New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.

Follow Me

• Dark Shadows ***
• Darling Companion **1/2
• God Bless America ***
• Marvel's The Avengers ***1/2
• ReGeneration ***
• Sound of My Voice ***
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits ***1/2
• The Raven ***
• Safe **1/2
• The Lucky One 1/2*
• 4:44 Last Day on Earth **1/2
• Blue Like Jazz **
• The Cabin in the Woods ***1/2
• Damsels in Distress ***1/2
• Lockout **1/2
• The Three Stooges ***
• The Turin Horse ****
• We Have a Pope **1/2
• American Reunion **
• Goon ***
• More

• Bird of Paradise
• Maniac Cop
• Miss Representation
• Mother's Day (2012)
• Murder Obsession
• Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
• Underworld Awakening
• The Vow
• Clueless
• Haywire
• Hit!
• Men in Black
• New Year's Eve
• The Red House
• More

• Peter Lord
• Abel Ferrara
• Nicholas Sparks
• Whit Stillman
• Sean Hayes
• Terence Davies
• Peter Lord Interview
• Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
• Taika Waititi
• Will Ferrell
• Interview: Ewan McGregor [SF Examiner]
• Interview: the 'Project X' stars [SF Examiner]
• Interview: Oren Moverman
• Interview: Rachel McAdams
• Interview: Ti West
• Interview: Elizabeth Banks
• 2011: The Year's Best Films
• Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards
• The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009
• My Top 100 Films [Updated]
• My Top 60 Directors [Updated]
• Christmas Movies
• Essential Halloween & Horror Movies
• Cult Movies
• More Features and Interviews

• Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, by Alonso Duralde
• Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
• James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee
• Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
• More Books

• Home
• Reviews A-C
• Reviews D-F
• Reviews G-J
• Reviews K-M
• Reviews N-Q
• Reviews R-T
• Reviews U-Z

The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

SEARCH MOVIES / CELEB

Linger (2008)

Rating: 3 Stars (out of 4)

A Report from SFIFF

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Posters at Moviegoods.com

SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: Generally Hong Kong filmmakers and audiences have an extremely high tolerance level for sentimentality; it takes an enormous amount before their sap detectors begin going off. The same goes for action director and one-man HK film industry Johnny To (Exiled), but his vast experience and finely honed skills help the ghost story/romance Linger occasionally step over the puddles of goop. Li Bingbing (also in The Forbidden Kingdom) stars as a student who loses her new boyfriend (Vic Zhou) in a car accident. Three years later, working as a law clerk, she goes off her meds and begins seeing his ghost (as well as other spectral phenomena). The film stretches with a subplot about a reckless juvenile delinquent who becomes interested in her past. But To uses strikingly clear and vivid compositions full of nature, architecture and light to help his film breathe, and it moves by in a harmless 89 minutes.

Starring: Roy Cheung, Li Bingbing, Dave Taylor, Vic Zhou
Written by: Ivy Ho
Directed by: Johnnie To
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Language: Cantonese, Mandarin, English with English subtitles
Running Time: 89 minutes
Date: May 3, 2008