Sundance. Red Road.

"This neo-noir thriller has been bouncing around the filmfest world since premiering last May at Cannes, and should finally reach US theaters this spring," writes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir, and it's "dynamite, the kind of sexy, paranoid, creepily atmospheric picture that invades all your senses at once.... Red Road is economically crafted and full of startling moments. [Andrea] Arnold's evocation of the ruined, post-1984 surveillance culture of inner-city Britain is nothing short of terrifying."

"This story has been done before, and not just by the far more audacious Morvern Callar, which Red Road conjures through its bleak Glaswegian streets and dour central performance from Kate Dickie," writes a less enthusiastic Annie Frisbee at Zoom In Online. "It hits all the story marks that have come to characterize screenplays that get processed through the Sundance Institute, where Red Road was developed.... [Dickie's] choices as an actress elevate this shopworn material into a heartbreaking, moving film."

Update, 1/29: Eric Kohn: "Hitchcock would've loved this stuff, although I doubt he would've treated a feminine star with such honesty and care."

Posted by dwhudson at January 23, 2007 2:47 PM