The Day of Indy Mania. Which we all know is review-proof. But let’s not forget Gomorra, Serbis, Ashes of Time Redux, La Vie Moderne, Afterschool, Eldorado and whatever else I remember later.

In Competition:

“Serbis” by Brillante Mendoza

Howard Feinstein, “With Serbis (Service), his first feature with foreign (French) backing, he has taken a giant step in the wrong direction, even if The Masseur’s numbing stasis has been supplanted by an unpleasant, ADD-like dynamism.”

Maggie Lee, “Director Brillante Mendoza continues the neo-realist vein of Foster Child and Sling Shot in Serbis, but displays marked improvement - both the grunge aesthetic and film language now bear his personal handwriting. To this, he adds some bristling sexuality, both gay and straight.”

She also let’s us know what the film is about, “Taking place mostly in a porno theater ironically, yet fittingly, named Family, Serbis is part homage to cinema, part intimate domestic drama that vividly details the tangled relations and all-too human frailties of an extended family running a theater in the provincial Philippines.”

Jay Weissberg, “Explicit fellatio, blocked toilets and a crudely exploded ass-cheek boil form some of the more unsavory elements of “Service,” Brillante Mendoza’s latest opus that revels in shock value,…Moving into pseudo-Tsai Ming-liang territory is unlikely to win the prolific helmer further converts.”

“Gomorra” by Matteo Garone

Natasha Senjanovic, “The characters of the film’s five stories all work for the Camorra - the Neapolitan ‘mafia’ behind over 4,000 murders in 30 years in Italy, and countless illegal activities - and besides being extremely dangerous are relentless, petty and anything but wise.”

Jay Weissberg, “Utilizing a mesmerizing documentary style that studiously avoids glamorizing the horrors, Garrone cherrypicks episodes from Saviano’s muckraking tract, building to a chillingly matter-of-fact crescendo of violence, though interwoven tales tend to dissipate the full force of the criminal Camorra families’ insidious control,”

Lee Marshall, “Probably the most authentic and unsentimental mafia movie ever to come out of Italy, Gomorrah is a courageous, bruising and harrrowing ride,”

Out of Competition:

“Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” by Steven Spielberg

Glenn Kenny, “”I mean the thing kind of is that, but the fourth Indy installment isn’t really an attempt to retroactively create a Spielberg omniverse. But David Koepp’s script, from a story by George Lucas and Jeff Nathanson and Hergé and Edgar Rice Burroughs and Erich von Däniken and Carl Stephenson and… well, you get the idea… does tie together a good number of Spielbergian themes into an eventually pretty nifty package. Yeah - this is, by my sights, the most fun and least irritating installment of the series since the first one.”

Allan Huner, “The world can rest easy - the old magic still works in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull…It may take some breathless, helter-skelter action to redeem the opening hour’s clunky storytelling, but the first Indy adventure in almost twenty years is like a fond reunion with an old friend and will not disappoint diehard fans or deter a new generation from embracing it as a summer blockbuster adventure ride.”

Kirk Honeycutt, “Director Steven Spielberg seems intent on celebrating his entire early career here. Whatever the story there is, a vague journey to return a spectacular archeological find to its rightful home - an unusual goal of the old grave-robber, you must admit - gets swamped in a sea of stunts and CGI that are relentless as the scenes and character relationships are charmless.”

Todd McCarthy, “One of the most eagerly and long-awaited series follow-ups in screen history delivers the goods — not those of the still first-rate original, 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” but those of its uneven two successors.” {his review will be posted shortly}.

Un Certain Regard:

“Afterschool” by Antonio Campos

Howard Feinstein, “A handsome, widescreen cinematic essay on modes of perception amongst those raised in the TV-internet age, Afterschool marks out 24-year-old Antonio Campos as a filmmaker to watch,”

Justin Chang, “unsettles without illuminating, marred by narcotic pacing and a blank lead performance.”

Deborah Young, “To work through his angst, he makes a film about them. Somewhere between Gus Van Sant’s Elephant and French artiness, this is a sophisticated stylistic exercise too rarefied for wide audiences, but earmarked for critical kudos.” 

Special Screenings:

“Ashes of Time Redux” by Wong Kar Wai

Ty Burr, “The original 1994 Ashes, which I haven’t seen (it’s available in a poorly done DVD version) apparently didn’t make much sense, and it certainly doesn’t now, but, lord, is it a vision to behold - a wuxia film turned into an abstract expressionist action painting,”

Lee Marshall, “The first surprise about Wong Kar-wai’s revamped, re-edited and rescored version of his 1994 cult wuxia classic Ashes of Time is just how little has been changed,…The second is how much these minor tweaks still have helped clarify the Hong Kong auteur’s interpretation of Louis Cha’s historical fantasy novel The Eagle-Shooting Hero, confirming that his most poetic, experimental film belongs not in the curiosity cabinet but on the big screen.”

Peter Brunette, “One wonders what fecundity of imagination - or perversity of artistic willfulness - it took to shoot a costume epic that is made up almost entirely of dark rooms, close-ups and tightly constricted long shots… Wong’s obsessive themes of memory, the irretrievability of the past and the impossibility of love, trump those of the traditional wuxia film, which tend to deal more with honor and the indomitability of the spirit.”

“La Vie Moderne” by Raymond Depardon

AO Scott, “Modern Life is the name of a lovely new documentary by the French director Raymond Depardon, and the title, like the film itself, carries a gentle but unmistakable irony.”

Ray Bennett, “It’s a love-letter, really, made up of virtual still-life portraits of the grizzled and taciturn men and women who cling to their harsh profession,”

Leslie Felperin, “Although some are happier and better off than others, the message that times are tough for agronomists gets a little repetitive after a while. At least moments of warmth and humor jolly things up occasionally, such as one little boy refusing to be put off his ambition to be just like his daddy when he grows up, or Cecile tottering over the rocks in her high heels on her wedding day.”

Milos Stehlik, “The film is full of dignity and empathy for its characters, connected to the land and the seasons and to the animals they keep,”

Directors’ Fortnight:

“Eldorado” by Bouli Lanners

Leslie Felperin, “small but damn-near perfectly formed serio-comedy, …strikes a just-so balance between absurdist humor and sadness. Yet pic never puts a wrong foot forward in the direction of sentimentality or cliche.”

Wendy Ide, “Screening in the Director’s Fortnight sidebar, it’s a far cry from the dour, grey perception of Belgian cinema fostered by the work of people like the Dardenne brothers…. The landscapes and soundtrack choices evoke American road movies of a bygone era; the sensibility is definitely European.”

Ray Bennett, “A couple of genial idiots in a beat-up Chevy hit the Belgian blacktops in Bouli Lanners’s funny and melancholy road picture Eldorado with widescreen images that suggest the American West and a soundtrack to match,”