December 2009 Archives

"Great, chaotic, unsettling fun." - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

“A film experience to be seen and savored for its exquisite delineation of human feelings and foibles." - Andrew Sarris, New York Observer

"A movie that is almost indecently satisfying and at the same time elusive, at once intellectually lofty — marked by allusions to Emerson, Shakespeare and Seamus Heaney as well as Nietzsche — and as earthy as the passionate provincial family that is its heart and cosmos and reason for being." - A.O. Scott, The New York Times

"A compellingly literate exploration of the misguided motives and lingering regrets that bind families together." - David Parkinson, Empire Magazine

"What Desplechin has given us…is a benediction." - Stephanie Zacharek, Salon

For some, Christmas means the joy of spending time with loved ones, but not for the Vuillard family. In Arnaud Desplechin's blackly comic A Christmas Tale, instead of eggnog, vinegar and bile flow at the family get-together when estranged son Henri (Mathieu Amalric, the latest Bond villain in Quantum of Solace) returns for the holidays. His mother, Junon (French legend Catherine Deneuve), has cancer, and Henri may be the bone marrow donor match that could save her life. Oldest daughter Elizabeth (Anne Consigny, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) is equally unhappy to see her brother; he has been an emotional and financial drain on the family, and she had him legally banished from the family six years ago. But with his return, old wounds are freshly opened as the entire family gathers for what could be their last Christmas together.

An official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, a New York Times Critics' Pick, and nominated for 9 César Awards, A Christmas Tale is well served by its knockout ensemble cast and creative team. Director Desplechin (Kings and Queen) strikes a perfect balance between uncomfortable family moments and unruly comedy, and his postmodern filmmaking style is perfectly suited to the material. The film is not destined to be a feel-good holiday classic à la It’s a Wonderful Life, but A Christmas Tale is a lively, capricious, mischievous ensemble delight.

152 minutes

"Incredibly compelling and intense…I can't think of another film that's this small and powerful." - Don Lewis, Film Threat

“This is a debut feature, though you'd never know it from the filmmaker's commandingly confident style, or from the heartbreaking beauty -- heartbreaking, then heartmending -- of Melissa Leo's performance.”

- Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

"As the summer heats up, let Frozen River wash over you; let its bracing drama and the intensity of its acting restore your spirits as well as your faith in American independent film." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

"A first-rate thriller, maintaining a high level of suspense." - J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader

"Does what too many independent American movies only pretend to do: Takes you to an unnoticed corner of our country and shows what it's like to actually live there." - Ty Burr, Boston Globe 

"Only rarely is a film this observant and tender about the ups and downs of daily existence." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"A lucid, elegant, nuanced, humorous movie…A wonderfully engrossing experience." - J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

“An intimate epic...In exchange for three hours of your time, 'Yi Yi' will give you more life.” - A.O. Scott, The New York Times

The multigenerational story of a Taiwanese family – two parents, two children, and an elderly grandmother – living in a small apartment in Taipei, Yi Yi (translated as 'A One and a Two') is about the patterns of daily life, from a wedding to a funeral, from the first date to the last, from birth to death.  A father whose business needs a new-media fix from a Japanese swami (the marvelous Issey Ogata), a mother who seeks solace in a Buddhist retreat; other hearts break from romantic despair or break down from old age.  These are the delicately observed emotional struggles of a middle class Taiwanese family seen through the eyes of three generations.

Widely hailed as one of the most important directors in contemporary cinema, Edward Yang won the Best Director prize at Cannes for this careful, direct, meticulously photographed film. Yi Yi was also named Best Foreign Language Film by the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and was selected as one of the top ten greatest films of the past twenty-five years by British film magazine Sight and Sound (right alongside Raging Bull and Apocalypse Now). Yi Yi is not only essential viewing, it's essential for your soul.

173 minutes