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Beck-40
Reviews
Pandaemonium (2000)
I agree with all but one comment...
...from Shaun Firth. Shaun, you may have left the theatre in stunned silence (in a good way), but I left it totally energized and downright jubilant! : ) This is a great film, and here's a helpful tip for everyone: don't get up and run for the exit when the credits roll like a lot of folks at the gala presentation in Toronto did. When you finally get a chance to see this film, make sure that you stay through the end of the credits - or else you might find yourself wondering why everyone still inside the theatre broke into spontaneous applause after you left!
The Contender (2000)
Don't be fooled!
I saw trailers for The Contender in front of a few films this past summer and totally dismissed the film based on them. Political films are tough to do well, and the approach this film seemed to take looked too cheap, tawdry and sensationalistic to be promising to me. I had put the film so completely out of my head that as I stood outside Roy Thomson Hall in the pouring Toronto rain, I made absolutely no connection between that trailer and the film for which I stood in line. Had I realized that the film in the trailer and the film in the projector inside were one and the same, I swear that I would have sold my ticket and went back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep.
And what a mistake that would have been!!!!!
The Contender turned out to be the very best of the 22 films I saw the the film festival this year. The entire cast, led by Jeff Bridges and Sam Elliott, delivers seamless, subtly nuanced performances. Joan Allen's work is so perfect that it warrants separate mention - a good thing, too, because Senator Laine Hanson is one of the most complex, intelligent, and courageous female characters ever committed to celluloid, and a second-rate interpretation just wouldn't do.
And then there's the story. You bet - it's a timely subject, but that alone isn't enough to make this film automatically interesting. Writer/director
Lurie built this film around a solid, smart and knowing script, and capped it off with a totally satisfying ending.
Of course, the best news is that unlike many terrific films shown at film festivals, this film opens everywhere in a few weeks. Please don't be put off by the awful trailer (who put that one together, anyway? Most trailers make films look better than they are, not worse!) as I nearly was, or the only-marginally-better commercial. It's no All the President's Men, but this film is more worthy of your time, your attention and the cost of admission than at least nine out of ten films you'll see at the multiplex this fall.