Film Reviews · Backpex

Title	Overview		Toggle columns Title Overview
Garden Lovers	Garden Lovers is a documentary love story about Finnish couples who have a passion for gardening. The film with comic undertones looks at their stories behind the hedges. The garden provides a framework for tales of relationship conflicts and joys; it depicts the many ways in which life can flourish; it gives strength and unites, but it also becomes a meeting place for farewells. There is an invisible bond that grows between the couples in the film; they comment and comfort each other with their own stories.
Veer-Zaara	The story of the love between Veer Pratap Singh, an Indian, and Zaara Hayaat Khan, a Pakistani...a love so great it knows no boundaries...
King of the Underworld	Niles and Carol Niles are married doctors who save one of ganglord Gurney's men. Gurney exploits them, then kills Niles leaving Carol to take the fall. He next kidnaps writer Bill Forrest to write his biography. Knowing Bill will be killed when the biography is finished, Carol takes matters into her own hands.
Standing in the Shadows of Motown	In 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. gathered the best musicians from Detroit's thriving jazz and blues scene to begin cutting songs for his new record company. Over a fourteen year period they were the heartbeat on every hit from Motown's Detroit era. By the end of their phenomenal run, this unheralded group of musicians had played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined - which makes them the greatest hit machine in the history of popular music. They called themselves the Funk Brothers. Forty-one years after they played their first note on a Motown record and three decades since they were all together, the Funk Brothers reunited back in Detroit to play their music and tell their unforgettable story, with the help of archival footage, still photos, narration, interviews, re-creation scenes, 20 Motown master tracks, and twelve new live performances of Motown classics with the Brothers backing up contemporary performers.
Madame Bovary	A provincial doctor's wife's romantic illusions about life and social status lead her to betray her naive husband, take on lovers and run up ruinous debts.
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds: God Is in the House	This first ever DVD from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds features full live concert from France (Le Transbordeur in Lyon), 8th June 2001.
All Things Fall Apart	50 Cent stars as gifted college running back Deon in this touching drama. Deon's world turns upside down when an unexpected crisis jeopardizes his professional ambitions -- and causes him to look at himself and his life in a new way.
Ivanhoe	Sir Walter Scott's classic story of the chivalrous Ivanhoe who joins with Robin of Locksley in the fight against Prince John and for the return of King Richard the Lionheart.
Eat	After locking herself out of her apartment, a young woman finds herself in the company of a strange and frightening neighbor.
Snow Falling on Cedars	A Japanese-American fisherman may have killed his neighbor Carl at sea. In the 1950s, race figures in the trial. So does reporter Ishmael.
2 Days in Paris	Adam Goldberg delivers "an uproarious study in transatlantic culture panic" as Jack, an anxious, hypochondriac-prone New Yorker vacationing throughout Europe with his breezy, free-spirited Parisian girlfriend, Marion. But when they make a two-day stop in Marion's hometown, the couple's romantic trip takes a turn as Jack is exposed to Marion's sexually perverse and emotionally unstable family.
Summer School	Anita is the new girl at school. When Steve gets one look at the voluptuous transfer, it sets his girlfriend Donna into a tailspin and she'll stop at nothing to make sure these two never unite.
Harvest Time	Winner of a Golden Plaque award at the Chicago International Film Festival "for its complex and poetic evocation of an ambiguous period in Soviet history," Marina Razbezhkina's debut film HARVEST TIME is a beautiful portrait of a woman living in a small Russian village after World War II. More than a story of survival against ethics, or individuality against collectivity, HARVEST TIME is a piercing meditation on family unity. - Written by Anonymous
She-Wolf of London	A young heiress finds evidence suggesting that at night she acts under the influence of a family curse and has begun committing ghastly murders in a nearby park.
Abraham Lincoln	Silent film master D.W. Griffith's first talkie works as a companion piece to his classic BIRTH OF A NATION, providing a detailed biographical sketch of the 16th president. We see his birth in a log cabin, the tragic death of his first love, Ann Rutledge (Una Merkel), his debates with Douglas, his accepting of the presidency, the terrible toll of the Civil War, and finally the tragic assassination at Ford's Theater. Griffith shows his usual meticulous attention to period detail, and the framing of the various vignettes has the feel of historical photographs come to life. Walter Huston is excellent in the title role, with a portrayal that subtly evolves from laconic, wizened rascal to noble elder statesman. This is a fascinating, worthy film, and an interesting historical document in and of itself.

Garden Lovers

Garden Lovers is a documentary love story about Finnish couples who have a passion for gardening. The film with comic undertones looks at their stories behind the hedges. The garden provides a framework for tales of relationship conflicts and joys; it depicts the many ways in which life can flourish; it gives strength and unites, but it also becomes a meeting place for farewells. There is an invisible bond that grows between the couples in the film; they comment and comfort each other with their own stories.

Veer-Zaara

The story of the love between Veer Pratap Singh, an Indian, and Zaara Hayaat Khan, a Pakistani...a love so great it knows no boundaries...

King of the Underworld

Niles and Carol Niles are married doctors who save one of ganglord Gurney's men. Gurney exploits them, then kills Niles leaving Carol to take the fall. He next kidnaps writer Bill Forrest to write his biography. Knowing Bill will be killed when the biography is finished, Carol takes matters into her own hands.

Standing in the Shadows of Motown

In 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. gathered the best musicians from Detroit's thriving jazz and blues scene to begin cutting songs for his new record company. Over a fourteen year period they were the heartbeat on every hit from Motown's Detroit era. By the end of their phenomenal run, this unheralded group of musicians had played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined - which makes them the greatest hit machine in the history of popular music. They called themselves the Funk Brothers. Forty-one years after they played their first note on a Motown record and three decades since they were all together, the Funk Brothers reunited back in Detroit to play their music and tell their unforgettable story, with the help of archival footage, still photos, narration, interviews, re-creation scenes, 20 Motown master tracks, and twelve new live performances of Motown classics with the Brothers backing up contemporary performers.

Madame Bovary

A provincial doctor's wife's romantic illusions about life and social status lead her to betray her naive husband, take on lovers and run up ruinous debts.

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds: God Is in the House

This first ever DVD from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds features full live concert from France (Le Transbordeur in Lyon), 8th June 2001.

All Things Fall Apart

50 Cent stars as gifted college running back Deon in this touching drama. Deon's world turns upside down when an unexpected crisis jeopardizes his professional ambitions -- and causes him to look at himself and his life in a new way.

Ivanhoe

Sir Walter Scott's classic story of the chivalrous Ivanhoe who joins with Robin of Locksley in the fight against Prince John and for the return of King Richard the Lionheart.

Eat

After locking herself out of her apartment, a young woman finds herself in the company of a strange and frightening neighbor.

Snow Falling on Cedars

A Japanese-American fisherman may have killed his neighbor Carl at sea. In the 1950s, race figures in the trial. So does reporter Ishmael.

2 Days in Paris

Adam Goldberg delivers "an uproarious study in transatlantic culture panic" as Jack, an anxious, hypochondriac-prone New Yorker vacationing throughout Europe with his breezy, free-spirited Parisian girlfriend, Marion. But when they make a two-day stop in Marion's hometown, the couple's romantic trip takes a turn as Jack is exposed to Marion's sexually perverse and emotionally unstable family.

Summer School

Anita is the new girl at school. When Steve gets one look at the voluptuous transfer, it sets his girlfriend Donna into a tailspin and she'll stop at nothing to make sure these two never unite.

Harvest Time

Winner of a Golden Plaque award at the Chicago International Film Festival "for its complex and poetic evocation of an ambiguous period in Soviet history," Marina Razbezhkina's debut film HARVEST TIME is a beautiful portrait of a woman living in a small Russian village after World War II. More than a story of survival against ethics, or individuality against collectivity, HARVEST TIME is a piercing meditation on family unity. - Written by Anonymous

She-Wolf of London

A young heiress finds evidence suggesting that at night she acts under the influence of a family curse and has begun committing ghastly murders in a nearby park.

Abraham Lincoln

Silent film master D.W. Griffith's first talkie works as a companion piece to his classic BIRTH OF A NATION, providing a detailed biographical sketch of the 16th president. We see his birth in a log cabin, the tragic death of his first love, Ann Rutledge (Una Merkel), his debates with Douglas, his accepting of the presidency, the terrible toll of the Civil War, and finally the tragic assassination at Ford's Theater. Griffith shows his usual meticulous attention to period detail, and the framing of the various vignettes has the feel of historical photographs come to life. Walter Huston is excellent in the title role, with a portrayal that subtly evolves from laconic, wizened rascal to noble elder statesman. This is a fascinating, worthy film, and an interesting historical document in and of itself.