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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Melancholia (Film)

by Julian Wood | December 12, 2011 14:24 | Edited December 12, 2011 14:25

Like many of Lars Von Trier’s works, this is a difficult film to sum up in words, but be assured it makes for a profound and haunting cinematic experience.

Danish auteur Lars Von Trier is a prankster and provocateur of the first order. He repeatedly upsets his audiences and critics alike. He is also a self-confessed depressive, which is highly relevant to this latest work. However, we should hang on to the fact that he is a cinematic artist, sometimes of the first rank. That is part of the conundrum. When launching Melancholia at Cannes (where Kirsten Dunst picked up the Best Actress gong), Von Trier now famously went over the top when he made remarks regarding Nazism, which, if made by a totally sane person, would be pretty inexcusable. All this is actually getting a bit annoying, as it detracts from looking at the work itself.

 

Melancholia is indeed a dreamy and haunting piece of cinema. At times, it is achingly beautiful. Those who saw the arresting opening sequence of his preceding work, Antichrist, will be familiar with the artist's mature style, which includes, amongst other things, weird images in time-disorientating super slow-mo and a wonderful use of classical music. All these elements are here in spades. The film also has a fine cast including Charlotte Gainsbourg (fresh from the aforementioned Antichrist), Charlotte Rampling, Kiefer Sutherland, and John Hurt. As per Cannes, however, the player likely to attract the most attention is Kirsten Dunst. Her character, Justine, is a beautiful bride on the eve of her wedding, but she is also clearly fraying at the edges if not cracking up, even more so than her sister, Claire (Gainsbourg). The other major plot point is that there is a meteor (called Melancholia) which is drifting toward earth. The meteor resembles depression in that it closes in and threatens to blot out existence. There is little point in trying to describe this film in words. There is, however, a great deal of point in just surrendering yourself to it with an open mind, and anyone who likes cinema ought to do so.