TheRetroCritic

From the makers of Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers comes Millennium Actress , the story of an ageing actress telling her life story for a TV interviewer and his cameraman as the latter two imagine everything she went through by transporting themselves into her stories. It's a cute idea in that it links the present with the past without having to resort to constant flashback and forths or one long drawn-out voice-over. This is a much more slow-burning film than Satoshi Kon's aforementioned works, which makes sense when you realise it's essentially a melodrama. Similarly to how Perfect Blue merged real life with the world of film, Chiyoko's story dips into her various acting jobs without transition so every so often we end up with her on the Moon, in medieval times or surrounded by geishas in the middle of a certain scene before we realise we've followed her into that world. The interviewer and his camera guy act as both comic relief and as a link to the pres

Originally titled “ The Bop Decameron” , To Rome With Love was this year’s Woody Allen and boasted yet another all-star cast in yet another European setting. But where Midnight In Paris really pushed the whole romantic, nostalgia vibe, this one takes a different route altogether. For one thing, this is closer to the likes of You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger or Everyone Says I Love You where you follow not one but several characters in their own little continuing vignettes. Woody Allen and the ever reliable Judy Davis play a married couple who go to Rome to meet their daughter’s boyfriend’s parents only to find that the father sings amazingly well in the shower, which Allen’s character promptly plots to exploit. A young architect, played by Jesse Eisenberg, is involved in a love triangle between his girlfriend Sally (Greta Gerwig) and one her best friends (played by Ellen Page) althewhile being mentored by one of his favorite architects (Alec Baldwin), or his gh

I know what you're thinking: " Ruby Sparks ? Wait, isn't it that Stranger Than Fiction rom-com knockoff?" Yes, yes it is. Complete with white people problems and lots of 'em! Right off the bat, Ruby Sparks is every Woody Allen/Nora Ephron rom-com you've ever seen: shrinks, stereotypical neurotic writers, cookie hippie relatives... It's good, don't get me wrong, but you've seen it all before. Same goes for the movie's surreal "hook" involving Zoe Kazan's Sparks, a fictional character written by Paul Dano's writer Calvin, who inexplicably comes to life one morning. What follows is a rollercoaster ride of emotions and forced quirkiness which finally develops into a kind of 500 Days Of Summer meets Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind -type bittersweet tale of the impact relationships have on us and how we screw them up, basically. It's cute, it's sweet, it's all-over-the-place, it's heartbreaking,

Yes, Woody Allen's back already with To Rome With Love and this time he's got one crazy-ass cast: Roberto Benigni, Ellen Page, Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin, Penelope Cruz... Together... at last? Oh and Woody Allen himself also participates. Looks fun :) The Allen-starring ones are always worth checking out, lets hope this one is no exception.

Although it's based on a true story, I Love You Philip Morris feels about as real as Avatar . The gay Jim Carrey/Ewan McGregor pair-up is surreal enough but the conman story itself is pretty unbelievable and would be right at home in a Coen Brothers film. The tone of the film is extremely whimsical and goes for a lighthearted, modern feel mixing a Jim Carrey-type comedy similar to Fun With Dick and Jane with a gay prison rom-com setting. Although the film is undeniably funny in places thanks entirely to Jim Carrey, who clearly has a ball pretending to be a lawyer, jumping down escalators and being generally camp, it just doesn't feel sincere on the whole. The twists and turns of the compelling story are well handled and unpredictable but the dialogs feel ridiculously artificial. Characters speak "movie speak" instead of speaking like real people and it makes the Carrey/McGregor love story hard to believe and truly care about. It doesn't help that, once again,

Following a popular franchise like Austin Powers was never going to be easy so it's no big surprise that The Love Guru tanked upon its release. What is surprising though is the general hate the film generated from critics. I mean, ok, I'm not gonna pretend this is any good but there are far worse films out there. One only needs to look to Myers' buddy Dana Carvey and his little nugget Master Of Disguise , a film so unfunny it's actually sad. Admittedly The Love Guru does a lot of things wrong: Justin Timberlake and Jessica Alba are both typically awful, Ben Kingsley as a cross-eyed Indian guru is disturbing, the whole thing is a sports movie (*puke*) and the central romance is about as interesting as Fat Bastard's ass. Oh, and a lot of the jokes just don't work. Then again, Mike Myers is genuinely fun even if he does turn into Dr Evil or Austin Powers occasionally, there are some good jokes here and there and the whole thing is pretty entertaining. Sure

Another year, another extended Chanel advert. Unfortunately, unlike Coco Before Chanel , this doesn't have much to work with. What we get is not so much a Chanel biopic as a vague Stravinski biopic awkwardly stuck inside a sexy Chanel bubble. The main problem is that, really, the film has nothing interesting to say: Chanel and Stravinski had an affair...they had sex...buy our perfume! This is literally it. Having said that, Jan Kounen does a remarkable job making such an empty narrative interesting. The cinematography is stylish and well crafted and the score is beautiful. A terrific scene involving a Stravinski concert going awry is definitely a highlight. There's good performances here. Anna Mouglalis' over-cool but genuinely manipulative and really pretty dislikable Chanel is a lot of fun and Mads Mikkelsen conveys a lot with the shameful 5 lines he was given to work with (!). His performance, although practically silent, is nevertheless the most compelling in the e