Berlin 2012: ‘White Deer Plain’ review
Advertisements ★☆☆☆☆ Director Quan’an Wang brings his overly-sprawling epic White Deer Plain (2011) – adapted from the controversial novel by Zhongshi Chen – to...
Directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s “Abigail” mashes up crime caper and monster movie, but fails to deliver fear or humor. Spoilery trailers and unoriginal characters overshadow promising elements, resulting in a dull, lifeless experience lacking creativity and wit.
★★★★☆ In Alex Garland’s Civil War, a group of journalists embark on a road trip to interview the US President amidst a second American Civil War, while exploring media’s dehumanizing relationship with violence.
★★★★☆ Having won the Jury Prize in 2013 for Like Father, Like Son and the Palme d’Or in 2018 with Shoplifters, Cannes favourite and Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with Monster, a masterful work of intricate storytelling, complemented by a lovely score by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.
★★★★★ Theodor Adorno famously wrote that poetry was not possible after Auschwitz, but is cinema? Billy Wilder certainly thought so, getting footage from the camps as evidence as much as anything else. Steven Spielberg, Claude Lanzmann, Alain Resnais and Roberto Benigni have all with differing degrees of success tried their hands.
Advertisements ★☆☆☆☆ Director Quan’an Wang brings his overly-sprawling epic White Deer Plain (2011) – adapted from the controversial novel by Zhongshi Chen – to...
Advertisements ★★★★☆ Tonally a million miles away from the dark subject matter of most of this year’s Berlinale lineup, Naoko Ogigami’s Rent-a-Cat (Rentaneko, 2011)...
Advertisements ★★☆☆☆ Easily one of the strangest entries in the running for the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, playful Indonesian director...