Screening Log

This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.

March 2006 activity

Total Log Entries: 87

Total Comments: 44

Full Archive

Advertisements

A History of Violence / U.S.A. / 2005

Cronenberg’s film is very good, but nowhere near the masterpiece and the probing exploration of violence that its enthusiasts have made out. For me, the most telling moment of how the act of violence seeps into this idyllic family life was the moment when Tom slaps his son – we guess, from the look on Tom’s face, perhaps for the first time. I expected – from the seriousness with which the film takes itself – that this was the direction A History of Violence was going in. Instead, the graphic novel source asserted itself. The final section of the film, with Tom visiting his brother, seems particularly misconceived and unconvincing. A pity.

by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
12 Mar 2006 11:44 PM | Comments (1)

Comments / 1 total / Submit Comment

  1. tom / 13 March 2006 / 2:18 AM / URL

    My feelings precisely… I have a worrying suspicion that if you took the exact same script back in time to about 1977, cast Chuck Bronson in the lead and had Michael Winner behind the camera no one would be talking about the film’s graphic exploration of modern attitudes to violence…

Submit Comment

Please note that your email address will never be displayed on this page.

HTML is enabled; line breaks (<br />) and paragraphs (<p>) are automatically converted. Apostrophes, ellipses, em- and en-dashes, and quotes are also automatically formatted.

Recent Updates