Archive for category: Film Festival

 A dream cast of diverse individuals, who came alive in turn with each rationalizing monologue. Although se in an alternate resolution proceeding, rather than a jury room, the program’s description of “an Australian 12 Angry Men” rang true. Our perception of the characters developed and changed as we learned more about them, and the act of senseless violence that brought them all together became both more comprehensible and less important as the story wore on. The one drawback: each character’s role was so neatly developed and coherently explained, and things dovetailed so well in only 90 minutes that the movie’s origin in a stage play was a bit transparent; and while a live performance causes us to suspend disbelief, a movie requires rather more realism to be convincing. Still, there were very funny moments, producing the most laughs of the week for me.

A Swedish Black Swan, with a Natalie Portmanesque performance by a young woman who reminded me of Emily Primps. There were other echoes of Carey Mulligan in An Education, a girl emerging from the teenage world into an adult milieu that simultaneously matures and devastates her. The other characters were stock, but fine; they, however, were mainly the canvas on which Lisa Langveth’s heroine painted her portrait. [In my census of movies with smokers, which includes almost everything I’ve seen in the last year, this one vaults near the top.]