Showing 51 - 60 of 150
That precious gold statuette
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/02/2017
» The Oscars takes place Monday morning Thailand time. We pontificate and prognosticate the results
Glowing in the moonlight
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 10/02/2017
» The best film among the Oscar's Best Picture nominees, Moonlight glows like an iridescent animal, tender in touch and sensitive to the complexity of life -- black life, or masculine life, or black masculine life, or maybe just life. It's also a film about sexuality and identity, the two forces intersecting at the burning crossroads of race.
Chasing the American dream
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/02/2017
» They're brashly young, scantily clad, sexed up boys and girls, and they smoke and drink and party hard all night to throbbing rap music and EDM before hitting the road, knocking on the doors that are opened by lonely housewives of the American Midwest. They're a magazine sales crew, the wandering troop that haunts highways, truck stops and roadside motels. They're at once very literal and curiously sensual, the image of the American dream, ever out of reach, soul-crushing and rescued only by love (and perhaps, God help us, by Shia LaBeouf).
Much more than just animation
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/02/2017
» One of the year's best animated movies didn't come from Pixar and Disney. It's this little-heralded film from Michael Dudok de Wit, a Dutchman picked by Studio Ghibli to helm its first international co-production. La Tortue Rouge (The Red Turtle), which doesn't have that many screenings left now (why?), is a calm, quietly touching beauty, a fable about man, nature, family, the environment -- I don't know, life itself. It has no dialogue, just the sounds of wind and waves, the storm and the sea. It's not going to win the Oscar, for which it has been nominated, but not winning an Oscar is probably an even higher honour a good film can hope for.
After Twilight
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/02/2017
» The rain thankfully let up, Kristen Stewart arrived on the red carpet in a see-through black blouse, hair dyed blonde, lips pursed, and touching the shoulder of her director, Woody Allen, as they entered the Grande Theatre Lumiere to view Café Society, the opening film of the 69th Cannes Film Festival.
Humanity!
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/01/2017
» Mankind is doomed. We're hard-wired to be selfish, paranoid, prone to violence. We like war, among us humans or with the alien. What may redeem us, however, is compassion, generosity, language, love, grace, and so on -- all those teary-eyed emotions that is sometimes called "lyrical" in a movie. Or simpler, what may save us is a last-act manipulation of time and plot points, a wily trick nonetheless pulled off smoothly through the moving performance by Amy Adams.
We'll always have Casablanca
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/01/2017
» In Casablanca -- yes, Casablanca -- they fall in love amidst the escalation of war. It wasn't supposed to be real: Brad Pitt is Commander Max Vatan, a Canadian intelligence officer parachuting into French Morocco at the height of World War II to meet his contact, a French resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour, played by Marion Cotillard. They only need to pretend to be lovers in order to fool the Germans in the lead up to the assassination of a German ambassador. But like in Casablanca, which is a thousand times more romantic and sad by the way, Max and Marianne can't resist the dangerous lure of romance as the spectre of death and war smother them.
A patriotic romp
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/01/2017
» Smooth, slick and unabashedly patriotic, Korean spy thriller The Age Of Shadows has cooked up a winning formula. It's the 1920s, the oppressive Japanese army rules over Korea while a band of stylishly dressed resistance fighters lurk in the shadows, rattling the colonial sabre. The Japanese -- a villain du jour given that this week at the cinemas we also see Jackie Chan fighting them in World War II-set Railroad Tigers -- are punishing and manipulative, meanwhile the Koreans are clever and heroic (and fashionable). There will be a final explosion so huge the cinema shakes, and you know who'll get blown to bits.
Our best films of the year
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/12/2016
» As usual we have two lists, for titles released in local cinemas and the wider universe of world films shown elsewhere (and hopefully coming to our screens soon).
The non-Hollywood contenders
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/12/2016
» Thailand has submitted the monk drama Arpatti to compete with 84 other countries in the Oscar race for best foreign-language film. Here we look at some highlights from around the world before the nominations are announced on Jan 24.