LA Screenings – Pilot Reviews (Part 1)

Turtles Can Fly [Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand] (2004)

Director: Bahman Ghobadi The first film to be made in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the devastating Turtles Can Fly is set in a Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border just before the US invasion in 2003. Director Bahman Ghobadi concentrates on a handful of orphaned children and their efforts to survive [...]

Angels & Demons (2009)

Director: Ron Howard Cast: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, and Ayelet Zurer After a rather tasteless adaptation of Dan Brown’s bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, director Ron Howard reunites with Tom Hanks for more international intrigue. This time around with a lot more action and less boredom. Some bizarre plot points aside, Angels & Demons is [...]

Zodiac (2007)

Director: David Fincher David Fincher, in my opinion is a movie-making genius. He hasn’t made, what one would call, a LOT of movies, but each and every one he has made has stood out. I’ve seen all his full-length features to date. From Se7en to Fight Club. Now, I know many people will disagree with [...]

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Director: Quentin Tarantino I watched Reservoir Dogs again two days ago and to this day, it is still one of the most stylish & amazing films of all time for me. This film has it all. It has immense style, it has cleverly planned violence and it has a wonderful script. Background isn’t given on [...]

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2009)

Director: David Fincher / Cast: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Tarajo Henson ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ directed by David Fincher, takes its inspiration from one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s stories. Screenwriter Eric Roth takes only Fitzgerald’s central premise – a man is born old and gets younger as he advances through life [...]

Revolutionary Road (2009)

Director: Sam Mendes / Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet Based on Richard Yates’ 1962 novel (selected by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923), director Sam Mendes brings ‘Revolutionary Road’ to the big screen and reunites its stars for the first time since they paired for the highest grossing film [...]

Gran Torino (2008)

Director: Clint Eastwood / Cast: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Ahney Her Gran Torino’s less obvious coming of age story revolves around Walt Kowalski (Eastwood), a recently widowed Korean War veteran. Walt is a racist killjoy, who lacks basic people skills with even his own family, let alone the world around him. But he has managed [...]