Film Reviews by Joanne Laurier
A new film version of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (and Sean Baker’s Starlet)
By Joanne Laurier, December 22, 2012
British filmmaker Joe Wright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard have collaborated on a new film adaptation of Tolstoy’s classic novel. Starlet tells the story of a relationship between two women in California’s San Fernando Valley.
The Central Park Five: A story of injustice
By Joanne Laurier, December 12, 2012
Directed and produced by renowned documentarian Ken Burns, daughter Sarah Burns and her husband David McMahon, The Central Park Five chronicles an infamous case in 1989.
Silver Linings Playbook: It’s the little things in life …
By Joanne Laurier, November 29, 2012
In this comedy-drama, former substitute history teacher Pat has just been released from a psychiatric facility when he meets Tiffany, the widow of a policeman. Together they struggle to overcome their difficulties.
A comment and an interview with filmmaker Minda Martin
Free Land: American dreams and realities
By Joanne Laurier, November 15, 2012
Minda Martin’s 2010 film Free Land, at the same time a documentary-essay and personal memoir, poetically and evocatively connects a variety of social and personal events.
Toronto International Film Festival 2012
A comment from Robert Connolly, director of Underground: The Julian Assange Story
By Joanne Laurier, November 6, 2012
Robert Connolly, director of Underground: The Julian Assange Story, responds to questions from Joanne Laurier of the WSWS.
Arbitrage: False advertising
By Joanne Laurier, October 27, 2012
Robert Miller, a powerful Wall Street figure, is trying to sell his business to cover losses from a bad investment. His seemingly idyllic personal life falls apart after a car accident in which his mistress is killed.
Toronto International Film Festival 2012—Part 7
Underground: The Julian Assange Story and Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out
By Joanne Laurier, October 12, 2012
Julian Assange’s early life is fictionalized by Australian director Robert Connolly, while documentarian Marina Zenovich offers the latest installment in the Roman Polanski saga.
Toronto International Film Festival 2012—Part 5
Detroit’s belated “renaissance”—on film
By Joanne Laurier, October 5, 2012
A number of films about Detroit have suddenly emerged … including now a fiction work about the complicated interactions between the city’s Arab and African American populations.
Toronto International Film Festival 2012--Part 3
Filmmakers respond to important events—but how they respond is also important …
By Joanne Laurier, September 28, 2012
The 2012 Toronto film festival screened numerous serious documentaries and docu-dramas, reflecting the impact of the current social crisis and the increasing resistance of the global working class.
The Intouchables, record-breaking French film, and Ruby Sparks, “small change” in Los Angeles
By Joanne Laurier, August 20, 2012
The Intouchables is a predictable but touching comedy about the relationship between an upper class Frenchman and his Muslim Senegalese caretaker. Ruby Sparks is a version of the Pygmalion myth.
Moonrise Kingdom: Wes Anderson’s latest wispy, wistful adventure
By Joanne Laurier, July 4, 2012
Set in 1965 on an island off the coast of New England, Wes Anderson’s new movie tells the story of two pre-teenage misfits who escape to a deserted corner of the island.
Polanski’s Carnage: Not a dispute about fundamentals
By Joanne Laurier, February 10, 2012
In New York City, cordiality turns to anger and chaos when two sets of parents meet to discuss an altercation between their 11-year-old sons.
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