by Francine Schwartz

Bright Star, written and directed by Jane Campion (The Piano), is visually lovely, but as a cinema experience it disappoints. The film is composed of a stream of pastoral scenes set in a country estate in Hampstead, England in the early 1800s—an ongoing collage of beauty. Soft breezes that come in through the window and blow wisps of hair around the heroine’s face, joyous walks on the heath, flowers in the tall grass, snow on the grounds. But all this cannot overshadow the stops and starts of the movie and the feeling that it is going…
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By Francine Schwartz

Slice of life and riveting, Fish Tank takes you inside the grim life of a girl who lives in a rough housing project in England’s Essex. It’s a reality show—but not the kind you see on TV. This kind is the real stuff. And it’s poetry. Beautiful. Gritty. And incredibly sexy.

Not unlike a fish tank where the creatures that swim around can see out, but are trapped within, the housing project is inhabited by people with disenchanted lives—girls who swear with the same rapid-fire fluidity as their moms and dream only of performing on…
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It’s been a quiet fall, which is both intriguing and disconcerting. Usually by now, a few frontrunners have emerged for Best Picture. A few years ago, No Country For Old Men blew everyone away on the festival circuit, cementing its spot as a top prize contender. It would ride the momentum all the way to the Kodak theater. Last year Slumdog Millionaire captured the imagination of audiences everywhere. Its buzz drowned out more prestigious December releases The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Revolutionary Road. But this year, the race for Best Picture is truly, to co-opt one of our…
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