Posted in Year in Film

Tim Roth Directs The War Zone With Brutal Truth

*** SOME SPOILERS *** In the opening scenes of the 1999 bare-bones British drama The War Zone, some effort is made to establish what might…

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Posted in Year in Film

Pokemon: The Cash Grab (Or How to Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too!)

Ah, the late Nineties: A hell of a time to be around and young. Bill Clinton was in the midst of impeachment hearing about lying…

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Posted in Year in Film

East is East, A Room for Romeo Brass Make For Perfect 1999 Movie Double Bill

“But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth.” – Rudyard Kipling Perusing through the vast rang of movies from 1999 is…

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Posted in Year in Film

Trapped in the Rat Race: Revisiting Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher

With the recent release of You Were Never Really Here, and the Rewind year at Filmotomy, it seems only fitting to revisit Lynne Ramsay’s debut…

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Life Interrupted: The Journey to get The Virgin Suicides from Page to Screen

“I never thought I would be a film-maker. It wasn’t something I ever planned. I had so many interests but I just couldn’t find one medium…

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Finding Neo: How Your Children Can Understand The Matrix

Writing a piece on The Matrix for our Rewind: 1999 in Film series was trickier than I first imagined. And not because I had nothing…

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Posted in Soundtrack Year in Film

An Essenial Soundtrack for the Cinema of 1999

As part of the “Rewind: 1999 in Film” series at Filmotomy I pulled together a 10 minute video of some of the finest film scores…

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Posted in Acting Year in Film

Heath Ledger: The Double Breakthrough Actor of 1999

Some time before the turbulent, passionate romance story Dan shared with Candy, filmed in his native Australia, Heath Ledger had already made the big time…

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Bummer of "Sam": Spike Lee Does Too Much and Not Enough

In Summer of Sam, Two sets of young Italian-American couples, Vinny (John Leguizamo) and Dionna (Mira Sorvino), and Richie (Adrien Brody) and Ruby (Jennifer Esposito)…

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Flick v. Metzler 1999: Election Review

A presidential race between a popular yet unqualified male against a more driven and overqualified female? Hmmm..sounds a lot like the 2016 Presidential race. However,…

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Posted in Year in Film

True Crime is for People Who Care About Clint Eastwood, Oakland, or the Death Penalty – No One Else

By Andy Kamenetzky and Daniel Smith-Rowsey In True Crime, Clint Eastwood plays Steve Everett, a recently recovering alcoholic, a cuckolder and womanizer, and a nearly…

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Posted in Year in Film

The Woman of your Nightmares: Is Audition about Misogyny or is about Misandry?

“A truly shocking horror film about obsession gone evil, “Audition” is made even more disturbing by its haunting beauty.” Ken Eisner, Variety Miike Takashi is a…

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Posted in Year in Film

The Sensitive, Innocent, Mysterious, Troubled, Lonely and…. Talented Mr. Ripley

The entire seduction takes us in and ultimately makes us, the audience, accessories to the crimes of a likeable, lonely and extremely troubled young man. And we guiltily enjoy every minute of it.

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Posted in Year in Film

David Lynch Tells a Beautiful "Straight Story" Before, and Beyond, the Red State – Blue State Divide

by Andy Kamenetzky and Daniel Smith-Rowsey In The Straight Story, septuagenarian Alvin Straight drives a lawn mower 240 miles through the heartland to reconcile with…

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