Ben Wheatley

High-Rise (Ben Wheatley, UK)

By Tom Charity “Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr. Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months.” That, friends, is an opening sentence: J.G. Ballard at his best. And damn if Ben Wheatley doesn’t find just the…
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TIFF 2013 | A Field in England (Ben Wheatley, UK)—Wavelengths

By Tom Charity “Open up and let the devil in!” With four movies in four years, Ben Wheatley seems set on giving Michael Winterbottom a run for his money as the most prolific filmmaker in Britain, and the devil take the hindmost. Unlike the versatile and self-effacing Winterbottom, however, Wheatley immediately stamped a distinctive authorial signature…
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TIFF Preview -1: Blackbird | Born to Hate… Destined to Love | Dead Europe | Fill the Void | Janeane from Des Moines | Laurence Anyways | Lines of Wellington | La Sirga | Sightseers | Thérèse Desqueyroux

 Blackbird (Jason Buxton, Canada)—Discovery By Kiva Reardon The first film from Canadian director Jason Buxton is not without flaws, but it is these very problems which make it all the richer and beguiling, as it’s difficult to tell whether they are inadvertent or exacting and calculated. Set in the fictional rural town of Eastport—a perfect…
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Hammer Horror: Ben Wheatley’s Kill List

By Adam Nayman MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD The claw hammer that makes mulch of an amateur pornographer’s skull in the midpoint money shot of Kill List is a blunt instrument wielded with purpose. It’s the perfect avatar for Ben Wheatley’s style in his astonishing second feature. Working with cinematographer Laurie Rose and editor Robin Smith, both…
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TIFF Countdown -2: Martha Marcy May Marlene / Afghan Luke / ALPS / The Artist / Beauty / Fable of the Fish / First Position / The Ides of March / Kill List / Le Havre / The Loneliest Planet / Page Eight / Pina / Play / A Separation / Sons of Norway / The Student / Tyrannosaur

Cinema Scope 48 Preview: Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin, US)—Special Presentations By Andrew Tracy If “indie-ness” conveys a certain generic intimation unto itself, some of the most celebrated recent independent films have also strategically adopted broader generic tactics, usually related to violence. As sensation, whether shockingly enacted or tautly withheld, has started to become…
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