by allan tong for FILMbutton One of the slickest thrillers to ever come out of South Korea is Cold Eyes. A squad of high-tech surveillance cops follow members of a gang of ruthless bank robbers around Seoul. The pretty and self-assured Han Hyo-joo plays the junior member of the team who survives her initiation to […]
by allan tong for FILMbutton In rural Iceland, a young girl witnesses her older brother dying in a gory farming accident. It traumatizes her parents and herself. She finds release and solace in the heavy metal that her brother adored which allows her to channel her anger as a headbanger. Armed with a guitar and […]
by allan tong for FILMbutton Roz and Lil (Robin Wright and Naomi Watts) have been close friends since childhood, and now happily live side-by-side on an Australian beach. Life is perfect, until Lil’s husband passes away, and later Roz divorces her husband, Harold, (Ben Mendelsohn) after he lands a job in distant Sydney and Roz […]
by shael stolberg Bill Condon’s The Fifth Estate will open the 38th Annual Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, September 5th, 2013. The film is a dramatization of Julian Assange the founder of Wikileaks. The cast of the film includes as follows: Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Brühl, Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Alicia Vikander, Peter Capaldi, Carice […]
by allan tong for FILMbutton After Paris and Rome, Woody Allen returns to America in his latest film, a well-crafted and ultimately unsettling portrait of a woman who had everything in the world, but loses it. Sure, laughs and sharp one-liners abound in Allen’s script which carries the typical Woody blend of love triangles and […]
by allan tong for FILMbutton Lucas is an ordinary guy. He teaches kindergarten, has a steady girlfriend and goes hunting with his buddies on the weekend. All of that chances when one of his students, little Klara who has a crush on him, accuses Lucas of inappropriately touching her and exposing himself. Even worse, Klara […]
by allan tong for FILMbutton “There’s something in that mud,” says Bono about the Fame recording studios in this swampy hamlet in Alabama. Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, The Allman Brothers, The Rolling Stones and many others have recorded some of the best songs of the past 50 years here. Contemporary interviews and archival photos bring […]
by allan tong for FILMbutton It’s a surprise no one has made a major film about funk music until noted historian Nelson George with this one. He scores key interviews with bassist Bootsy Collins, George Clinton and the late, great James Brown, but the jewel in the crown is the reclusive and eccentric Sly Stone […]
by allan tong for FILMbutton In 2010 at the Seaworld amusement park in Orlando, Florida, trainer Dawn Brancheau was mauled and drowned by Tilikum, a 12,000-pound orca whale. That horrific moment was no mere accident, claims this terrifying film. In fact, Tilikum was long suspected to be a dangerous whale and likely killed another trainer […]
by allan tong for FILMbutton Downloaded could be called The Rise and Fall of Napster. In 1998, some teenage kid from Boston named Shawn Fanning created a software to share his favourite tunes easily over the internet. Fanning partnered with buddy Shaun Parker (who would later join the Facebook team) to create the Napster website. […]
