All my life I've been passionate about movies. I find them to be such an all-involving art form, showing not only sights otherwise foreign to me but worlds, and encompassing so many different skills working together in cohesion - writing, music, lyricism, art form, acting, and performance. The best movies are capable of teaching and enlightening; of making us better people. It is a sublime human creation, which for me is so much more than mere entertainment or hobby.
About Ferguson On Films
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Shortbus (2006)
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Directed by John Cameron MitchellWritten by John Cameron Mitchell
Starring Sook-Yin Lee, Paul Dawson, PJ DeBoy, Lindsay Beamish, Jay Brannan, Raphael Barker, Bitch, Justin Bond, Shanti Carson, Stephen Kent Jusick, Yolanda Ross, Daniela Sea, Rachel C. Smith, Peter Stickles
Genre: Drama / Adult
Country: USA
Runtime: 101 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated 18A.
Evaluation: 10/10
by Greg Ferguson
S-E-X. Now that I have your attention, won't you read my film review? Oh, I'm not so under-handed, but neither is John Cameron Mitchell, who's more or less been accused of using the same attention-grabbing tactics by some with his now infamous is-it-art-or-is-it-porn indie experiment, Shortbus. Since it portrays unsimulated sex between numerous people with numerous partners, it was inevitable that the film would come off as an affront against the prudish by the prurient. What many were pleasantly surprised to discover, however, is that its primary currency is genuine human emotion and feelings instead of carnal exploitation or immoral hedonism. If Mitchell's really out to shock anyone here, then his idea that hardcore sex can be more background than foreground in an otherwise gentle and charming romantic dramedy is certainly one of the most groundbreaking in recent cinematic memory.
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Of course, Mitchell wasn't the first to introduce hardcore sex to the cineplex (others, excuse the pun, came first). What separates Shortbus from the pack (excepting, perhaps, Dusan Makavejev's glimmering W.R.: Mysteries Of The Organism) is that it's one of the most convincing arguments for its continued presence thus far because it invites mature audiences everywhere - each and every one of us - to come in and begin feeling at ease with their innate sexuality and, ultimately, themselves. Voyeurism, as per the tagline, is participation, and the guiding thought behind the film appears to be that for better or worse, sex is a natural part of us all and it's our choice whether to deny the fulfillment it can bring or embrace it. Granted, it was Mitchell's choice to insist upon actual sex when he could have simply taken a more suggestive approach, but such a decision would have done a great disservice to the characters of his story (including us, his participatory looky-loos) to whom sex is a natural path to honesty and self-actualization.
Ideally, such an unusually long preamble would be unnecessary when discussing a film as joyful as this, and I fear I'm doing my own disservice to Mitchell's creation by beating around its bush (is all this intellectual wanking really necessary?!). Let me delay no further. Shortbus is a heartfelt story about a few lost and wounded souls who drift in and out of an underground salon sardonically entitled The Shortbus where they commiserate and convalesce in safety. Set in post-9/11, pre-August '03 Blackout New York City, represented here by a whimsical animated model that gives it an unoppressive Children's Television Workshop-style veneer, the film takes on the feel of a close-knit village more than a sprawling metropolis. At first, during the panoramic introduction to the cast in all their uninhibited glory (Mitchell wastes no time stripping them bare externally and internally), the reductivism seems a tad jejune (like when TV's Friends made Manhattan look like an ethnic petting zoo for whites). Yet, when the sequence concludes, we're suddenly confronted with the painful scar of Ground Zero on its landscape, casting a gloomy pall that serves as a sorrowful counterpoint to the otherwise playful opening and suggests a wider sense of societal alienation and anguish which the empty Children Of Men would have done well to crib. Faced with spiritual isolation, confusion and doubt, everyone is raw and therefore at their most receptive for signs of compassion and happiness in the world. That's when the entire energetic, transformative romp swings into action.
There's a lot to love about these sweet, sweet people who populate the film's scenes and lend them a sensation of luxury with no more than the richness of their personalities. Foremost in my mind is Sofia, the film's focal sex therapist/couples' counselor who's noted for never having had an orgasm. As this perpetually vexed wife of a man whom she fears would leave her if he knew her anti-climactic secret, former MuchMusic VJ Sook-Yin Lee employs the same verve that won her the adoration of fans and celebrities alike (some of whom used their clout to save her when her current employer, CBC, wanted to fire her as host of radio's Definitely Not The Opera for taking part in this film - an issue on which they've since backed down). When she originally freed herself from Much in order to pursue work elsewhere in the arts (as if she's never been more needed on that station than she is right now), I was optimistic that I'd see her in front of the camera before long, but then she took a radio job and I despaired. Well, here she is, on-screen with a remote-control vibrating egg lodged in her most intimate of areas and giving a riotously bittersweet lead performance; it feels like she never went away.
Elsewhere, the almost unbearably cute James and Jamie (Paul Dawson and PJ DeBoy) bring a level of urgency to the film as we watch their relationship be tested with Jamie's insistence upon opening it up to new partners, allowing the boyishly handsome Ceth (Jay Brannan) to enter into an already fragile arrangement. Sure, they seem to be having the time of their lives when they sing what is likely the best rendition of the American national anthem ever put to film, performing it with - and into - each other's delicate bits, but there is an undercurrent of sadness that informs their actions. Like Caleb (Peter Stickles), the peeping tom who watches Jamie from afar with an ample concern and love, we desperately want them to stave off tragedy until that moment of life-affirming ecstasy is reached. The same goes for Severin (Lindsay Beamish), a dominatrix who finds she can't make meaningful connections with others, let alone herself (her real name provides a semi-comical clue). Hers is a yearning and sadness that alternately inspired more grief and genuine satisfaction when her epiphany is reached.
The finale is a wondrous, grand old orgy to the ironic tune of "Everybody Gets It In The End" by real-life cabaret legend Justin Bond of Kiki & Herb, which if you're still watching at that point means you'll likely see it as an outpouring of celebratory goodwill instead of masturbatory, pornographic eroticism. Sex, insist Mitchell and his brave crew of actors, need not be regarded as ugly or sinful when such beauty and positivity can come from it. Shun Shortbus if you will for its explicitness or deride its so-called questionable values, but you'll rarely encounter a film as vividly honest and committed to the healing forces of love and community as this.
(Shortbus will play at Far Out East Cinema at Université de Moncton on January 23 and 24.)
Starring Sook-Yin Lee, Paul Dawson, PJ DeBoy, Lindsay Beamish, Jay Brannan, Raphael Barker, Bitch, Justin Bond, Shanti Carson, Stephen Kent Jusick, Yolanda Ross, Daniela Sea, Rachel C. Smith, Peter Stickles
Genre: Drama / Adult
Country: USA
Runtime: 101 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated 18A.
Evaluation: 10/10
by Greg Ferguson
S-E-X. Now that I have your attention, won't you read my film review? Oh, I'm not so under-handed, but neither is John Cameron Mitchell, who's more or less been accused of using the same attention-grabbing tactics by some with his now infamous is-it-art-or-is-it-porn indie experiment, Shortbus. Since it portrays unsimulated sex between numerous people with numerous partners, it was inevitable that the film would come off as an affront against the prudish by the prurient. What many were pleasantly surprised to discover, however, is that its primary currency is genuine human emotion and feelings instead of carnal exploitation or immoral hedonism. If Mitchell's really out to shock anyone here, then his idea that hardcore sex can be more background than foreground in an otherwise gentle and charming romantic dramedy is certainly one of the most groundbreaking in recent cinematic memory.
Of course, Mitchell wasn't the first to introduce hardcore sex to the cineplex (others, excuse the pun, came first). What separates Shortbus from the pack (excepting, perhaps, Dusan Makavejev's glimmering W.R.: Mysteries Of The Organism) is that it's one of the most convincing arguments for its continued presence thus far because it invites mature audiences everywhere - each and every one of us - to come in and begin feeling at ease with their innate sexuality and, ultimately, themselves. Voyeurism, as per the tagline, is participation, and the guiding thought behind the film appears to be that for better or worse, sex is a natural part of us all and it's our choice whether to deny the fulfillment it can bring or embrace it. Granted, it was Mitchell's choice to insist upon actual sex when he could have simply taken a more suggestive approach, but such a decision would have done a great disservice to the characters of his story (including us, his participatory looky-loos) to whom sex is a natural path to honesty and self-actualization.Ideally, such an unusually long preamble would be unnecessary when discussing a film as joyful as this, and I fear I'm doing my own disservice to Mitchell's creation by beating around its bush (is all this intellectual wanking really necessary?!). Let me delay no further. Shortbus is a heartfelt story about a few lost and wounded souls who drift in and out of an underground salon sardonically entitled The Shortbus where they commiserate and convalesce in safety. Set in post-9/11, pre-August '03 Blackout New York City, represented here by a whimsical animated model that gives it an unoppressive Children's Television Workshop-style veneer, the film takes on the feel of a close-knit village more than a sprawling metropolis. At first, during the panoramic introduction to the cast in all their uninhibited glory (Mitchell wastes no time stripping them bare externally and internally), the reductivism seems a tad jejune (like when TV's Friends made Manhattan look like an ethnic petting zoo for whites). Yet, when the sequence concludes, we're suddenly confronted with the painful scar of Ground Zero on its landscape, casting a gloomy pall that serves as a sorrowful counterpoint to the otherwise playful opening and suggests a wider sense of societal alienation and anguish which the empty Children Of Men would have done well to crib. Faced with spiritual isolation, confusion and doubt, everyone is raw and therefore at their most receptive for signs of compassion and happiness in the world. That's when the entire energetic, transformative romp swings into action.
There's a lot to love about these sweet, sweet people who populate the film's scenes and lend them a sensation of luxury with no more than the richness of their personalities. Foremost in my mind is Sofia, the film's focal sex therapist/couples' counselor who's noted for never having had an orgasm. As this perpetually vexed wife of a man whom she fears would leave her if he knew her anti-climactic secret, former MuchMusic VJ Sook-Yin Lee employs the same verve that won her the adoration of fans and celebrities alike (some of whom used their clout to save her when her current employer, CBC, wanted to fire her as host of radio's Definitely Not The Opera for taking part in this film - an issue on which they've since backed down). When she originally freed herself from Much in order to pursue work elsewhere in the arts (as if she's never been more needed on that station than she is right now), I was optimistic that I'd see her in front of the camera before long, but then she took a radio job and I despaired. Well, here she is, on-screen with a remote-control vibrating egg lodged in her most intimate of areas and giving a riotously bittersweet lead performance; it feels like she never went away.
Elsewhere, the almost unbearably cute James and Jamie (Paul Dawson and PJ DeBoy) bring a level of urgency to the film as we watch their relationship be tested with Jamie's insistence upon opening it up to new partners, allowing the boyishly handsome Ceth (Jay Brannan) to enter into an already fragile arrangement. Sure, they seem to be having the time of their lives when they sing what is likely the best rendition of the American national anthem ever put to film, performing it with - and into - each other's delicate bits, but there is an undercurrent of sadness that informs their actions. Like Caleb (Peter Stickles), the peeping tom who watches Jamie from afar with an ample concern and love, we desperately want them to stave off tragedy until that moment of life-affirming ecstasy is reached. The same goes for Severin (Lindsay Beamish), a dominatrix who finds she can't make meaningful connections with others, let alone herself (her real name provides a semi-comical clue). Hers is a yearning and sadness that alternately inspired more grief and genuine satisfaction when her epiphany is reached.
The finale is a wondrous, grand old orgy to the ironic tune of "Everybody Gets It In The End" by real-life cabaret legend Justin Bond of Kiki & Herb, which if you're still watching at that point means you'll likely see it as an outpouring of celebratory goodwill instead of masturbatory, pornographic eroticism. Sex, insist Mitchell and his brave crew of actors, need not be regarded as ugly or sinful when such beauty and positivity can come from it. Shun Shortbus if you will for its explicitness or deride its so-called questionable values, but you'll rarely encounter a film as vividly honest and committed to the healing forces of love and community as this.
(Shortbus will play at Far Out East Cinema at Université de Moncton on January 23 and 24.)
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Tuesday, January 02, 2007
2006 - My Year With Film
So far, my first year as a film critic in print has been more pleasurable than it otherwise might have been. Since I don't yet operate under strict orders to review every single film that is invited to screen in our fair city or generously stocked by our faithful video rental outlets, I've been able to avoid certain selections which my good judgement tells me I'd have remained richer without having seen (sorry, Jackass Number Two, The Benchwarmers, and The Holiday). Oh, sure, I could be very very wrong about all those ones that got away (Let's Go To Prison, after all, could very well be the next Shawshank Redemption or Le trou), but for now I'm satisfied with keeping that little bit of mystery alive in my life.
I got to watch a whole lot of what I wanted to watch, and as a film critic that's a special privilege. What makes 2006 that much better is a lot of what I saw happened to be, to varying degrees, quite rewarding, enlightening, and captivating. While I can't say with any authority that this year has been a better one than any previous years, I am nonetheless able to say that I've not laughed as much at a film as I did Borat, not been as scared as I had at Jesus Camp and An Inconvenient Truth, not cared as deeply about James Bond as I did at Casino Royale, and not understood as clearly until now the life-affirming aspect of death as explored in The Fountain.
Here is how I regard the films of 2006 I saw. These are my personal thoughts and views and are by no means definitive (despite whatever posturing I may indulge in for sensationalism's sake). Number ratings, though at first glance out of whack, are entirely relative and subjective, so go figure. Use the list purely as a means to get to know me better and to help you decide whether mine is a voice you'd care to have advise you on the films which may or may not change your life.
Dir. Darren Aronofsky, USA. Darren Aronofsky has grappled with religion and faith in his two previous films (Pi and Requiem For A Dream), but neither has been as profound as his ambitious and epic The Fountain, a sprawling search both on-screen and off for everlasting life in the most fundamental, spiritual way I've ever experienced in a film. If anybody is ever commissioned to direct Plato's Phaedo, a work I was reminded of for its insistence upon the fearlessness with which death ought to be approached and the luminescent glory of eternal life, then I pray it's this man. 10/10
Dir. Larry Charles, USA. It's debatable what cultural learnings exactly made benefit the hyperbolic yet glorious nation of Kazakhstan in Borat because both it and the actual "U.S. and Aiii" visited upon by the film are intentionally presented as the same. Sacha Baron Cohen's playful yet implacable desire to confront audiences with their own prejudices and have them examine their bedrock attitudes and beliefs certainly offended enough people indignant either because they were revealed to be fools or they truly bought into Borat's ignorant, racist, sexist and homophobic act, thus revealing themseles to be fools as well. This was an alternately scary and hilarious film that played for laughs and got them but one whose cultural learnings are, to intelligent audiences, of a morbidly funny sort. 10/10
Dir. Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, USA. "She's all right! She's all right! The girl's all right with me!" Little Miss Sunshine is a superfreak, and one of the most lovable and embraceable films among critics and the public alike to have come along this year. Some panned the obviousness of the film's inherent metaphor for the contemporary American ethos, not necessarily to be contrite or conservative I grant, yet for me being able to recognize its underlying message is by no means an indication of artlessness, nor does it negate its overall positivity. I saw a celebration of diversity and moral integrity that in actuality, I'm pleased to say, reinforces much of what makes America a beautiful country. 10/10
Dir. John Cameron Mitchell, USA. The Shortbus is a fictitious boudoir of sorts, nestled somewhere within post-9/11, pre-August '03 blackout NYC where the less gentrified among us convene to mingle and loosen up in safe quarters. Shortbus, by the same token, is a film about some such individuals, browbeaten and downtrodden, leading variously fragile lives, who want to feel safe and find in one another outlets for growth and healing. What sets this them and the film apart from most is that the method of choice is graphicly outlandish yet honest and heartfelt sexual acts. Director Mitchell with his brave crew of thesps wisely decided not to shy away from hardcore sex since to do so would have been less genuine. Pornography it's not, though; somehow, the sex is captured in a way less erotic than one might think that actually finds in its carnality a wondrous, transformative sense of magic. This is a raw film, fearless of its emotions, and therefore poised to foster the truest sort of understanding and change in its characters and, I can only hope, among audiences with open minds. 10/10
Dir. Doug Atchison, USA. Children's movies are tragically among the most demeaning, potentially damaging insults to intelligence in cinema because they often underestimate their potential and undervalue their experiences. Akeelah And The Bee is a jewel of a film because it recognizes the very best of what children are capable of and portrays personal excellence in an attainable, attractive manner - the way it ought to be regarded. True, it may sound like the innumerable Afterschool Specials that have come and gone, but Akeelah stands apart as one of the most convincing inspirational tales I've seen. Writer/director Atchison refrains from exposition or sugarcoating, instead assuming that kids have the wherewithal to drum up confidence, dedication and support when necessary in their quests for self-actualization. I'm sincere when I say I believe every school-aged child, parent, and guardian should see it. 10/10
Dir. Mike Clattenburg, Canada. Like Borat in a way, Canada's Trailer Park Boys seem to be bringing people's haughty, snide little prejudices to the surface - myself included. Based of course on the runaway Showcase hit programme, the television incarnation was an apparent glorification of lowlife booze-n-drugs culture, and I resisted this film version as I have an unknown number of perceived blue collar cinemtic turkeys. Boy, was I wrong. Trailer Park Boys: The Movie, like its source material, is a warm and strangely compassionate brand of comedy, straddling the balance between poverty-stricken despair and humour very carefully and effectively. Be cautious of those who would have you believe it's merely a lazy exercise in poor taste as they share more in common with fascistic suit dummies than is healthy. 10/10
Dir. Martin Scorsese, USA. Another film about our hidden natures and the disturbingly malleable way they manifest themselves in adverse situations, The Departed concerns itself with the moral ambiguity left behind by the stain of corruption (or, as per Scorsese, sin). More to the point, the film is a brutal meditation on the reality that how we are regarded while alive and how we may be remembered after we die is not always in accordance with justice, even when you're working for the law or doing good. Utilizing Scorsese and longtime editing colleague Thelma Schoonmaker's usual kinetic flair and eye for action, and boasting perhaps the richest ensemble acting in a feature all year, The Departed is a thoroughly satisfying and important work. 9.5/10
Dir. Robert Altman, USA. Many mourned the loss of Robert Altman this year when he passed away following a decade or so coloured with health problems of varying degrees. The news didn't exactly surprise me, given his precarious situation, nor did it particularly sadden me for the same reason. I rather smiled in reverence and felt thankful that he was able to produce a body of work as marvellous and staggering as the one he left us, then chuckled at the serendipity with which A Prairie Home Companion, his latest film, wound up being his last. Here was a film also about the end of a certain legacy which was bound to meet its end sooner or later, the radio programme of the same name, whose final moment was handled as nonchalantly and professionally as Altman's own, without great flourish or drippy, genuflecting sentimentality. That's not to suggest it's a tepid anti-climax either since it's as full of life and vigour as anything he's ever done. How he blended austerity and poignancy with raucous cowboys and their song about bad jokes (my favourite: "What do we do with the useless boob?") and pulled off a sad yet glimmering encomium may be the best secret he took to the grave with him. 9.5/10
Dir. Hirokazu Koreeda, Japan. Hirokazu Koreeda has emerged as one of the most important directors to have come out of Japan since Akira Kurosawa was laid to rest. After a string of slow-moving and highly contemplative films, his latest, Hana yori mo naho (translation: "even more than the flowers"), is a decidedly more ebullient and audience-friendly film that questions the solemnity of the samurai code of honour which places abject emphasis on death over life. Viewed after the surfeit of stone-cold samurai action flicks which have dominated popular consciousness, Hana yori mo naho is a rare breath of fresh air for its willingness to challenge the past in favour of a better future. 9.5/10
Dir. Paul Greengrass, France/UK/USA. Worries about how a 9/11-themed film made only five years after the fact might needlessly open old wounds or callously capitalize on pain and grief were largely put to rest after director Paul Greengrass's powerful United 93 played early in the year. Like Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ, United 93 derives its strength from the visceral connection it creates between the viewer and the events depicted so that the victims of the fated flight are made as relatable to us all as possible. What makes it that much more special, though, is that the passengers aren't dramatized for effect but rendered as realistic as possible (few details are given because, to the average person on the flight, not many would have been known in the first place). This also includes, yes, the terrorists who, despite whatever misgivings we have about them, thought they were serving Allah's will faithfully and did not think they were doing anything evil (hey, for that matter neither did Jack Nicholson's character in The Departed, yet he's somehow the epitome of cool). We're entreated to see the entire ordeal from every angle (even the staff at the airports and air traffic towers, who are frequently played by the real-life figures) and soak it in, whether in tribute to heroism or in acknowledgement of history. 9.5/10
11. Flags Of Our Fathers (dir. Clint Eastwood, USA, 9/10)
12. The Host (dir. Joon-ho Bong, South Korea, 9/10)
13. The Journals Of Knud Rasmussen (dir. Norman Cohn, Zacharias Kunuk , Canada / Denmark, 9/10)
14. An Inconvenient Truth (dir. Davis Guggenheim , USA, 9.5/10)
15. Dave Chappelle's Block Party (dir. Michel Gondry, USA, 9.5 /10)
16. Mongolian Ping Pong (dir. Hao Ning, China, 9.5/10)
17. Neil Young: Heart Of Gold (dir. Jonathan Demme, USA, 9.5/10)
18. Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (dir. Gore Verbinski, USA, 9.5/10)
19. Inside Man (dir. Spike Lee, USA, 9/10)
20. Eve And The Fire Horse (dir. Julia Kwan, Canada, 9/10)
21. 49 Up (dir. Michael Apted, UK, 10/10)
22. The Pursuit Of Happyness (dir. Gabriele Muccino, USA, 9/10)
23. Blood Diamond (dir. Edward Zwick, USA, 9/10)
24. Stranger Than Fiction (dir. Marc Forster, USA, 9/10)
25. Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby (dir. Adam McKay, USA, 9/10)
- Babel (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu, USA / Mexico, 7.5/10)
- The Black Dahlia (dir. Brian De Palma, Germany / USA, 8/10)
- Brick (dir. Rian Johnson, USA, 7.5/10)
- Bubble (dir. Steven Soderbergh, USA, 8/10)
- Cars (dir. John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, USA, 8.5/10)
- Casino Royale (dir. Martin Campbell, USA / UK / Czech Republic, 8.5/10)
- The Da Vinci Code (dir. Ron Howard, USA, 7.5/10)
- Death Of A President (dir. Gabriel Range, UK, 7.5/10)
- Deja Vu (dir. Tony Scott, USA, 8/10)
- The End Of Silence (dir. Anita Doron, Canada, 8.5/10)
- Fearless (dir. Ronny Yu, China / Hong Kong / USA, 7.5/10)
- The Illusionist (dir. Neil Burger, Czech Republic / USA, 7.5/10)
- Jesus Camp (dir. Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, USA, 8.5/10)
- The Lake House (dir. Alejandro Agresti, USA, 8.5/10)
- Lights In The Dusk (dir. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland / Germany / France, 8/10)
- The Lives Of Others (dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Germany, 8.5/10)
- Man Push Cart (dir. Ramin Bahrani, USA, 8.5/10)
- Marie Antoinette (dir. Sofia Coppola, USA, 8.5/10)
- Miami Vice (dir. Michael Mann, USA, 8/10)
- Mission: Impossible III (dir. J.J. Abrams, USA, 8/10)
- Monster House (dir. Gil Kenan, USA, 8.5/10)
- Night At The Museum (dir. Shawn Levy, USA, 8.5/10)
- The Notorious Bettie Page (dir. Mary Harron, USA, 8/10)
- Pan's Labyrinth (dir. Guillermo Del Toro, Mexico / Spain / USA, 8/10)
- Pulse (dir. Jim Sonzero, USA, 8/10)
- Renaissance (dir. Christian Volckman, France / UK / Luxembourg, 8/10)
- The Queen (dir. Stephen Frears, UK / France / Italy, 8/10)
- A Scanner Darkly (dir. Richard Linklater, USA, 7.5/10)
- Scoop (dir. Woody Allen, USA, 8/10)
- Shut Up & Sing (dir. Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck, USA, 7.5/10)
- Strangers With Candy (dir. Paul Dinello, USA, 8.5/10)
- Thank You For Smoking (dir. Jason Reitman, USA, 7.5/10)
- The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada (dir. Tommy Lee Jones, USA / France, 8.5/10)
- The Wild Blue Yonder (dir. Werner Herzog, UK / USA / France / Germany, 8/10)
- Catch A Fire (dir. Phillip Noyce, France / UK / South Africa / USA, 7/10)
- Children Of Men (dir. Alfonso Cuarón, UK / USA, 7/10)
- Cinderella (dir. Man-dae Bong, South Korea, 6.5/10)
- Destricted (dir. Various, UK / USA, 6.5/10)
- The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (dir. Justin Lin, USA, 6.5/10)
- Friends With Money (dir. Nicole Holofcener, USA, 6.5/10)
- The Hills Have Eyes (dir. Alexandre Aja, USA, 6.5/10)
- Ice Age: The Meltdown (dir. Carlos Saldanha, USA, 7/10)
- Lady In The Water (dir. M. Night Shyamalan, USA, 6.5/10)
- Lucky Number Slevin (dir. Paul McGuigan, USA, 7/10)
- Mistress Of Spices (dir. Paul Mayeda Berges, USA / UK, 7/10)
- Scary Movie 4 (dir. David Zucker, USA, 6.5/10)
- The Sentinel (dir. Clark Johnson, USA, 7/10)
- Take The Lead (dir. Liz Friedlander, USA, 7/10)
- Underworld: Evolution (dir. Len Wiseman, USA, 6.5/10)
- The Wild (dir. Steve 'Spaz' Williams, USA, 7/10)
- X-Men: The Last Stand (dir. Brett Ratner, USA, 7/10)
- Black Christmas (dir. Glen Morgan, Canada / USA, 6/10)
- Crank (dir. Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor, USA, 2/10)
- Flushed Away (dir. David Bowers, Sam Fell, UK / USA, 6/10)
- F**k (dir. Steve Anderson, USA, 5.5/10)
- Game 6 (dir. Michael Hoffman, USA, 5/10)
- Happy Feet (dir. George Miller, Australia / USA, 6/10)
- Imprint (dir. Takashi Miike, USA / Japan, 6/10)
- Little Children (dir. Todd Field, USA, 5.5/10)
- The Quiet (dir. Jamie Babbit, USA, 6/10)
- Room 6 (dir. Michael Hurst, USA, 3.5/10)
- The Tooth Fairy (dir. Chuck Bowman, USA, 3.5/10)
- Ultraviolet (dir. Kurt Wimmer, USA, 4/10)
- V For Vendetta (dir. James McTeigue, USA / Germany, 3/10)
- Voodoo Moon (dir. Kevin VanHook, Canada / USA, 1/10)
Blind Spots
51 Birch Street, Apocalypto, The Bridge, Crossing The Line, The Curse Of The Golden Flower, Dreamgirls, Fast Food Nation, For Your Consideration, The Good German, The Good Shepherd, Half Nelson, Hard Candy, Indigènes, Inland Empire, The Last King Of Scotland, Letters From Iwo Jima, Miss Potter, Mutual Appreciation, The Nativity Story, Notes On A Scandal, Offside, Old Joy, The Painted Veil, Perfume, Private Fears In Public Places, The Science Of Sleep, Tales From Earthsea, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Time, Volver, The Wind That Shakes The Barley
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