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cranky hanke Articles

• If.... (X)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 14 days ago

  Genre: Drama

  Director: Lindsay Anderson (O Lucky Man!)

  Starring: Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan

  In Brief: Lindsay Anderson's landmark film If.... shook up world cinema, made a star of fairly obscure TV actor Malcolm McDowell and set Anderson on the road to creating his famous trilogy (If...., O Lucky Man!, Britannia Hospital). That's a pretty impressive accomplishment, but his tale of the resentment at an English boys school — for Anderson, a microcosm of British society — turning into open revolt captured the imagination as few films had done. It remains a powerful and disturbing film to this day.

  9 comments

  207 views

• The Mill and the Cross (NR)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 14 days ago

  Genre: Drama

  Director: Lech Majewski (Wojacek)

  Starring: Rutger Hauer, Michael York, Charlotte Rampling

  In Brief: Almost impossible to critique as a film, The Mill and the Cross is a true cinematic oddity. It's a strikingly visual, but dramatically lacking, recreation of Pieter Bruegel's 1564 painting The Procession to Calvary, illustrating the elements, some of the models and the political allegory behind the art. As drama, it rarely works well, but makes up for this with its stunning painterly visuals and atmosphere.

  0 comments

  118 views

• The House of the Devil (R)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 14 days ago

  Genre: Horror

  Director: Ti West (The Innkeepers)

  Starring: Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov, Greta Gerwig, AJ Bowen

  In Brief: One of the more interesting of current horror movie directors, Ti West made his breakthrough (at least in horror circles) with this surprisingly effective 2009 attempt to create a 1980s-style scare flick. In this case, it's all about a college girl who takes a babysitting job at an isolated house — a job that turns out to be something else entirely when she realizes she's about to be used in a Satanic ritual. The movie is of the slow-burn variety, the kind that works on building dread before breaking through into all-out terror. Not a great horror film, but a good one.

  2 comments

  234 views

• The Sapphires (PG-13)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 14 days ago

  Genre: Fact-Based Comedy Drama with Music

  Director: Wayne Blair

  Starring: Chris O'Dowd, Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens, Miranda Tapsell

  The Story: Fact-based story of an Aborigine all-girl singing group that toured as entertainers in Vietnam. The Lowdown: Despite its "true story" underpinnings, the film is largely a standard show-biz story that succeeds beautifully as entertainment — enhanced by a dynamite soundtrack and winning performances.

  15 comments

  222 views

• The Reluctant Fundamentalist (R)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 14 days ago

  Genre: Thriller Drama

  Director: Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding)

  Starring: Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland, Om Puri

  The Story: A tale told in flashback about the transformation of an America-loving Pakistani into a radical — possibly terrorist — professor. The Lowdown: Complex cultural examination of a young Pakistani — brilliantly played by Riz Ahmed — tied to a thriller/suspense frame. It doesn't all work, but it's still compelling.

  3 comments

  204 views

• What Maisie Knew (R)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 14 days ago

  Genre: Drama

  Director: Scott McGehee and David Siegel (Bee Season)

  Starring: Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan, Alexander Skarsgård, Joanna Vanderham, Onata Aprile

  The Story: A little girl becomes the object of a bitter custody battle between her divorcing parents. The Lowdown: Solid modernized version of the Henry James novel, What Maisie Knew is undeniably well made and acted, but it's a hard film to like.

  0 comments

  223 views

• Union Depot (NR)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 14 days ago

  Genre: Thriller Romance Melodrama

  Director: Alfred E. Green (Disraeli)

  Starring: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, Alan Hale

  In Brief: Character and incident-packed film about the goings-on at a large train station in a slice-of-life fashion — though most train stations probably (even in 1932) don't have feds on the lookout for a counterfeiting ring or a girl being stalked by a degenerate sex-fiend on a regular basis. Those two aspects dovetail and form the main plot. Full of pre-code comedy, Warner Bros. contract players, snappy dialogue and some amazingly fluid camerawork.

  0 comments

  87 views

• Cranky Hanke talks Frances Ha (and other things) with Greta Gerwig

  

  MOVIE

  Ken Hanke | 21 days ago

  The week after the opening of the new indie film, Frances Ha, Ken Hanke interviewed the film's star and co-writer, Greta Gerwig. This is the interview in full.

  20 comments

  810 views

• The Black Cat (NR)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 21 days ago

  Genre: Horror Comedy

  Director: Albert S. Rogell (The Last Warning)

  Starring: Basil Rathbone, Broderick Crawford, Hugh Herbert, Bela Lugosi, Anne Gwynne

  In Brief: No, it's not the 1934 classic, nor does it have anything to do with Edgar Allan Poe (though it claims otherwise). The 1941 film called The Black Cat is an old dark-house comedy thriller that's a very obvious attempt by Universal to cash in on Paramount's Bob Hope comedy thrillers. OK, so Broderick Crawford is no Bob Hope, but the results are an agreeable little movie that's both funny and atmospheric -- and sometimes surprisingly grim.

  0 comments

  168 views

• Frances Ha (R)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 21 days ago

  Genre: Comedy Drama

  Director: Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale)

  Starring: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Michael Esper, Adam Driver, Charlotte D'Amboise

  The Story: The life and times of a 27-year-old dancer as she navigates an uncharted course through New York, life and relationships. The Lowdown: A sparkling, sweet, sad, funny film that might restore your faith in indie film — all built around a winning performance from Greta Gerwig (who also co-wrote the film).

  16 comments

  508 views