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

Umbrella (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: This documentary, from the Sixth Generation director Du Haibin, plays without a single talking head, and only a handful of intertitles to remind us where we are and what's going on. The film uses the umbrella as a metaphor for the China of today, and its burgeoning, but quickly-shifting economy. Its five segments begin in a factory full of young people hoping to make a quick buck putting umbrellas together. The film swings over to merchants selling umbrellas, then job hunters attending a job fair. The fourth segment focuses on the military as an option for young people. And the fifth looks at the farmers who suffer the most. For the first time in generations, young people deserted their family farms to seek their fortune in the city, and city economics began to intrude on farm life, running many farmers out of business. Du Haibin shows all this without a single word. He just stands back and photographs. He goes for a Frederick Wiseman-like fly-on-the-wall approach that's still enormously effective, if slightly devious (no film is this objective). The overall result is fascinating, if brutally depressing. It paints a decidedly different picture than the Chinese government would want you to believe.

Starring: n/a
Written by: n/a
Directed by: Du Haibin
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Language: Mandarin, Cantonese, with English subtitles
Running Time: 93 minutes
Date: April 30, 2008