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Review: 'Defamation'

Yoav Shamir's documentary "Defamation" takes on such an explosive topic that the director only gradually reveals the film's real subject. An Israeli, Shamir tells the audience that he's never experienced anti-Semitism, though he hears about it ...

From WALTER ADDIEGO, San Francisco Chronicle,  19 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Yoav Shamir,  Norman Finkelstein,  Secret Service

Review: Selling it with 'Art & Copy'

There so much entertaining information in "Art & Copy," a documentary about modern advertising, that it takes a while to realize we are being sold something: the notion that what big-time ad people do rises above the mere selling of hamburgers, cars ...

From WALTER ADDIEGO, San Francisco Chronicle,  13 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Ronald Reagan,  Tommy Hilfiger,  MTV,  Calvin Klein,  Ralph Lauren

Review: 'For the Love of Movies'

I'll admit I'm not objective, but I enjoyed "For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism," a documentary made by an American film critic about American film critics. Gerald Peary, longtime Boston Phoenix critic and a professor of film, ...

From WALTER ADDIEGO, San Francisco Chronicle,  13 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Roger Ebert,  Kenneth Turan,  Harry Knowles,  James Agee,  New York Times Company

DVD: 'Film Noir Classics: Vol. 1'

The best film in this five-movie set - and certainly the most well known - is Fritz Lang's hard-edged "The Big Heat" (1953), based on the novel by William P. McGivern. A police detective (Glenn Ford) uncovers corruption and suffers tragedy when he ...

From WALTER ADDIEGO, San Francisco Chronicle,  8 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Fritz Lang,  Glenn Ford,  Lee Marvin,  Edward Dmytryk,  Don Siegel

Review: 'Visual Acoustics' a tribute to Shulman

If you admire the modernist architecture of Southern California, you've almost certainly seen pictures taken by Julius Shulman. "Visual Acoustics," a documentary tribute, makes a good case that Shulman, who died in July at 98, was the style's ...

From WALTER ADDIEGO, San Francisco Chronicle,  5 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Julius Shulman,  Richard Neutra,  Frank Gehry,  Ed Ruscha,  Kelly Lynch

Review: 'Skin' reveals more layers of apartheid

It isn't just the inhumanity of apartheid that's illustrated in "Skin," but the out-and-out lunacy of laws and classifications intended to keep blacks and whites apart. This is a straightforward drama - sometimes veering into melodrama - based on the ...

From WALTER ADDIEGO, San Francisco Chronicle,  5 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Sam Neill,  Alice Krige,  Anthony Fabian,  Sophie Okonedo

Review: 'Bronson' is punishment

Black comedy. Co-written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. With Tom Hardy, Matt King, Juliet Oldfield. (Rated R. 92 minutes. At the Lumiere.) "Bronson" portrays a real-life British bruiser as a psychotic performance artist. It's an assaultive work ...

From WALTER ADDIEGO, San Francisco Chronicle,  30 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Tom Hardy,  Matt King,  Nicolas Winding Refn,  Michael Peterson,  Charles Bronson

Review: Painful dialogue sinks 'Canyon'

The best thing about this would-be nature thriller is Will Patton's zesty performance as a cackling, crazed muleskinner, a wily old hand who exits far too soon. There's nothing much to replace him, so we're in for a long 102 minutes. The setup: Young ...

From WALTER ADDIEGO, San Francisco Chronicle,  30 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Will Patton (actor),  Eion Bailey,  Theodore Roosevelt,  HBO,  Meg Ryan

DVD: 'John Carpenter: Master of Fear'

"You cannot kill horror," John Carpenter told the Los Angeles Times in 2001. "You cannot stop it. It's one of the essential elements of mankind." This set offers four of Carpenter's many contributions to the genre. "The Thing" (1982) is his remake of ...

From WALTER ADDIEGO, San Francisco Chronicle,  25 Oct 2009

Related Topics: John Carpenter,  Los Angeles Times,  Kurt Russell

French icon Agnes Varda catches a new wave

The film is autobiographical but doesn't seem self-centered because so much of her focus is outward. In the opening moments, she sets up numerous mirrors on a beach, but not as an act of vanity. As she once told Interview magazine: "The tool of every ...

From WALTER ADDIEGO, San Francisco Chronicle,  25 Oct 2009

Related Topics: Chris Marker,  Sandrine Bonnaire,  Alain Resnais,  Santos, Ltd.,  Wim Wenders

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