THR Special Reports

Chameleon -- Film Review

"Illusion is expensive, but it's worth it" is the lesson offered from the latest film by UCLA film school graduate Krisztina Goda, "Chameleon."

Made in Hungaria -- Film Review

Gergely Fonyo's "Made in Hungaria" is a musical about 1960s-era Communism and the beginnings of rock 'n' roll behind the Iron Curtain. Despite a not very original storyline what stands out here are top-notch actors who make the best of the material and seem to genuinely give their all during the musical numbers.

Map of the Sounds of Tokyo -- Film Review

An erotic-thriller about a Japanese assassin who falls in love with her Spanish target, Isabel Coixet's "Map of the Sounds of Tokyo" is "Nikita" reincarnated with Tokyo eyes.

Min Ye -- Film Review

After making two poetic classics of African cinema, "The Wind" and "Lumiere," director Souleymane Cisse is back with "Min Ye" (a.k.a. "Tell Me Who You Are"), an unexpected portrayal of an adulterous middle-class African marriage.

Nymph -- Film Review

Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang evokes a trancelike atmosphere in his representation of Nature as an animate, mysterious entity. Less effective is his idea of stripping his plot and characters to their bare essence.

The Time That Remains -- Film Review

Seven years after "Divine Intervention," director Elia Suleiman returns with more humorous-sad stories from his native Palestine, couched in the ironic autobiographical language at which he is grandly adept.

The Silent Army -- Film Review

"The Silent Army" is bedeviled by the same problem Edward Zwick faced in "Blood Diamond": How to tell African stories involving brutal conflicts and child soldiers without having white men come to the rescue of poor blacks.

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky -- Film Review

At the intersection of art and culture and of style and genius, Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky met and loved each other for a few madly passionate seasons before going separate ways to become legends of Western society.

Independencia -- Film Review

This experimental work is for refined palates only, and even among the cognoscenti there's ample room for discussion. But the film has curiosity value and should pique the interest of festivals.

Enter the Void -- Film Review

It goes without saying that "Enter the Void" is violent, but its obsessive emphasis on sex and drugs -- to the point that most viewers are going to feel utterly bludgeoned by both -- makes it virtually unwatchable, especially at its unofficial "director's cut" length of 160 minutes.

Face -- Film Review

The very bloated "Face" starts off impenetrable and ends that way as well.

A Town Called Panic (Panique au village) -- Film Review

There's really very little to say about this film beyond that it's absolutely brilliant. First-time Belgian feature-length filmmakers Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar, prodigiously gifted, have come up with something truly special here.

Corked! -- Film Review

A satire of "fine wine" has found its time. A mockumentary in the "Spinal Tap" tradition, "Corked!" pops off the pretensions of the Northern California wine community.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus -- Film Review

The first big question about Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" involves how the filmmaker managed to complete the film when his star Heath Ledger died in the middle of shooting. The answer is with great imagination and skill.

The White Ribbon -- Film Review

There are well over thirty named characters in "The White Ribbon" (Das Weisse Band), the latest and largest film from acclaimed Austrian auteur Michael Haneke.

Tale in the Darkness -- Film Review

Sometimes a comedy -- assuming that the Russian film "Tale in the Darkness" is actually intended as a comedy -- does not travel well.

The Wolberg Family -- Film Review

First-time French director Axelle Ropert has done a marvelous job in creating the central figure of this modest film, Simon Wolberg (powerfully brought to life by actor Francois Damiens), the Jewish mayor of a small town in northern France. Simon is testy and angular and authentic, so much so that he must have been borrowed from Ropert's real life.

In the Beginning -- Film Review

Xavier Giannoli's "In the Beginning" tells the sly comic story, based on an actual incident, of a con man who came to a depressed French industrial town, passed himself off as a project manager and lived off enough credit and good will to get a highway built before he was found out.

Tales from the Golden Age -- Film Review

Written entirely by Christian Mungiu, the Romanian director of "Four Months, Three Weeks, and Two Days," which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes two years ago, the five parts of "Tales from the Golden Age" were shot by five different Romanian directors.

Inglourious Basterds -- Film Review

History will not repeat itself for Quentin Tarantino. While his "Pulp Fiction" arrived late at the Festival de Cannes and swept away the Palme d'Or in 1994, his World War II action movie "Inglourious Basterds" merely continues the string of disappointments in this year's Competition.

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