Email Author Dennis Lim

2005 Stories by Dennis Lim

• Fortress of Solitude

  published July 19, 2005

  In the parallel worlds of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, the magic happens between the lines. His spartan lyricism, rendered in deceptively... More >>

• End of the Road

  published July 12, 2005

  Last Days, the brilliant concluding chapter in the death trilogy that inspired Gus Van Sant's artistic rebirth, wafts through the final 48... More >>

• Film

  published July 12, 2005

  To mark the release of Last Days, MOMA is screening Gus Van Sant's good-looking-corpse trilogy in its entirety. Shot in a semi-improvised ... More >>

• DimClone

  published July 12, 2005

  Anyone who has ever endured the brute skull crunch of a Michael Bay movie will find that The Island, the director's stab at icy, dystopian... More >>

• Lonely Planet

  published June 21, 2005

  After three unsanctioned productions steeped in regional detail—each one a masterpiece—Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke goes at once... More >>

• To Halve and to Hold

  published June 21, 2005

  World cinema's premier maker of mysterious objects, Apichatpong Weerasethakul is on a one-man mission to change the way we watch movies. Rich and... More >>

• Brighter Summer Days

  published June 7, 2005

  To judge by the box office stats and the grousing critics, not to mention the received wisdom that summer movies are only good for... More >>

• Exploitation as Family Therapy in Meta−Road Movie

  published June 7, 2005

  Many a struggling indie filmmaker has turned to his family for help. But writer-director Andrew Wagner, embarking on his first feature after a... More >>

• Film

  published May 31, 2005

  New Thai cinema? So 2002. As fest globe-trotters know, the Southeast Asian hot spot of the moment is Malaysia, home to a small, close-knit group... More >>

• 'Asian City Films'

  published May 31, 2005

  Asian cities, it is often noted by urban planners and science fiction writers alike, are the metropolises of the future. They are also, as... More >>

• 'Wild Side'

  published May 31, 2005

  The ménage à trois drama Wild Side takes its name from Lou Reed's affectionate sleaze anthem and does indeed feature a... More >>

• An Affair to Dismember

  published May 31, 2005

  Just in time for wedding season, the beleaguered institution of matrimony takes a few more hits. A pair of two-handers this week file bruising... More >>

• Reversal of Fortunes: Ozon's Marriage Drama, Back to Front

  published May 31, 2005

  At first glance, Fran Ozon's 5x2 seems the most conventional—or at least unoriginal—movie this maturing French enfant terrible... More >>

• 'Rock School'

  published May 24, 2005

  The short-fused motormouth who runs the Paul Green School of Rock Music, an after-school program for nine-to-17-year-olds in Philadelphia, has... More >>

• Coyne of the Realm: Genial Singer Hosts Doting Rock Doc

  published May 17, 2005

  The Fearless Freaks: The Wondrously Improbable Story of the Flaming Lips is an all-access fan's valentine as artfully scrappy and likably... More >>

• An Enigmatic Trek Through England's Industial Gray Zones

  published May 17, 2005

  Never released and barely known in the U.S., Patrick Keiller's wondrously idiosyncratic Robinson in Space (1997) is a psychogeographic... More >>

• Sorry, Wrong Number: Clever Thai Pulp Woozy With Whimsy

  published May 10, 2005

  A black-comic thriller from Thailand's most inventive commercial filmmaker, Pen-ek Ratanaruang's 6ixtynin9 (1999) enlivens some dingy genre... More >>

• Welles, Lacan and Borges Unite in Poker-Faced 1997 Meta-Mystery

  published May 10, 2005

  One of Raul Ruiz's more penetrable Chinese boxes, this poker-faced 1997 meta-mystery—as much shaggy-dog story as intellectual prank—is... More >>

• JGL/JGL: E.T.s to BJs

  published May 3, 2005

  Growing up on a hit TV show is presumably not quite like turning tricks in a dead-end Kansas town, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt empathizes with the... More >>

• King's Gambit

  published May 3, 2005

  Arnaud Desplechin's Kings and Queen is a thrilling, exhausting tragicomedy that crams almost every known emotion into its... More >>

• The Lost Boys

  published April 26, 2005

  In Todd Solondz's current Palindromes, the heroine claims to believe in the innocence of an accused child molester because, as she... More >>

• Bitter Absurdity-of-War Fiction Set in the Shadow of the Great Wall

  published April 26, 2005

  A bitter absurdity-of-war fiction—the sort Heller and Vonnegut crystallized in the '60s and Balkan filmmakers later turned into a cottage... More >>

• Foster Wallace Rewrites Mamet in Nerdy, Ingenious Time-Warp Fantasy

  published April 26, 2005

  Deadpan satire and heartening embodiment of DIY enterprise, Shane Carruth's repeat-viewing brain twister unites physics and metaphysics in an... More >>

• The Graduates

  published April 19, 2005

  Most of the ha-ha's in Funny Ha Ha are not exactly funny: Andrew Bujalski's debut feature is foremost a squirming comedy of recognition.... More >>

• Quaint Neo-Surrealism Buoys a Remarkable First Feature

  published April 12, 2005

  One of the best French films of recent years goes direct to DVD. Alain Guiraudie's No Rest for the Brave is a deadpan, volatile... More >>