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Showing posts from April, 2012

SLEEPING BEAUTY (Julia Leigh, 2011)

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Equal pieces haunting, detached, and utterly surprising- Julia Leigh's film debut manages to balance art with psychology, forcing us to probe within our inner selves our darkest fantasies and lingering repressed emotions. Emily Browning is a revelation. Since her debut in A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS opposite Jim Carrey and in her dramatic turn in THE UNINVITED, Browning has shown astounding potential. But not since here in SLEEPING BEAUTY has she proved how far she's willing to go as an actress. With her completely naked about half the running time in this movie, being subjected to voyeurism and many other twisted desires, Browning proves her caliber as an actress by showing how confident she is about her body, and equating that with her inspired performance as a liberated young woman who is so detached from anything, or anyone. In fact, I have never seen a perfectly drawn character more detached than Browning's Lucy in recent memory. The film, written and dir...

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (Mel Gibson, 2004)

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Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST has extremely polarized those who have seen it upon its release mainly because of its subject matter, which is religious in nature. Bring up any spiritual theme onscreen and people will speak up. If at all, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST became an effective film because it sparked cinematic discourse. Either love it or hate it, the film knows what it wants and pursues it. It has a single direction. It quickly appealed to me because of its departure from the previous Jesus films, most of which ambitiously wanted to cover Jesus's entire life story. The result is an approximated two hours of condensed history that you'd feel burdened to watch by second viewing.  PASSION is different. It focuses on Christ's final hours, and filmmaker Mel Gibson pulls no punches in his delivery of blood and gore. We have been so occupied with what we have been taught about Christ's suffering for our sins, and how we should be grateful and all by doing...