Browse films by title with CW new film archive.

Schrödinger’s Villain

Quantum of Solace (2008), directed by Marc Foster

None of this is in the slightest bit coherent. Perhaps constantly changing our understanding of what Greene does is meant to express the mysterious nature of his ‘Quantum’ network.

How Bollywood portrays ‘the other’

Train to Pakistan (1998), directed by Pamela Rooks / Gadar: Ek Prem Katha [Mutiny: A Love Story] (2001), directed by Anil Sharma / Pinjar [The Cage] (2003), directed by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi / Veer-Zaara (2004), directed by Yash Chopra

Although Hindi films have been known to be merely melodramatic, the portrayal of Indian Sikhs and Hindus as protagonists and Pakistani Muslims as antagonists is a theme that is reinforced throughout most but not all of the films dealing with the subject.

Where do filmmakers come from?

Momma's Man (2008), directed by Azazel Jacobs

Jacobs admits that he originally wanted merely to document the space he grew up in and one can clearly understand why. The home of his parents, experimental film-maker Ken Jacobs and painter Flo (ingeniously cast as the mother and the father in this film), is a sight to behold.

The same old song

1234 (2008), directed by Giles Borg

While I am a huge fan of ‘less is more’ when it comes to dialogue, it is crucial then for dialogue to be concise and simultaneously loaded. Unfortunately, we get a limited view into what each of these band members has to bring to the table and therefore a limited understanding of their dynamics and potential as a group.

A close-up on poverty

Wendy and Lucy (2008), directed by Kelly Reichardt / Parque vía (2008), directed by Enrique Rivero / A Zona [Uprise] (2008), directed by Sandro Aguilar

What we see is too serene, too un-dramatic at first glance, leading us to ignore the need to understand. The ordinary image, blank and shapeless, haunts us, for we are forced to see desperation deep inside us, rather than the idea of poverty we have in our collective imagination.

Careless errors in an adults’ war

Vals Im Bashir [Waltz with Bashir] (2008), directed by Ari Folman

Whilst it does not trivialise the severity of the war, the film is effective in communicating the mundane nature of being a young Israeli in the army, a commentary on the impact of the everyday experience of war as lived by Israeli youth.

The belief in God: a French analysis

Parc (2007), directed by Arnaud des Pallières / La possibilité d'une île [Possibility of an Island] (2008), directed by Michel Houellebecq

The existence of a supreme power is paradoxically a non-subject, as humanity is purely interested in the potential a belief in that power might have for an understanding of oneself. Arguably, it is this conundrum that elicits the sheer failure to comprehend, which the spectator experiences at the end of these films.

Republican presidential failures

Frost/Nixon (2008), directed by Ron Howard

Nixon jeopardised the entire system through a crime he refused to admit, and got away with a pardon for all his actions by the president who replaced him. For Frost this was entertainment, as it gave him a chance to play a cat and mouse game in television close-up.

Of teachers and pupils

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), directed by Mike Leigh

Not only does the Poppy emphasise many times exactly how happy she is, but we also see how talented she is as a teacher, and can even presume that perhaps it is exactly because she didn’t plan to be there, that Poppy is especially content. This is the biggest difference between Poppy and the other teachers we see in the film.

Textured masculinity

The Escapist (2008), directed by Rupert Wyatt

Brian Cox’s performance as a hardened criminal, whose life is suddenly given meaning, is communicated through his impatience, his long, hard stares when being contradicted, his tactility and his frustration.

Yawn of the dead

Flick (2008), directed by David Howard

Zombie Johnny looks amazing. Everything looks immaculate: from his maggot ridden fingers to his bony blackened face. My highest praise on this production goes to the make-up team. There is a fine line between gloriously gruesome gore and gratuitously garish garbage – but they get it just right.

Bittersweet symphony

Gardens of the Night (2007), directed by Damian Harris

He described the first half hour as ‘arduous’, something I didn’t feel at all, but he urged us to put up with it as we would find it ‘rewarding and worthwhile’. Well, he was half right. A film that could have severely overegged the pudding kept the characters believable and the story powerful.

Real Dolls and men

Lars and the Real Girl (2007), directed by Craig Gillespie

Oliver has made a film in which more meaningful relationships with non-humans become possible. Embedding ‘Bianca’ in a community, even making her backstory that of a missionary, allows viewers to dispense with our more vulgar feelings of distaste about the subject, and to suspend our aversion to the idea of sex dolls.

Chigurh’s coin

No Country for Old Men (2007), directed by Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

The film seems to offer a portrait of a man with robust, though imperfect, control over external events and persons that he encounters, but leaves an ambiguous accounting of that same man’s control over his own internal drives and actions.

The youth that cannot forgive

O zi bună de plajă [A Good Day for a Swim] (2008), directed by Bogdan Mustaţă

The violence raises an important question: why is the present punishing the past? The boys’ actions seem mindless, unnecessary, unprovoked, until you realise that this is a segment of time – a particular emotion that has been zoomed in on until the point of distortion.