Ray Pride

(El Orfanato, 2007) Juan Antonio Bayona's "The Orphanage," debuting on the same date as "presenter" Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" opened last year, is yet one more example of the thriving Spanish film industry, which still finds room for latter-day cosmopolitan melodramas after the style of Almodovar while encouraging other talents with a fondness for the otherworldly. I saw this spooky variation on "Peter Pan" as part of a survey of Spanish films of the past five years at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and it was a standout there as well as in a U.S. context for many of the same reasons "Pan's Labyrinth" was: Bayona's soup of influences works up a weave of otherworldliness that unsettles for all its tasteful shoplifting among cinematic forebears. 100m.

"The Orphanage" opens Friday.

(2007-12-26)

Also by Ray Pride

Holiday Movie Preview
Dour and dismal and downbeat and dark are a few of my favorite things… but this holiday season's movies are ridiculously melancholy, not only the ones released during Christmas week, but the holdovers that still have drawing power
(2007-12-18)

Savage Grace
Note-perfect, Tamara Jenkins' "The Savages" puts all too much American moviemaking to shame. I've written about her second feature a lot since its Sundance debut in January, but it's solid: life is undeniably funny, even in its most uncomfortable moments, and Jenkins' screenplay and direction offer a stellar showcase for the substantial Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney and Philip Bosco
(2007-12-18)

Tip of the Week
One of the best and certainly most beautifully made films of the year, Julian Schnabel's third feature, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is the arrival of a true, full-on filmmaker
(2007-12-18)

$128 Million Later
"I Am Legend" is not a melodrama of murder or genocide but of lusty, proud, arrogant self-annihilation—the end, my friend
(2007-12-11)

Tip of the Week
(2007-12-11)

Stiff Upper Brit
(2007-12-04)

Tip of the Week
(2007-12-04)

Everything is Wide-Eyed
(2007-11-27)

Tip of the Week
(2007-11-27)

Blurred
(2007-11-19)

Tip of the Week
(2007-11-19)

All Yesterday's Costume Parties
(2007-11-13)

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