chores, yet always unwittingly gets in everyone's way. Alice's deadbeat husband, Lindomar (Zécarlos Machado), is a... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/digging-for-china/69368/ Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST Perhaps no nation on Earth has endured more social, economic, and artistic change in the last century than China — and perhaps no modern artist is more qualified to document that change than the director Jia Zhang-ke. For the past decade, Mr. Jia has built a strong international reputation on the festival circuit and among cinema aficionados by presenting austere and haunting visions of a painfully evolving China through an unflinching human lens. Mr. Jia's new film, "Still Life," which makes... MARTIN TSAI http://www.nysun.com/arts/scandinavian-films-make-case-for-oscar/68987/ Sun, 6 Jan 2008 17:26:10 EST Five Nordic contenders for this year's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar are playing at Scandinavia House this week, including the latest offerings from some of the region's hottest filmmaking talents. So far, only one of these five films has secured American distribution, which makes the event a rare opportunity for non-Academy members to sample the Scandinavian fare. The series kicks off today with Iceland's "Jar City," a murder mystery by Baltasar Kormákur, director of the wickedly funny "101...