Reviews by The Exile

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Michael Clayton (2007)

  Review preview for Michael Clayton

  Swinton’s magnificent juggling of callousness and vulnerability is the single best female performance I’ve seen all year.

  A lawyer forced to clean up after a colleague's breakdown begins to question the ethics of his job.
• 
  Million Dollar Baby (2004)

  Review preview for Million Dollar Baby

  A tour de force of stark, pared-to-the-bone craftsmanship.

  A young female boxer persuades an old-timer to train her as a contender.
• 
  Mrs Henderson Presents (2005)

  Review preview for Mrs Henderson Presents

  An exceptionally well-made period piece, trading in threadbare cliches and upper-class puffery.

  Celebrating patriotic nipples and a theatre that never closed.
• 
  Munich (2005)

  Review preview for Munich

  By positioning itself carefully between the imperatives of retaliatory justice and their fearful consequences, the movie is ultimately less a political thriller than a mesmerizing study of psychological breakdown.

  Fictionalised reimagining of the aftermath of the Munich Olympics hostage taking and slaughter.
• 
  North Country (2005)

  Review preview for North Country

  What finally raises the film above its somewhat programmatic, fight-the-power formula is its willingness to provide a believable context for the abuse.

  One woman fights sexual harassment in the mines of Northern Minnesota.
• 
  Once (2006)

  Review preview for Once

  Like the best works of art, John Carney’s Once is both melancholy and beautiful, a fragile poem that seems almost too delicate for the big screen.

  Guy meets Girl and makes beautiful - and Oscar-winning - music with her.
• 
  Paradise Now (2005)

  Review preview for Paradise Now

  His [Abu-Assad's] controversial decision to place melodrama before morality, while allowing Paradise Now to transcend its hefty (and painfully current) ethical baggage, also allows us to empathise with its conflicted protagonist.

  Palestinian thriller on the explosive subject of suicide bombers
• 
  Primer (2004)

  Review preview for Primer

  Armed with only two weeks of film school, Carruth has made a movie that's essentially about the dangers of being too smart.

  Two garage engineers, working with super conductors, stumble across a side-effect that opens infinite opportunities for time travel.
• 
  Redacted (2007)

  Review preview for Redacted

  Unlike most of the films about Iraq, Redacted portrays a military that’s a catchall for the uneducated and unsocialised; and while many may find this offensive, it’s perfectly in line with the draft-deferring lowering of recruitment standards.

  Controversial story, asking where, in the censored war in Iraq, do we find the truth? Plus read what Brian De Palma said about the film - and the redaction of it, here.
• 
  Redbelt (2008)

  Review preview for Redbelt

  Both gripping morality tale and satisfying thriller.

  A martial arts instructor who has avoided prize-fighting to maintain his ethical code, finds debt may force him into the ring.
• 
  Running With Scissors (2006)

  Review preview for Running With Scissors

  The movie is peopled by characters without boundaries and the cast responds by turning in some of the most extravagant performances this side of I, Claudius.

  Growing up in someone else’s dysfunctional family.
• 
  Saraband (2003)

  Review preview for Saraband

  The joy of Saraband is watching Ullmann and Josephson fall into the groove of characters who are second nature to them.

  Ingmar Bergman returns to Scenes From A Marriage 30 years on.
• Separate Lies (2005)

  Review preview for Separate Lies

  No one oozes degeneracy like Everett; trouble is, he's the only one oozing at all.

  A breaking marriage exposes the meaning of love and an unsolved crime.
• Silver City (2004)

  Review preview for Silver City

  A monumental bore.

  Part murder mystery, part political rant, John Sayles goes looking for trouble in Colorado.
• 
  Spanglish (2004)

  Review preview for Spanglish

  Lurking beneath the feelgood surface is a mean-spiritedness.

  Comedy of bad manners in Bel Air, with a chef, a neurotic wife and a beautiful Mexican servant.
• 
  Serenity (2005)

  Review preview for Serenity

  It's as if they found Lucas's discarded soul, mouldering at the edge of the galaxy, and returned it to the multiplex where it belongs.

  Buffy's creator does battle with the Reavers in space, as earthlings move off their overcrowded planet.
• 
  Shopgirl (2005)

  Review preview for Shopgirl

  Modest and beguiling.

  A bored sales assistant gets caught in a love triangle with Steve Martin's wealthy geezer and Jason Schwartzman's geek.
• 
  Sideways (2004)

  Review preview for Sideways

  Sideways is a safer Payne, de-thorned and smoothed out.

  The adventures of two middle-age men on a wine-drinking stag weekend.
• 
  The Squid And The Whale (2005)

  Review preview for The Squid And The Whale

  A tragically funny glimpse of a family in meltdown, made all the more excruciating by the veneer of sophistication blanketing everyone involved.

  Breaking up is hard to do - especially for the kids.
• 
  Stay (2005)

  Review preview for Stay

  Rejecting the literal for the symbolic at every turn, Stay is the kind of film that uses hairstyle to express emotional trajectory.

  A psychiatrist tries to stop a young man committing suicide on his 21st birthday.
• 
  Sunshine Cleaning (2008)

  Review preview for Sunshine Cleaning

  While Adams and Blunt scrabble for subtext and a depth that simply isn’t there, the movie congeals around them.

  Two sisters try to forge a career in crime scene clean-up.
• 
  Starting Out In The Evening (2007)

  Review preview for Starting Out In The Evening

  In scenes filled with wit and intelligence, Langella and Ambrose perform an exquisite dance of power.

  A grad student convinces an ageing writer to let her write a thesis on him.
• 
  Synecdoche, New York (2008)

  Review preview for Synecdoche, New York

  Mainstream audiences may hate and critics may debate, but Synecdoche is a work of unmitigated, undisciplined genius.

  The story of a theatre director's drive to produce his masterwork.
• 
  Then She Found Me (2007)

  Review preview for Then She Found Me

  A fertility flick for women whose feet and minds seldom leave the stirrups.

  A childless teacher takes stock of her life after her husband leaves, her adoptive mum dies and her birth mother shows up.
• 
  Things We Lost In The Fire (2007)

  Review preview for Things We Lost In The Fire

  A manipulative weepie positioned for Oscar consideration.

  Halle Berry is a widow trying to come to terms with grief with the help of her hubbie's troubled best pal.
• 
  Thank You For Smoking (2005)

  Review preview for Thank You For Smoking

  A surprisingly tame little film - a sheep in wolf's clothing.

  Satire on smoking and spin.
• 
  Tristan & Isolde (2006)

  Review preview for Tristan & Isolde

  After a great deal of blood, grunting and predictable plot development, Isolde is married to Marke, Tristan is suicidal and the Irish are wondering how to pass the time until someone invents Guinness.

  A Dark Ages take on Romeo and Juliet, with naked nursing and energetic swordplay
• 
  Undertow (2004)

  Review preview for Undertow

  Emphasising texture over tension, Undertow plays like a mud-splattered Hansel and Gretel.

  Atmospheric thriller from the Deep South resurrects shades of darker, deadlier incarnations.
• 
  Untraceable (2008)

  Review preview for Untraceable

  Unfolding without tension or logic, Untraceable doesn’t miss a derivative beat.

  A cyber crimes expert hunts a serial killer who posts videos of his murders on the internet.
• 
  United 93 (2006)

  Review preview for United 93

  The film develops like a slow-motion heart attack.

  A recreation of events surrounding the hijacking of United Airlines flight 93 on the 11th of September, 2001.
• 
  The Upside Of Anger (2005)

  Review preview for The Upside Of Anger

  Whatever mommie issues American filmmakers are dragging around these days, seeing them worked out on our movie screens is becoming something of a chore.

  Deflecting the fury of a woman scorned with frequent showers, Bloody Marys and a little light humour.
• 
  Vantage Point (2008)

  Review preview for Vantage Point

  The film’s busyness blankets everything in noise and confusion.

  After a presidential assassination, secret service agents try to work out what happened via five different perspectives.
• 
  Vera Drake (2004)

  Review preview for Vera Drake

  Once again, the power of Leigh's films derives primarily from his obsessive attention to detail.

  A cleaning lady performs abortions on the side in Fifties London.
• 
  Walk On Water (2004)

  Review preview for Walk On Water

  Pleasantly unpredictable and unafraid to distribute blame wherever it sees fit.

  An unlikely friendship between a gay German tourist and a homophobic Israeli assassin.
• 
  Where The Truth Lies (2005)

  Review preview for Where The Truth Lies

  Egoyan's innate classiness, so essential to his last movie, Ararat, is a liability here.

  A young journalist sets out to discover the truth behind the break up of a cabaret act, who split after a woman was found dead in a bath.
• 
  Walk The Line (2005)

  Review preview for Walk The Line

  The problem is that this glowy, go-down-easy film ends up betraying the very spirit of the Man in Black.

  Johnny Cash biopic that feels the lurve.
• 
  War Of The Worlds (2005)

  Review preview for War Of The Worlds

  The director produces an unbroken stream of breathtaking images which, even to our effects-savvy eyes, look stunningly real.

  Earth is under attack and survival at a premium as giant alien robots gather for Armageddon.
• 
  We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004)

  Review preview for We Don't Live Here Anymore

  A thoughtful but dreary examination of narcissism, disconnection and emotional dishonesty.

  Dysfunctional marriages encourage indiscretion amongst lazy, summer academics.
• 
  The White Countess (2005)

  Review preview for The White Countess

  A turgid, gelatinous epic that fails to find its feet until the tumultuous final reel.

  The tortured romance between a blind American diplomat and a taxi dancing Russian widow in Shanghai on the eve of war.
• 
  Year Of The Dog (2007)

  Review preview for Year Of The Dog

  One of the rare chick flicks that doesn’t appear to hate women, Year Of The Dog contains its essentially sappy narrative within a membrane of stabbing humor and ingenious reaction shots.

  Offbeat fairytale about a woman who tries to fill a void in her life after her dog dies.
• 
  Yes (2004)

  Review preview for Yes

  Amazingly for a film so teeming with ideas, it unspools in clean, lucid scenes of near Spartan simplicity.

  A lonely microbiologist embarks on passionate romance in verse with Middle Eastern cook.