Theater. Beatrix Potter, Renee Zellweger plays the author of Peter Rabbit stories in this par-animated, part live-action film from the director Chris Noonan, who made the original Babe in 1995. With Ewan Mc Gregor and Emily Watson. Zellweger is a 2007 Golden Globe nominee as Best Actress for this performance. I loved it. I was brought close to silent tears. The euphemism for “trades people” was really about the Jews. She fell in love with a Jew that was unacceptable to her family but they did not want the Jewish issues to dominate the film. I could understand this. It stayed focus to time period, dialogue, character and simplicity.
Freedom Writers
Theater. Starring Hillary Swank as a teacher from Newport Beach, who takes on a wild and brutal class of under educated and under achievers, and who achieves fame by educating these kids. The kids are Cambodian, black, Latino, with one scared white. Her pearls become a metaphor of what you think will happen to them, does not. It is a movie of personal growth and determination and was well rounded in how it depicted the jaded teachers who no longer care because of a system that has broken down. A wonderful, stirring and moving film that uses the Diary of Anne Frank and the Holocaust to break though to these kids.
Pan’s Labyrinth
Theater. “Writer-director Guillermo del Toro is the most accomplished fantasist in contemporary cinema, a master creator of images, atmosphere and mood who uses his visionary’s gifts to do what others cannot: make imaginary worlds seem more real than reality itself. With this film, del Toro has made his most accomplished film to date, a work set in two parallel worlds, the cold, brutal one of Spain in 1944 and an equally disturbing alternative universe that a serious 10-year-old girl named Ofelia stumbles upon behind an old mill. This dark and disturbing fairy-tale for adults had been thought out to the nth degree and resonates with the irresistible inevitability of a timeless myth. With Mirabel Vedu, Sergi Lopez, Ivana Baquero and Doug Jones. In Spanish with English subtitles.” Kenneth Turan. Los Angeles Times. I thought this was a masterpiece and was silently crying throughout the entire film. I felt as if I was in shock when I left the theater. It has all the horror and terror of fairy-tales, without the happy ending. It was devastating and emotionally raw and felt so true. A Masterpiece.
Notes on a Scandal
Theater. Starring Judy Dench and Cate Blanchett, the movie is about two women, one who has an affair with a 15-year-old student and the other who is an old Lesbian who weaves a deadly trick to get the teacher (Cate) as a lover. But it all backfires and becomes a permanent tragedy.
Little Children
Theater. Starring Kate Wislet the movie became a tedious in-love-with-it-self movie that wanted to take itself seriously. Contrived story of a neighbor where two neighbors fall into an affair, where neither one works, have empty and meaningless marriages, with a sex predator in the neighborhood.
The Painted Hills
TV. 1951 Classic. The story of Lassie and how he saves the man he loves, the boy he cares for and how he prevents the murderer from escaping with his gold. The Indians were portrayed as stereotype and in funny costumes speaking their own language.
The World’s Fastest Indian
On Plane. Starring Anthony Hopkins, this movie was a touching and moving story of a lone figure who journey’s across the world to participate in a race, simply because it is a dream he has always had and wants to accomplish before he dies.
What A Girl Wants
TV. Starring Colin Firth, the simple, silly movie is about an American 17 year old girl who goes to seek out her father who is running for political office. He decides to forgo duty and return to his daughter and his girlfriend whom he always loved and wished to marry.
The House of Sand
DVD. . Filmed entirely on the magnificent, sandy coast of northern Brazil, Aureas saga begins in 1910, in Maranhao, where her fanatical husband has relocated his family to start a farm. Desperate and pregnant, Aurea longs to return to the city, but cannot traverse the dunes with her aging mother, Maria in tow. When calamity strikes, the two women find themselves stranded. Eventually, they settle among the shifting sands and Aurea finds peace. But her passionate daughter, Maria, longs to explore the world beyond the dunes. This profound portrait of passing generations has established Andrucha Waddington as one of the most exciting directors in Brazil today.
The Departed
DVD. Rookie cop Billy Costigan grew up in crime. That makes him the perfect mole, the man on the inside of the mob run by boss Frank Costello. It is his job to win Costello’s trust and help his detective handlers bring Costello down. Meanwhile, SIU officer Colin Sullivan has everyone’s trust. No one suspects he’s Costello’s mole. How these coverts lives cross double-cross and collide is at the ferocious core of the widely acclaimed The Departed. Martin Scorsese directs, guiding a cast for the ages in a visceral tale of crime and consequences. This is searing, can’t-look-away filmmaking, like staring into the eyes of a con-or a cop-with a gun.
half nelson
DVD. Ryan Gosling stars as Dan Dunne, a young teacher whose edgy yet brilliant approach to history inspires his inner-city students to think for themselves. But outside the classroom, Dan’s life is spiraling out of control. Wrestling with inner demons and nursing a serious drug habit, Dan finally hits rock bottom-witnessed by one of his troubled students Drey. With an unlikely friendship built on a shared secret, Dan tries to steer her away from a small-time drug dealer. But no matter which way they turn to survive, their lives will change forever.
God Grew Tired of Us
Theater. This film, which one the Grand Jury Prize at last year’s Sundance festival, follows Sudanese “Lost Boys” who, after anguishing in a Kenyan refugee camp for a decade, were selected to relocate to the United States. As survivors of one of the most bizarre Diasporas in history, with its overtones of Herod and Peter Pan, and having lost contact with their own families, the film’s three main Lost Boys go on to a new life far away from their peers. In the impossibly exotic, entirely unfathomable lands of Pittsburgh and Syracuse, N.Y. Christopher Quinn …(has discovered) a fish-out-of-water view of American life at the beginner level in a larger story about dislocation and community. I found the movie with a political agenda that irritated me. I also found it extraordinary what America does to help relocate refugees.
Flags of Our Fathers
DVD. Clint Eastwood, Director. .”On the front-line, there is no time for fear. For 70,000 marines who fought with bombs blasting and guns blazing, the bloody battle for Iwo Jima was more than the turning point of WWII; it was the defining moment in their lives. In the epic that The New York Times calls “a sweeping spectacle” Eastwood taps into the single greatest emotional truth of warfare: soldiers may fight for their country, but they die for their friends. I found the movie disjointed, hard to follow, I did not care for any of the characters, and I do not agree with his premise. Jo Greenberg took the famous photograph, which this movie was based on. And what happens to the soldiers was true, especially to the Indian.
Amazing Grace
Theater. This story of idealism, ideologists and speaking truth to power understands there is something moving and dramatic about a man who stands up for what is right and makes a difference in this life. The man is William Wilberforce who for decades was Parliament’s prime mover in the battle to abolish the slave trade in Britain.
Sherrybaby
Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a truly stunning performance as Sherry, a young woman with a history of drug abuse and emotional turmoil. Just out of prison, she finds herself struggling against all odds to reconnect with her estranged five-year-old daughter while trying to readjust to the outside world. Sherrybaby is an authentic and honest experience so intense and compelling it cannot be missed.
Avenue Montaigne
Theater. Nominated for five Oscars in France, it is a warm farce that the French have been making for what seems like forever. A simple Parisian girl lands a job at an exclusive café on Paris’s main blvd. There she encounters TV stars, movie directors, art collectors and musicians whose lives are all affected by her interference. There is a sweetness and lightness that feels dated and worn. I kept wondering where are all the 5 million Arabs in this French Universe.
The Lives of Others
Theater. German. Winner of Best Foreign Film. A phenomenal film of suspense and terror and fear and truth. It is a searing commentary of what it is to live under a totalitarian regime.
Who could survive living like this? I found it harrowing and devastating and powerful.
Details: When was the turning point of Gustav? The KGB man? He registered disgust at his Superior for the taunting of the young kid. He saw that it was for his ego and nor for his country or the ideals of communism. He saw the phoniness, that it was all for his promotion and his ego. The kid in the elevator. He saw that it would destroy his father, this child and his family. Bracht. He read his poetry and verse and saw, that even though it was banned, he began to question the system, as it was beautiful and literary and poetic writing. And describing only a cloud in the sky on a warm beautiful day. Why should this be a threat to the system? What were the officials so afraid? And then it was when he hears Beethoven’s Sonata “Sonata of a Good Man” and it made him cry with the voice through his ears of how can anyone who hears this not be elevated by his music. Moment of Decision.
Sweet Mud
Theater. Israeli Film Festival. Director: Dror Shaul. Israel’s entry to the 2007 Oscars, this lush coming-of-age tale spotlights a 12-year-old boy caught between an emotionally unstable mother and the rigid equality values of their 1970’s kibbutz. As the mother’s progressive insanity forces her son into a terrible life-altering decision, Sweet Mud will challenge and move you like few other films. Winner of Four Israeli Academy Awards including Best Picture and Grand Jury Prize. 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
Babel
DVD. Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez. Winner of Cannes Best Director. A tragic accident in Morocco sets off a chain of events that will link four groups of people, who, divided by cultural differences and vast distances, will discover a shared destiny that ultimately connects them.
Brad Pit. Cate Blanchett. It reminded me of “Crash.”
A Good Year
DVD. Russell Crowe stars in this romantic comedy of an Englishman who finds his soul when he loses his heart to a French beauty. Crowe stars as ruthless businessman Max Skinner, a man who sole raison d’etre is the acquisition of wealth at the expense of the other guy. But when he inherits a vineyard in the south of France, hard-driving, fast-talking, Skinner begins to slow down and embrace the simple and the most precious pleasures of life.
The Holiday
DVD. In Nancy Meyers romantic comedy, two women trade homes only to find that a change of address can change their lives. Iris (Kate Winslet) is in love with a man who is about to marry another woman. Across the globe, Amanda (Cameron Diaz) realizes the man she lives with has been unfaithful. Two women, who have never met and live 6000 miles apart, find themselves in the exact same place. They meet online at a home exchange website and impulsively switch homes for the holiday. Iris moves into Amanda’s house in sunny California as Amanda arrives in the snow covered English countryside. Shortly after arriving at their destinations, both women find the last thing either wants or expects: a new romance. Amanda is charmed by Iris’ handsome brother Graham (Jude Law) and Iris, with inspiration provided by legendary screenwriter, Eli Wallack (Arthur) mends her heart when she meets film composer Miles.
It was a wonderful romantic comedy with terrific dialogue and real life conversation. It left you happy and satisfied and warm inside.
Marie Antoinette
DVD. Directed by Sofia Coppola this movie is an intimate re-telling of the turbulent life of history’s favorite villains. Kirsten Dunst portrays the ill-fated child princess who marries France’s young and indifferent King Louis XV1. Feeling isolated in a royal court rife with scandal and intrigue, Marie defied both royalty and commoner by living like a rock star, which served only to seal her fate. It is magnificently photographed and realistic in the portrayal of a life of excess and indulgence and what life was like in the court.
The Namesake
Theater. A slow moving film. It is about an Indian family that leaves India and moves to America. The eldest son carries the name of Googol, which makes him deal with his parents, their lives, his life and his future. Too long and the transitions were weak and it dragged on endlessly.
Close To Home
Theater. A slow moving, yet sad film of two young Israeli soldiers who policed Ben Yehuda in Jerusalem for their army duty. It is about the daily grind and misbehavior and not taking the orders seriously and adjusting to army life. It was only an hour and half but felt like hours.
Aviva My Love
Theater. The most successful Israeli film of the year, this film is the touching story of a hard-working mother with a secret writing talent. When a famous novelist takes her under his wing, Aviva learns about pursuing one’s dream in the face of brutal ambition and family obligation. Winner of six Israeli Academy (Ophir) Awards, including Best Film, Director, Actress and Script. I felt guilty having the life style I had when I saw how poor they lived. Gita wept.
Mortgage
Theater. A modern-day twist on the “Gift of the Magi”, Mortgage skillfully combines sly humor and sensitive character portrayal in examining just how far a poor, young couple will go in order to save their house from confiscation. Winner of the Drama Award for Direction at the 2006 Jerusalem Film Festival. The husband chopped off his fingers in order to save his house, family and open a new kiosk. Sick.
Pesya”s Necklace
Theater. On her 80th birthday, Pesya Goldfarb returns to her native Poland in the hope of finding the golden necklace she and her sister hid before they were taken to Auschwitz. Traveling with her on the emotional journey is her granddaughter, and together they confront the years of shame and secrets that Pesya has struggled to keep inside. It had a student like feel to it, but it was not. Pesya was the sister’s name that she stole right before she was to enter the shower. She heard the name of her sister called first before her sister did and she ran. She assumed her identity and therefore lived. When she saw that the hidden necklace was from their parents engraved to Pesya, she realized that Pesya was even her parent’s favorite child.
Black Book
Theater. Phenomenal film. It is about our heroine, a young Rachel Stein, who looks like a young Vivian Leigh, who, when the film opens, she is in Israel, 1956. The movie is then a flashback to 1944 Dutch Occupied Germany. Now Elsie, who works for the Resistance after she has seen her family mowed down in front of her very eyes, becomes a spy to the Head of the Gestapo. The double crossing, the betrayals, the moral ambiguity and evil ambiguity, the line, “you cannot trust anyone” runs through the film like glue. This will be a film that everyone is talking about.
Wondrous Oblivion
DVD. Eleven-year old David Wiseman lives with the singular dream of being a cricket star, but much to the dismay and ridicule of his classmates, he is all passion and no skill. The son of a traditional Jewish family living in the racial and cultural turbulence of the 1960s South London, David and his world are shaken by the unexpected arrival of the Samuels, a lively and big-hearted Jamaican family. When Dennis Samuels erects a cricket net in his backyard, David is ecstatic. However, all in his racially charged community does not share David’s enthusiasm and the Wiseman’s find them forced to choose between aligning with the prejudices of the neighborhood and sticking by their newfound friends. I found it heart warming and I loved David Wiseman, the boy who played him. He was so sweet.
The Pursuit of Happyness
DVD. Will Smith stars with his son in the inspirational true story of Chris Gardner, a San Francisco salesman who’s struggling to make ends meet. When his girlfriend Linda walks out, Chris is left to raise their 5-year-old son. On his own, Chris’s determination finally pays off when he lands an unpaid internship in a brutally competitive stockbroker-training program, where only one in twenty interns will make the cut. But without a salary, Chris and his son are evicted from the apartment and are forced to sleep on the streets, in homeless shelters and even behind the locked doors of a metro station bathroom. With self-confidence and the love and trust of his son, Chris Gardner rises above his obstacles to become a Wall Street legend. I loved this film and found it true and powerful and it moved me to tears. He should have won the Academy Award.
Waitress
Theater. A wonderful bittersweet Sundance Film Festival Award winning movie. Starring Terri Russell who plays a tart, modern beaten down in spirit, money and life, waitress, who makes pies with funny names on them to represent how she feels. It is slow moving and easy and simply wonderful. Rachel and I loved it. And, her husband is a creep.
Election
DVD. Reese Witherspoon plays Tracy Flick, a straight-A go=getter determined to be president of Carver High’s student body. Popular teacher Jim McAllister (Broderick) decides to derail Tracy’s obsessive overachieving by recruiting an opposition candidate. Mr. M. never imagines that stopping Tracy will pay a heavy price. He loathes her and he is careless; his actions have grave personal consequences. Tracy meanwhile, gets exactly what she wants.
Blood Diamond
DVD. An ex-mercenary turned smuggled, Leonardo DiCaprio. A Mende fisherman Djimo Hounsou. Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman’s son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed across the alternately beautiful and ravaged countryside. This urgent and intense moving adventure shapes gripping human stories and heart-pounding action into a modern epic of profound impact. I love Leo. He should have won the Academy Award for this performance.
Carols’ Journey
DVD. Winner o the Berlin Film Festival. Carol, a 12-year-old Spanish-American girl from NY, travels with her mother to Spain in the sprig of 1938, at the height of the Civil War. Separated from her beloved father, Carol arrives in their mother’s home village and transforms the secretive family environment. Her innocence and rebellious nature drive her at first to reject a world that is at once new and foreign. But she soon journeys into adulthood through a friendship with Maruja, the village teacher, and a young local boy, Tomiche. He takes the bullet for her father and dies. A moving and poignant film.
flannel pajamas
DVD. A mismatched couple meet on a blind date in Manhattan … as Stuart and Nicole progress from love to marriage to discussions about starting a family, their relationship faces the challenges of critical friends, emotionally-demanding relatives, time-consuming careers, different religions and the stresses caused by the endless negotiations all couples wage daily.
I found her withholding and manipulative. I actually gained sympathy for him after he paid off her $15,000. loans, was so generous and giving to her and she seemed to expect it. Her anti-Jewish mother constantly undermined the marriage. An indie film.
Catch & Release
DVD. After the death of her finance, Gray moves in with her late love’s best friends. While Sam and Dennis do their best to cheer Gray up, Fritz doesn’t seem to care. Once Gray breaks through Fritz’s defenses, however, she finally sees why her fiancé thought so highly of him. As they spend more time together, Gray learns that her chances for love have not died out with her fiancé. But when some surprise guests show up on their doorstep, it’ll take the love of all her new friends to help Gray learn that life may be messy, but love is messier.
Golden Door
Theater. Martin Scorsese autobiographical film of his ancestor’s leave of Sicily, Italy. It is a gorgeously photographed immigrant story experience from decision to ship to passing through Ellis Island. I found it amusing how particular immigrant officers were and how easy it is to get into today. The moment where they left the island to go to America, where the ship parted from the shore with the sea in-between and the unknown future ahead was one of the most powerful scenic moments I have ever seen. “This classic tale of coming to America is turned into a wondrous and magical experience in writer/director Emanuel Crialese's (Respiro) romantic fable. Driven by fantastic dreams and confronted with shocking realities, one man makes an epic odyssey in search of a brand new world. On a perilous steamship journey from his Sicilian village, the widower Salvatore Mancuso (Vincenzo Amato) encounters the ravishing, mystery-shrouded Englishwoman Lucy (Charlotte Gainsbourg, The Science of Sleep)—as the Old World literally collides into the New with seductive results. Amid a harrowing crossing, an unexpected love story unfolds all the way to the halls of Ellis Island, where both Salvatore and Lucy will stop at nothing to make it through the Golden Door to the America of their imaginations.”
Away From Her
Theater. Married for almost 50 years, Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and Fiona (Julie Christie) share a life of tenderness and humor, along with an unwavering commitment to each other. Their serene life is broken by Fiona's increasingly evident memory loss, creating a tension they usually brush off. But when it is no longer possible for either of them to ignore the fact that Alzheimer’s disease is consuming Fiona, the limits of their love and loyalty must be wrenchingly redefined. Co-starring Olympia Dukakis and Michael Murphy. Based on the short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" by Alice Munro. Feature writing and directing debut for actress Sarah Polley (My Life Without Me, The Sweet Hereafter).
Edith Piaf
Theater. An intense biography of Edith Piaf that focuses on her aggressive and street-smart scrappy profile and her last years of morphine addiction. It neglected to stress her hard work at her craft to make her into what she became, her warmth and emotional expansive giving that was broad and deep to so many. And, the myriad of men that fell madly in love with her all of her life. She was original and unique and it failed to communicate this. They compared her to Billy Holiday and Judy Garland. A transfixing
Amu
Theater. A semi-professional film of a coming of finding your roots Indian production. The girl was a little naïve, not understanding that the rich boy she was involved with would not be involved with her if the drunken bum were her father! Halloo. It was OK but disappointing.
A young woman of Indian descent is torn between her loyalty to her single mother in Los Angeles and the powerful sense of homecoming she feels when she visits Delhi. The film was censored in India for daring to refer to the bloody riots that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi in ‘84. “Courageous, honest, compelling.” (Mira Nair, The Namesake) “AMU . . . wears its political heart on its sleeve and is unafraid to tackle big topics: identity, history, truth, injustice.” (N.Y. Times)
Gracie
Theater. The true story of Elizabeth Shue and her brother’s tribute and story of their soccer brother who was killed in a car crash, shattering their family when Gracie was 17. She takes up his mantle and scores the winning goal for her brother’s memory after she petitions to fight and play on the varsity men’s team. It was a marvelous, touching and poignant film on dealing with grief and loss and winning goals.
Mr. Brooks
Theater. This dysfunctional thriller starring Kevin Costner is a bold variant on the serial-killer genre with some significant deviations. The movie never really succeeds in selling us on the idea of serial killing as a disease, which would require a degree of realism that the slick, over-plotted film doesn’t otherwise aspire to. (Kenneth Turan) I found the movie silly, regretting that I wanted to see it, but the idea of burying a body in a grave that will be used the next day for another body, where the grave will go on top of it, is almost a seal proof way of never getting caught with the body.
Breach
DVD. Inspired by the incredible true story of the greatest security breach in U.S. Intelligence history, Breach is a spellbinding thriller starring Chris Cooper, Ryan Philippe, and Laura Linney and Dennis Haysbert. Eric O’Neill is assigned to work with renowned operative Robert Hanssen, the sole subject of a long-term, top-secret investigation. Determined to draw this suspected double agent out of deep cover, O’Neill find himself in a lethal gave of spy vs. spy, where nothing is, as it seems. The movie was gripping and Philippe played it with a poker face. Superb. I liked how they did not give a pat reason as to why he did what he did, if not for the money.
Lawndogs
DVD. Lizzy Krakow’s favorite movie. In the affluent gated community of Camelot Gardens, 21-year-old Trent, an outside who mows the neighborhood lawns, quietly observes the infidelities and hypocrisies of this overly privileged society. When Devon, a 10-year-old daughter forges a friendship with Trent, thing suddenly become very complicated. The movie stars a young Mischa Barton and is a strange weird film based on a make believe fairy-tale.
Deep Valley, 1949
TCM. A farmer’s daughter helps an escaped convict. Ida Lupino. Dane Clark. Wayne Morris.
Wonderful black and white portrait photography of the actors in profile and stills.
A Little Romance
TV. A lovely sweet film from 1979 starring Lawrence Oliever. It is about two young pre teens that fall in love and go to Italy to kiss under the bridge. Quite sweet.
A Mighty Heart
Theater. A powerful and moving and sad, oh, so sad movie of the tragic murder of Daniel Pearl.
It stars Angelina Jolie and she did an Oscar Winning Performance. The endless days of waiting, pregnant were so exquisitely caught.
Broken Flowers
Theater. A 30 + age girl who is desperately searching for a husband as she works in a hotel.
Sad film. She is pretty and awkward and simple and seems to find and sleep easily with all the bad boys interpreting their attention as caring instead of as desire.
Starter For 10
Plane Movie. A lovely charming movie that takes place in England where a guy accidentally cheats on a TV show where he answers the question before the question has been asked. He had been doing great until this fiasco. He was so shamed but came to realize that the girl he was in love with was not the true thing but the Jewish girl who was loyal and believed in him, was.
Bourne Identity
Plane Movie. A suspenseful movie staring Matt Damon who suffers from amnesia and is really an assassin.
Disturbia
Plane Movie. Based on “Rear Window” by Alfred Hitchcock this is an up-to-date movie of the same theme and story line except more violent and uses computer equipment to fill out the story.
Evening
Theater. An over-wrought, over-drawn drama of too much back-story that takes place on a weekend as Vanessa Redgrave dies. Cameo appearance by Meryl Streep who probably appeared if they would accept her daughter in a key role. It takes place on one weekend. Everyone was miscast and exaggerated. And what was the big deal of singing at her friends wedding. She acted poised. This deeply emotional film illuminates the timeless love that binds mother and daughter, seen through the prism of one mother's life as it crests with optimism, navigates a turning point, and ebbs to its close. Two pairs of real-life mothers and daughters—Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha Richardson, and Meryl Streep and Mamie Gummer—portray, respectively, a mother and her daughter and the mother's best friend at different stages in life. Co-starring Glenn Close, Patrick Wilson and Hugh Dancy. Screenplay by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham (The Hours), based on the best-selling novel by Susan Minot. English-language debut for director Lajos Koltai (Fateless).
Knocked Up
Theater. One of the worst, if not the worst, films that I have ever seen. I felt dirty afterwards and had to take a shower. This has never happened. I found it gross and disgusting with vulgar humor and despicable people. Every woman, man and value of marriage was appalling and wrong. What a film for young people to see where body parts are emphasized where no dialogue takes place and where everything is the fuck word and the suck and the shit words. Unreal. Knocked Up as I saw it as so disgustingly vulgar and brutal between men and women, a cynical and dishonest portrayal of women and marriage, and not having even one decent male character in the entire film, where sex or having sex is merely hooking up and lacks any meaning or romantic experience of understanding one's self or another. In reality, it was an
Impossible premise to accept. A girl of her class and ambition would have had an abortion and that would have been the end of it. I found the film revolting and as it becoming a "classic” exactly what pipe was Scott smoking? To me, it was a sad commentary on how far women have come, which is according to this movie, nothing more than body parts, and how low males
have fallen without the necessary rites of passages that in centuries past, made boys into men. One more thing that bothered me about the movie. There was another basic premise that one had to accept which did not make any sense. And, that was the love scene where she got knocked up. Her response at yelling at him, to hurry up, hurry up was not real. Why did he need to hurry up? A woman may be in powerful heat but she can wait for a man to put on a condom. It does not affect her at all in terms of orgasm or lovemaking. A man cannot. He has to hurry or he can lose his potency. But like Hollywood and its values, they want to communicate that men and the women are the same, no different, that love making for a woman is no different than it is for a man. Which we all know is not true, nor real, nor authentic. Tragically, in today's world sex has no meaning, and therefore, no understanding. It is only hooking up and body parts. It is not about relating to another human being or to oneself in a deeper way. Romanic and love has been replaced with detached fucking and heat. And this is a "classic." This movie is more a commentary for adolescent boy's fantasies. Did four Jewish screenwriters all in there twenties not write it?
Introducing the Dwight’s
Theater. Jeanie Dwight (Brenda Blethyn) works as a short-order cook in a Sydney cafeteria, but she used to be a comedy star and she wishes she still were. Everything that’s funny and sad about this film, an appealing Australian novel, is tinged with a melancholy that springs from this. Blethyn glides between warm, funny moments and more exotic emotional states as effortlessly as if she were mixing a cocktail. Screenwriter Keith Thompson’s script conjures the experience of being raised by entertainers, with tenderness, humor and compassion. I thought the movie was wonderful although it dragged in parts. The brain damaged brother and his retarded girlfriend, as a back-story, could have been deleted. I also am not quite sure why they had to make the brother like this as it really began to get on my nerves. Parts of the film dragged but the acting was superlative, with the frustrated and lost dreams of both parents, to the wanting to hold on and having to let go that parents endure with their children, to everyone learning to move on with their lives and accept life’s failures and disappointments. Blethyn gave an Academy Award performance that moved from pushing yourself out there on the stage when you have no audience, to fury and attack, to compassion and big heart. Her character was well developed. The sound track was fabulous and the hunk son was gorgeous, his body hot, hot, hot.
return to me
DVD. Starring David Duchovny and Minnie Diver, the movie is about a widower and a waitress who meets and falls in love. It takes a lot of coaxing to get Bob a recently widowed architect to go on a blind date t a quirky Irish-Italian eatery. Once there, he is smitten instantly, not with his date, but with the sharp-witted waitress, Grace. With unsolicited help fro Grace’s match-mating Grandfather, Bob asks her out. And, as their relationship blossoms, everything seems to be going great, until an unbelievable truth is revealed, that she is carrying the heart of his dead wife.
Plane Movies on London Trip in June, 2007
Borne Continued
English Movie. 12 Up
Male Ice Skating Movie by Ben Stiller
Vitus
Theater. The child prodigy of piano is driven to do desperate acts of behavior to get his high-pressured parents off his back. He succeeds. He also succeeds in having time out to be normal, to rescue his father and grandfather from financial ruin and to succeed in the piano on his terms. It was quite absorbing and satisfying. Imported tale, from Swiss/German side about a young child prodigy with a remarkable set of talents.
Interview
Theater. This film, directed by Steve Buscemi, (from the Sopranos) centers on an intense one-to-one conversation between a veteran war correspondent (Buscemi) and starlet) Sienna Miller). The interview gets off to a bad start when the starlet shows up an hour late, then dissolves from there. The lies and deception and betrayal and progression of the evening is convincing and captivating between these two deception, lying individuals each for themselves.
Rescue Dawn
Theater. An intense true story of Dieter … who was a naval captain during Vietnam and when his plane went down, he was captured by the Viet Cong and captured until he planned a daring escape that ultimately found him to safety and rescue. The photography of the dense jungles was overwhelming as was the heat and living conditions and ability to survive. A real action film.
Theater. One of the worst, if not the worst, films that I have ever seen. I felt dirty afterwards and had to take a shower. This has never happened. I found it gross and disgusting with vulgar humor and despicable people. Every woman, man and value of marriage was appalling and wrong. What a film for young people to see where body parts are emphasized where no dialogue takes place and where everything is the fuck word and the suck and the shit words. Unreal. Knocked Up as I saw it as so disgustingly vulgar and brutal between men and women, a cynical and dishonest portrayal of women and marriage, and not having even one decent male character in the entire film, where sex or having sex is merely hooking up and lacks any meaning or romantic experience of understanding one's self or another. In reality, it was an
Impossible premise to accept. A girl of her class and ambition would have had an abortion and that would have been the end of it. I found the film revolting and as it becoming a "classic” exactly what pipe was Scott smoking? To me, it was a sad commentary on how far women have come, which is according to this movie, nothing more than body parts, and how low males
have fallen without the necessary rites of passages that in centuries past, made boys into men. One more thing that bothered me about the movie. There was another basic premise that one had to accept which did not make any sense. And, that was the love scene where she got knocked up. Her response at yelling at him, to hurry up, hurry up was not real. Why did he need to hurry up? A woman may be in powerful heat but she can wait for a man to put on a condom. It does not affect her at all in terms of orgasm or lovemaking. A man cannot. He has to hurry or he can lose his potency. But like Hollywood and its values, they want to communicate that men and the women are the same, no different, that love making for a woman is no different than it is for a man. Which we all know is not true, nor real, nor authentic. Tragically, in today's world sex has no meaning, and therefore, no understanding. It is only hooking up and body parts. It is not about relating to another human being or to oneself in a deeper way. Romanic and love has been replaced with detached fucking and heat. And this is a "classic." This movie is more a commentary for adolescent boy's fantasies. Did four Jewish screenwriters all in there twenties not write it?
Introducing the Dwight’s
Theater. Jeanie Dwight (Brenda Blethyn) works as a short-order cook in a Sydney cafeteria, but she used to be a comedy star and she wishes she still were. Everything that’s funny and sad about this film, an appealing Australian novel, is tinged with a melancholy that springs from this. Blethyn glides between warm, funny moments and more exotic emotional states as effortlessly as if she were mixing a cocktail. Screenwriter Keith Thompson’s script conjures the experience of being raised by entertainers, with tenderness, humor and compassion. I thought the movie was wonderful although it dragged in parts. The brain damaged brother and his retarded girlfriend, as a back-story, could have been deleted. I also am not quite sure why they had to make the brother like this as it really began to get on my nerves. Parts of the film dragged but the acting was superlative, with the frustrated and lost dreams of both parents, to the wanting to hold on and having to let go that parents endure with their children, to everyone learning to move on with their lives and accept life’s failures and disappointments. Blethyn gave an Academy Award performance that moved from pushing yourself out there on the stage when you have no audience, to fury and attack, to compassion and big heart. Her character was well developed. The sound track was fabulous and the hunk son was gorgeous, his body hot, hot, hot.
return to me
DVD. Starring David Duchovny and Minnie Diver, the movie is about a widower and a waitress who meets and falls in love. It takes a lot of coaxing to get Bob a recently widowed architect to go on a blind date t a quirky Irish-Italian eatery. Once there, he is smitten instantly, not with his date, but with the sharp-witted waitress, Grace. With unsolicited help fro Grace’s match-mating Grandfather, Bob asks her out. And, as their relationship blossoms, everything seems to be going great, until an unbelievable truth is revealed, that she is carrying the heart of his dead wife.
Plane Movies on London Trip in June, 2007
Borne Continued
English Movie. 12 Up
Male Ice Skating Movie by Ben Stiller
Vitus
Theater. The child prodigy of piano is driven to do desperate acts of behavior to get his high-pressured parents off his back. He succeeds. He also succeeds in having time out to be normal, to rescue his father and grandfather from financial ruin and to succeed in the piano on his terms. It was quite absorbing and satisfying. Imported tale, from Swiss/German side about a young child prodigy with a remarkable set of talents.
Interview
Theater. This film, directed by Steve Buscemi, (from the Sopranos) centers on an intense one-to-one conversation between a veteran war correspondent (Buscemi) and starlet) Sienna Miller). The interview gets off to a bad start when the starlet shows up an hour late, then dissolves from there. The lies and deception and betrayal and progression of the evening is convincing and captivating between these two deception, lying individuals each for themselves.
Rescue Dawn
Theater. An intense true story of Dieter … who was a naval captain during Vietnam and when his plane went down, he was captured by the Viet Cong and captured until he planned a daring escape that ultimately found him to safety and rescue. The photography of the dense jungles was overwhelming as was the heat and living conditions and ability to survive. A real action film.
I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal
Theater. Nicole Kidman narrates this documentary on the Holocaust survivor who helped track down 1,000 Nazi war criminals and spent six decades fighting injustice and anti-Semitism. Written by Rabbi Marvin Hier and Trank.
Clash by Night
TV. This movie is a 1952 black-and-white film noir/drama starring Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas and introducing Marilyn Monroe in her first feature where she was credited before the movie’s title. During the shooting, the now famous naked calendar photos of Monroe surfaced and reporters hounded the actress during the filming of the movie. The plot is about Mae who returns to her home in a small town after breaking up with a rich man. Bitter and angry, she marries Douglas whom she does not love, has a child and then begins an affair with Pfeiffer.
The Russians Are Coming. The Russians Are Coming
TV. This movie is a 1952 black-and-white film noir/drama starring Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas and introducing Marilyn Monroe in her first feature where she was credited before the movie’s title. During the shooting, the now famous naked calendar photos of Monroe surfaced and reporters hounded the actress during the filming of the movie. The plot is about Mae who returns to her home in a small town after breaking up with a rich man. Bitter and angry, she marries Douglas whom she does not love, has a child and then begins an affair with Pfeiffer.
The Russians Are Coming. The Russians Are Coming
TCM. Alan Arkin. A classic film of comedy and acting and story and plot line – this was a movie of yesterday that could never be made today, and, yet, it is what all great filmmaking is about.
Lady Chatterley
Lady Chatterley
Theater. Winner of five Caesar’s, the French Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress for its luminous star Marina Hands, this is the most frankly sensual movie in memory. It has found the soul of the celebrated D.H. Lawrence novel about the forbidden love between a nobleman’s wife and a gamekeeper by treating it in a way that is distinctly modern as well as classical, even old-fashioned. In French with English subtitles. It followed the book chapter by chapter. It was perfection. It is 3 hours long and you may want to go alone just to absorb the richness and depth of the of the film, without distraction.
This exquisite movie is a moving piece of true art with each still, a masterpiece. The use of nature, reflecting her inner world, worked perfectly. It followed the book chapter by chapter. It was perfection. I loved the slow, pace, allowing the story to unfold. Nothing was hurried or rushed or contrived. The use of "equivalents" Alfred Steiglits' theory of nature and how nature reflects the inner workings of each human being's feelings and thoughts is used masterfully in this film. There is no vulgarity or cheapness or false and artificial phony premise, like in that unspeakable horror film, Knocked Up. This is the most exquisite and honest film that I have seen in decades. I cannot stop thinking and feeling it.
This exquisite movie is a moving piece of true art with each still, a masterpiece. The use of nature, reflecting her inner world, worked perfectly. It followed the book chapter by chapter. It was perfection. I loved the slow, pace, allowing the story to unfold. Nothing was hurried or rushed or contrived. The use of "equivalents" Alfred Steiglits' theory of nature and how nature reflects the inner workings of each human being's feelings and thoughts is used masterfully in this film. There is no vulgarity or cheapness or false and artificial phony premise, like in that unspeakable horror film, Knocked Up. This is the most exquisite and honest film that I have seen in decades. I cannot stop thinking and feeling it.
The Story of Three Loves, 1953
TCM. Passengers on an ocean liner recall their greatest loves. Ethel Barrymore. James Mason. Kirk Douglas. Vincent Minnelli. Ricky Nelson. Leslie Caron. The transitions went as one passenger passed another. Each story was independent of the other and marvelous. Kirk Douglas ate up the screen with his intensity and animal magnetism. He starred as trapeze artist, who at the end, decides to quit, before losing his girl.
Hairspray
Theatre. A forgettable movie with forgettable music. It all sounded the same after a while. Noisy with lots of dancing and screaming. John Travolta, as a fat woman was graceful and easy as a dancer, although he tended to lead. Michelle Pfeiffer was fabulous as mean.
Goya's Ghosts
Theatre. “This Milos Forman’s first film since 1999, but you sincerely wish it wasn’t. A logy, rambling period piece, it feels about as far away from the spirit of Amadeus as it’s possible to get with wigs and breeches. Focusing only incidentally on its title character, the new film wanders distractedly around 19th century Spain in search of a cohesive idea or, failing that, a through line, but it doesn’t come up with much beyond that hard to dispute observation that power is a gateway to hypocrisy.” Natalie Portman is soft and feminine and lovely. I thought the movie more gripping and horrifying that then reviews and I was utterly absorbed.
Moliere
Romain Duris stars as the young French playwright during his years as a failed actor when he becomes ensnared in a situation very much like the one that would become the scenario for Tartuffe. With Fabrice Luchini and Laura Morante. I thought this movie wonderful and far better than what it is compared to Shakespeare in Love. It was poignant and funny and intelligent and wonderful dialogue. Most satisfying.
Lola
DVD. Lola’s life is unfulfilling. Her relationship is abusive and she is confused all the time. Desperate for change, Lola is by chance placed at the scene of a near fatal traffic accident. She saves the life of a woman, Sandra, who turns out to be everything Lola aspires to be; confident, outspoken and in control of her destiny. But before Lola can get to know her better, Sandra is brutally murdered in front of her eyes. Lola now must choose between a return to her dysfunctional home, or assume a new life with the identity of the mysterious woman. She does and she finds a boyfriend through hitchhiking, the mother pretends that Lola is her daughter and she succeeds. I wonder how often this happens to people.
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
Theatre. “This Milos Forman’s first film since 1999, but you sincerely wish it wasn’t. A logy, rambling period piece, it feels about as far away from the spirit of Amadeus as it’s possible to get with wigs and breeches. Focusing only incidentally on its title character, the new film wanders distractedly around 19th century Spain in search of a cohesive idea or, failing that, a through line, but it doesn’t come up with much beyond that hard to dispute observation that power is a gateway to hypocrisy.” Natalie Portman is soft and feminine and lovely. I thought the movie more gripping and horrifying that then reviews and I was utterly absorbed.
Moliere
Romain Duris stars as the young French playwright during his years as a failed actor when he becomes ensnared in a situation very much like the one that would become the scenario for Tartuffe. With Fabrice Luchini and Laura Morante. I thought this movie wonderful and far better than what it is compared to Shakespeare in Love. It was poignant and funny and intelligent and wonderful dialogue. Most satisfying.
Lola
DVD. Lola’s life is unfulfilling. Her relationship is abusive and she is confused all the time. Desperate for change, Lola is by chance placed at the scene of a near fatal traffic accident. She saves the life of a woman, Sandra, who turns out to be everything Lola aspires to be; confident, outspoken and in control of her destiny. But before Lola can get to know her better, Sandra is brutally murdered in front of her eyes. Lola now must choose between a return to her dysfunctional home, or assume a new life with the identity of the mysterious woman. She does and she finds a boyfriend through hitchhiking, the mother pretends that Lola is her daughter and she succeeds. I wonder how often this happens to people.
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
DVD. For the first time in years, aging fisherman Takata Gou-ichi boards a bullet train to Tokyo when he learns his estranged son is gravely ill. But at the hospital, his son refuses to see him. Daughter-in-law Rie urges Takata to watch a videotape of a documentary his son was filming in rural China. Moved by what he sees, Takata vows to complete his son’s work. Though laden with obstacles, his odyssey into the heart of China and the kinship he develops with a fatherless boy and the villagers who care for him recaptures a sense of family he thought he had lost a long time ago. Directed by Zhang Yimou, who directed The Road Home and Raise the Red Lantern and House of Flying Daggers. I love his work. This poignant and sad movie brought me to tears by its restraint of emotion, yet profound depth of emotion, of loss and regret and sorrow and if only. Marvelous, quiet, yet filled with powerful, quiet emotion.
No Reservations
Theatre. A Hollywood spin off of the German Mostly Martha, this one starring Catherine Zeta Jones, it lacks the out-of-control feel of the other. Zeta Jones downplays her role, never seeming to get too emotional about much of anything. She is a fundamentally cold personality. However, saying that, it was better than the reviews.
The Bourne Ultimatum
Theater. It says something about Paul Greengrass’directing style that he’s able to make a movie as fresh and frank as this from a genre as moldy and bombastic as the spy thriller. And yet the showboating, and the closeness never feel claustrophobic. His camera may scurry and dart like a rabbit trapped in a mall, but he keeps the tone grounded, the effects in-camera and the acting low-key and real. I love this series; it is suspenseful with the lone hero. I love it!
MetroLand
TV. Starring Emily Watson and Christian Slate this low budget film is about a married couple of 8 years, who is tempted by the devil, in the form of a friend, to cheat and leave his wife and life that he has built up over the years for himself.
The Last Time
DVD. Starring Michael Keaton. Brendan Fraser. Amber Valletta. In the cutthroat world of NYC business sales, Ted Riker is the undisputed king. He’s bitter, cynical and ruthless—the exact opposite of Jamie (Frasier), his naïve new sales partner from the Midwest. As Jamie fails time after time, he tries to befriend Ted and introduces him to his beautiful fiancée Belisa. She awakens something in Ted; something he thought had died a long time ago. But if he is going to follow his newly rediscovered heart, he’s going to have to break Jamie’s. And with his junior salesman increasingly on edge, that could be an extremely dangerous idea. The scene where he makes love to the girlfriend in the same bed that Jamie lies sleeping is indeed a low moral moment. Fantastic movie with a surprise unexpected ending.
In The Shadow of The Moon
Theater. A powerful and moving documentary of the astronauts who went on the first Apollo 11 Mission to the moon on July, 15, 1969. You see all the potential for mishaps and problems. It was truly great.
I Think I Love My Wife
Theatre. A Hollywood spin off of the German Mostly Martha, this one starring Catherine Zeta Jones, it lacks the out-of-control feel of the other. Zeta Jones downplays her role, never seeming to get too emotional about much of anything. She is a fundamentally cold personality. However, saying that, it was better than the reviews.
The Bourne Ultimatum
Theater. It says something about Paul Greengrass’directing style that he’s able to make a movie as fresh and frank as this from a genre as moldy and bombastic as the spy thriller. And yet the showboating, and the closeness never feel claustrophobic. His camera may scurry and dart like a rabbit trapped in a mall, but he keeps the tone grounded, the effects in-camera and the acting low-key and real. I love this series; it is suspenseful with the lone hero. I love it!
MetroLand
TV. Starring Emily Watson and Christian Slate this low budget film is about a married couple of 8 years, who is tempted by the devil, in the form of a friend, to cheat and leave his wife and life that he has built up over the years for himself.
The Last Time
DVD. Starring Michael Keaton. Brendan Fraser. Amber Valletta. In the cutthroat world of NYC business sales, Ted Riker is the undisputed king. He’s bitter, cynical and ruthless—the exact opposite of Jamie (Frasier), his naïve new sales partner from the Midwest. As Jamie fails time after time, he tries to befriend Ted and introduces him to his beautiful fiancée Belisa. She awakens something in Ted; something he thought had died a long time ago. But if he is going to follow his newly rediscovered heart, he’s going to have to break Jamie’s. And with his junior salesman increasingly on edge, that could be an extremely dangerous idea. The scene where he makes love to the girlfriend in the same bed that Jamie lies sleeping is indeed a low moral moment. Fantastic movie with a surprise unexpected ending.
In The Shadow of The Moon
Theater. A powerful and moving documentary of the astronauts who went on the first Apollo 11 Mission to the moon on July, 15, 1969. You see all the potential for mishaps and problems. It was truly great.
I Think I Love My Wife
DVD. Chris Rock directed and co-wrote and stars in this comedy about the pleasures and perils of wedded bliss. No-nonsense investment banker has it all: a great career, an adoring wife, and two beautiful kids. There is just one problem—he is bored out of his mind! Richard’s occasional thoughts about other women seem harmless enough until free- spirited Nikki, a sexy friend from the past, appears at this office door, prompting a fox and mouse game that puts a smile on Richard’s face and his marriage to the test.
Casino Royale
DVD. James Bond 007. Great!
Rachel and the Stranger
TCM. Loretta Young stars in this 1949 movie with Mitchum and Robert Holden who was gorgeous. She is a bondwoman who is treated as such until Mitchim comes along and wants her for himselff. A lot of “I reckon.”
f. A lot of “I reckon.” The Great Lie, 1941
TCM. Believing her husband to be dead, a flyer’s wife bargains with his former love to adopt the woman’s baby. Bette Davis, Mary Astor, George Brene as leading man. Dated but absorbing.
Perfect Stranger
DVD. Starring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis, this stupid psychological thriller was trite and silly. Berry turns out to be the mass murderer who frames Willis. It is over the top and contrived, too dumb to take seriously. “Are there this many crazy people in the world?” Cary asks.
Becoming Jane
Perfect Stranger
DVD. Starring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis, this stupid psychological thriller was trite and silly. Berry turns out to be the mass murderer who frames Willis. It is over the top and contrived, too dumb to take seriously. “Are there this many crazy people in the world?” Cary asks.
Becoming Jane
Theater. If you can sit through the first hour of the make up bio of Jane Austin, you will be glad you did. The first hour is unbearably slow and boring. It suddenly picks up and becomes quite a moving and engaging and ultimately a sad film. Anne Hathaway stars. She is bland without much emotional range or expression. Her Tom is dashing and colorful and adorable.
Perfume
Perfume
DVD. A weird story of this abandoned baby, in medieval France, who has a powerful scent of smell. He grows up and begins to murder women to get the scent of their body, making the 13th scent, the most powerful of all, like God. It was gripping and absorbing but strange and weird.
Resurrecting The Champ
Theater. Starring Samuel Jackson and Josh Harnett, it tells the story of a former boxing champ who takes the name and disguise of a professional who won tournaments. When this failing and unimaginative and unprobing reporter hears his story, a champ that is now homeless on the street, and without doing his homework, he writes a great story that turns out to be a lie. Barnett was completely miscast. His son Teddy was the most irritating boy I have seen on screen. It could have been a masterpiece if it had been better cast. Jackson should win the Oscar for his performance.
Live-In Maid.
Resurrecting The Champ
Theater. Starring Samuel Jackson and Josh Harnett, it tells the story of a former boxing champ who takes the name and disguise of a professional who won tournaments. When this failing and unimaginative and unprobing reporter hears his story, a champ that is now homeless on the street, and without doing his homework, he writes a great story that turns out to be a lie. Barnett was completely miscast. His son Teddy was the most irritating boy I have seen on screen. It could have been a masterpiece if it had been better cast. Jackson should win the Oscar for his performance.
Live-In Maid.
Theater. Jorge Gaggero’s wonderful film, which garnered the special jury prize at Sundance in 2005, tells the story of a housekeeper’s final days in the home of her employer of 3- years. A lovely, intimate portrait of a complex relationship, he film stars Norma Aleandro as a divorced Buenos Aires bourgeoisie fallen on hard times, and Norma Argentina as her maid. Gaggero’s film locates an entire universe, history and current reality in a medium-sized Buenos Aires apartment. The film offers a pitch-perfect observation of life on a continent where forms are adhered to, distances aren’t really kept and your best friend is the person who knows to pour the cheap domestic whiskey into the empty bottle of imported stuff before your bridge buddies show up to judge you.
Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
Edgy and provocative but with a weakens for sensational footage, this documentary is a series of snapshots of Brazil that focuses on perceived connections among the country’s violence, poverty and political corruption. Winner of two awards at Sundance, including the grand jury prize for documentary, the film sees Brazil as the setting for a Darwinian struggle between the country’s enormously rich and powerful elite and its incredibly poor lower class. The rich exploit the poor or are indifferent to their plight, and the poor try to get their own back by kidnapping and brutalizing the right. What a system. I think that this review was better than the film. A C at best.
House of the Flying Daggers
DVD. A love story between martial arts starts and experts. Photography phenomenal.
3:10 to Yuma
Theater. In 1880’s Arizona, a struggling Civil War veteran volunteers to escort a dangerous outlaw to the train that will carry him to trail With Russia Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda, the movie is gripping and compelling and thrilling and I loved it!
2 Days in Paris
Edgy and provocative but with a weakens for sensational footage, this documentary is a series of snapshots of Brazil that focuses on perceived connections among the country’s violence, poverty and political corruption. Winner of two awards at Sundance, including the grand jury prize for documentary, the film sees Brazil as the setting for a Darwinian struggle between the country’s enormously rich and powerful elite and its incredibly poor lower class. The rich exploit the poor or are indifferent to their plight, and the poor try to get their own back by kidnapping and brutalizing the right. What a system. I think that this review was better than the film. A C at best.
House of the Flying Daggers
DVD. A love story between martial arts starts and experts. Photography phenomenal.
3:10 to Yuma
Theater. In 1880’s Arizona, a struggling Civil War veteran volunteers to escort a dangerous outlaw to the train that will carry him to trail With Russia Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda, the movie is gripping and compelling and thrilling and I loved it!
2 Days in Paris
DVD. This film is pure Julie Delpy. She wrote, produced, edited and scored the film, and she stars opposite Adam Goldberg. She also sings the song that plays over the end credits. She plays a French photographer who brings her America boyfriend home to meet her folks. I like the awful presentation that she shows of the French. I could not stand Goldberg. He seemed so self absorbed and narcissistic and lacked any gratitude. He reminded me of Ben. The dialogue was crisp.
In the Valley of Elah
Theater. Everyone in this somber film, starring Tommy Lee Jones as a father looking for his Iraq veteran AWOL son, and Charlize Theron as the cop who helps him, has the glum look of individuals brings a Very Important Message to the world. And although “Elah” directed by Paul Haggls who did “Crash” does in fact have something crucial to convey about what war does to soldiers, this is not the way to go about it. Long. Preachy. Tedious. And Overwrought.
The 400 Blows. TV. Black and White. A 12-year-old boy turns to crime to escape family problems. A Francois Truffaut film. In French Sub-titles. Loved it but fell asleep.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. “Put in simplest terms, Andres Dominilk-directed epic is a film whose reach exceeds its grasp. Hugely ambitious and not without moments of success, especially Brad Pitt as the outlaw king, this indulgent 2 hour and 40 minutes epic ends up as unwieldy as its elongated title. It’s a movie in love with itself, and few things are more fatal than that.” Turan came down hard on this film, but I loved its psychological focus, its slow development, its extraordinary photography, its psychological focus and penetration and its mood and development.
Eastern Promises
Theater. Staring the actor who stared in “The History of Violence” this film was a gripping, violent (stabbing someone in the eyes in the bathhouse) movie of the Russian mob in London. Naomi Watts plays the doctor who reveals the truth behind the driver and the seedy violent world of mob life. It was a marvelous film, marvelous acting, and completely absorbing.
Lust, Caution
Theater. Set in the world of Shanghai, during World War II, it tells of a lonely girl who joins the résistance and becomes the lover of the man that her group is trying to assassinate. He is a violent lover and their love scenes are quite revealing. However, the Asian read on this is that there is an emotional detachment that is hard for the western eye to hook into as emotion is expressed through the eyes and body language and not through words and physical demonstration. I thought it was a wonderful and exquisite film where our heroine betrays her own depth of feeling, ending up causing death to herself and her comrades.
Jane Austen Book Club
Theater. Everyone in this somber film, starring Tommy Lee Jones as a father looking for his Iraq veteran AWOL son, and Charlize Theron as the cop who helps him, has the glum look of individuals brings a Very Important Message to the world. And although “Elah” directed by Paul Haggls who did “Crash” does in fact have something crucial to convey about what war does to soldiers, this is not the way to go about it. Long. Preachy. Tedious. And Overwrought.
The 400 Blows. TV. Black and White. A 12-year-old boy turns to crime to escape family problems. A Francois Truffaut film. In French Sub-titles. Loved it but fell asleep.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. “Put in simplest terms, Andres Dominilk-directed epic is a film whose reach exceeds its grasp. Hugely ambitious and not without moments of success, especially Brad Pitt as the outlaw king, this indulgent 2 hour and 40 minutes epic ends up as unwieldy as its elongated title. It’s a movie in love with itself, and few things are more fatal than that.” Turan came down hard on this film, but I loved its psychological focus, its slow development, its extraordinary photography, its psychological focus and penetration and its mood and development.
Eastern Promises
Theater. Staring the actor who stared in “The History of Violence” this film was a gripping, violent (stabbing someone in the eyes in the bathhouse) movie of the Russian mob in London. Naomi Watts plays the doctor who reveals the truth behind the driver and the seedy violent world of mob life. It was a marvelous film, marvelous acting, and completely absorbing.
Lust, Caution
Theater. Set in the world of Shanghai, during World War II, it tells of a lonely girl who joins the résistance and becomes the lover of the man that her group is trying to assassinate. He is a violent lover and their love scenes are quite revealing. However, the Asian read on this is that there is an emotional detachment that is hard for the western eye to hook into as emotion is expressed through the eyes and body language and not through words and physical demonstration. I thought it was a wonderful and exquisite film where our heroine betrays her own depth of feeling, ending up causing death to herself and her comrades.
Jane Austen B
ook ClubTheater. This is a sweet chick film of 5 women and a guy who do a book club on the 6 novels of Jane Austen. In doing this club, over 6 months, they discover and face the issues in their own lives.
Sleuth
Theater. Taken from a play, this film was Boring and cold and unreal and I could not wait until it ended. We saw the play in London in the 70’s and the remake and neither one of us could remember anything about it! With Michael Caine and Jude Law.
Lars and The Real Girl
Theater. Starring Ryan Gosling who will be nominated for his role, this sensitive and gentle serious comedy and story was simply wonderful. It is intimate and satisfying and heart rendering without ever bordering on the sentimental or silly. I loved it. It is the story of a painfully shy and traumatizing man who is unable to communicate with women but has a happy and satisfying relationship with a plastic cripple bound doll. It also stars Patricia Clarkson who was marvelous.
A Big Hand For The Little Lady
TCM. A pioneer woman replaces her ailing husband in a poker game after he loses most of their money. Henry Fonda. Joanne Woodward. Jason Robards. It turns out to be a scam and she is the best poker player of all. I saw it at 2 AM. It is a great little entertaining film.
The Valet
DVD. When paparazzi catch him with his supermodel mistress, billionaire CEO Pierre (Daniel Auteuil) devises a plan to convince his wife that the beautiful mystery woman is actually dating lovelorn valet Francois. Now Francois is the envy of every regular guy-he’s got a supermodel on his arm and in his bed. But Pierre’s clever wife Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas) cooks up a plan of her own with some hilarious, jaw-dropping surprises.
Jindabyne
DVD. On an annual fishing trip, Stewart (Gabriel Byrne) and his three buddies make a grim discovery - a murdered girl in the river. But it’s too late in the day to hike out and report it to the police. The next morning, instead of heading back, they go fishing, captivated by the mystery of their surroundings. When they finally return home and the story hits the newspaper, their wives are stunned. How could they go on fishing and not help that girl? Confounded, the men wonder what they could have done. Wasn’t she already dead? As more details surface, Stewart’s wife, Claire, (Laura Linney) becomes increasingly distressed over her husband’s callous behavior and their marriage starts to unravel. But Claire is determined to make things right again-not only for her own family, but also for the family of the murdered black girl. The murderer got away though and at the end of the movie, you see him killing an insect, meaning that Laura Linney is next. The movie is from the short story by Raymond Carver. Australian.
Fracture
DVD. Ted Crawford, Hopkins, brutally shoots his wife and calmly waits for the police to arrest him. With the weapon and a signed confession in hand, Deputy Willy Beachum (Gosling) believes a conviction is a slam-dunk – that is, until the case completely unravels. Now, with little evidence, Beachum goes head to head with the cunning Crawford in a desperate search for the truth and the answer to one burning questions: How is this guy getting away with it? Great film.
Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
Theater. A wonderful film directed by Sidney Lumet at 83 years old. It is the story of two brothers who plan a robbery of their parents because both of them are in desperate financial circumstances and it goes haywire and the mother dies and everything spirals out of control.
Phenomenal acting. Poignant and powerful and gripping and satisfying.
The Band
Theater. In Israel. Academy Award Winner, this extraordinary film brought me to tears twice. It is about an Egyptian Band that gets lost and ends up in the wrong place. The sad and lonely desperate stories of the people involved are revealed slowly and painfully. I loved it.
Irena Palmita
Theater. In Israel. A British film of a grandmother whose grandson is dying. She raises money by become a prostitute and beating off men through a hole in the wall. It was very well done.
Bitter Moon
Home Theater with Itamar and Eti in her father’s home theater. In Israel. Directed by Roman Polanski, the movie was about obsessive love, about a writer and a waitress. The writer becomes paralyzed and they torture each other until he kills her and himself at the end. It was boring and tedious and long and contrived.
Noodles
On plane returning from Israel. Viewed 4X. A marvelous, tender film of a Chinese boy whose mother is sent back to China and how this lonely young beautiful widow flight attendant maneuvers it to return him to China. I loved it.
August Rush
Theater. Starring Robin Williams and Terri Russell. The movie is about a musical prodigy, young orphaned boy who searches for his parents through his music. It was stupid and silly and ridiculous and clique. Awful really.
American Gangster
Theater. Starring Russell Crowe and Denziel Washington, it is a wonderful portrayal of heroin distribution and relationships of the Harlem Mob Boss and how he made $250 million dollars.
It was fabulous.
Don’t Look Back
Theater. One of the worst pretentious films I have seen. I walked out after an hour and half.
Using Bob Dylan, it tried to become an existential portrayal of the man using his songs as a biography. So he became an eleven-year-old black boy, a farm hand, a woman dressed as a man.
It was stupid. An envious director who wished he were Dylan himself.
Red Balloon
White Mane
Two extraordinary classics from 1956 and 1953 by French Albert director Lamorisse. Without words and without much fanfare and no special effects, the films were quiet classics of beauty and poetry and how the individual fights the bully and the larger enemy.
The Hoax
DVD. Richard Gere. The Hoax is a true story of the man who almost pulled off the biggest literary con of the 20th century. When the charismatic Clifford Irving convinces a major publishing house that Howard Hughes, the bigger-then-life billionaire recluse, has asked Irving to pen his authorized autobiography, Irving must concoct an elaborate scheme to prove his fake manuscript is real. Really good.
Paris, JE T’Aime
DVD. This movie combines the visions from the world’s top directors with top stars who together create a panoramic portrait of Paris. It is a movie of 12 shorts or slices of life of love, but it isn’t really loved. It is about pieces of life that just is, not particularly about love and not particularly about anything that has a beginning, middle, and an end. Boring and contrived.
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.
Sleuth
Theater. Taken from a play, this film was Boring and cold and unreal and I could not wait until it ended. We saw the play in London in the 70’s and the remake and neither one of us could remember anything about it! With Michael Caine and Jude Law.
Lars and The Real Girl
Theater. Starring Ryan Gosling who will be nominated for his role, this sensitive and gentle serious comedy and story was simply wonderful. It is intimate and satisfying and heart rendering without ever bordering on the sentimental or silly. I loved it. It is the story of a painfully shy and traumatizing man who is unable to communicate with women but has a happy and satisfying relationship with a plastic cripple bound doll. It also stars Patricia Clarkson who was marvelous.
A Big Hand For The Little Lady
TCM. A pioneer woman replaces her ailing husband in a poker game after he loses most of their money. Henry Fonda. Joanne Woodward. Jason Robards. It turns out to be a scam and she is the best poker player of all. I saw it at 2 AM. It is a great little entertaining film.
The Valet
DVD. When paparazzi catch him with his supermodel mistress, billionaire CEO Pierre (Daniel Auteuil) devises a plan to convince his wife that the beautiful mystery woman is actually dating lovelorn valet Francois. Now Francois is the envy of every regular guy-he’s got a supermodel on his arm and in his bed. But Pierre’s clever wife Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas) cooks up a plan of her own with some hilarious, jaw-dropping surprises.
Jindabyne
DVD. On an annual fishing trip, Stewart (Gabriel Byrne) and his three buddies make a grim discovery - a murdered girl in the river. But it’s too late in the day to hike out and report it to the police. The next morning, instead of heading back, they go fishing, captivated by the mystery of their surroundings. When they finally return home and the story hits the newspaper, their wives are stunned. How could they go on fishing and not help that girl? Confounded, the men wonder what they could have done. Wasn’t she already dead? As more details surface, Stewart’s wife, Claire, (Laura Linney) becomes increasingly distressed over her husband’s callous behavior and their marriage starts to unravel. But Claire is determined to make things right again-not only for her own family, but also for the family of the murdered black girl. The murderer got away though and at the end of the movie, you see him killing an insect, meaning that Laura Linney is next. The movie is from the short story by Raymond Carver. Australian.
Fracture
DVD. Ted Crawford, Hopkins, brutally shoots his wife and calmly waits for the police to arrest him. With the weapon and a signed confession in hand, Deputy Willy Beachum (Gosling) believes a conviction is a slam-dunk – that is, until the case completely unravels. Now, with little evidence, Beachum goes head to head with the cunning Crawford in a desperate search for the truth and the answer to one burning questions: How is this guy getting away with it? Great film.
Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
Theater. A wonderful film directed by Sidney Lumet at 83 years old. It is the story of two brothers who plan a robbery of their parents because both of them are in desperate financial circumstances and it goes haywire and the mother dies and everything spirals out of control.
Phenomenal acting. Poignant and powerful and gripping and satisfying.
The Band
Theater. In Israel. Academy Award Winner, this extraordinary film brought me to tears twice. It is about an Egyptian Band that gets lost and ends up in the wrong place. The sad and lonely desperate stories of the people involved are revealed slowly and painfully. I loved it.
Irena Palmita
Theater. In Israel. A British film of a grandmother whose grandson is dying. She raises money by become a prostitute and beating off men through a hole in the wall. It was very well done.
Bitter Moon
Home Theater with Itamar and Eti in her father’s home theater. In Israel. Directed by Roman Polanski, the movie was about obsessive love, about a writer and a waitress. The writer becomes paralyzed and they torture each other until he kills her and himself at the end. It was boring and tedious and long and contrived.
Noodles
On plane returning from Israel. Viewed 4X. A marvelous, tender film of a Chinese boy whose mother is sent back to China and how this lonely young beautiful widow flight attendant maneuvers it to return him to China. I loved it.
August Rush
Theater. Starring Robin Williams and Terri Russell. The movie is about a musical prodigy, young orphaned boy who searches for his parents through his music. It was stupid and silly and ridiculous and clique. Awful really.
American Gangster
Theater. Starring Russell Crowe and Denziel Washington, it is a wonderful portrayal of heroin distribution and relationships of the Harlem Mob Boss and how he made $250 million dollars.
It was fabulous.
Don’t Look Back
Theater. One of the worst pretentious films I have seen. I walked out after an hour and half.
Using Bob Dylan, it tried to become an existential portrayal of the man using his songs as a biography. So he became an eleven-year-old black boy, a farm hand, a woman dressed as a man.
It was stupid. An envious director who wished he were Dylan himself.
Red Balloon
White Mane
Two extraordinary classics from 1956 and 1953 by French Albert director Lamorisse. Without words and without much fanfare and no special effects, the films were quiet classics of beauty and poetry and how the individual fights the bully and the larger enemy.
The Hoax
DVD. Richard Gere. The Hoax is a true story of the man who almost pulled off the biggest literary con of the 20th century. When the charismatic Clifford Irving convinces a major publishing house that Howard Hughes, the bigger-then-life billionaire recluse, has asked Irving to pen his authorized autobiography, Irving must concoct an elaborate scheme to prove his fake manuscript is real. Really good.
Paris, JE T’Aime
DVD. This movie combines the visions from the world’s top directors with top stars who together create a panoramic portrait of Paris. It is a movie of 12 shorts or slices of life of love, but it isn’t really loved. It is about pieces of life that just is, not particularly about love and not particularly about anything that has a beginning, middle, and an end. Boring and contrived.
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.
Theater. (2x) From one of the most exhilarating and luminous bestsellers ever written comes the true story of a man who took an adversity beyond all imagining and transformed it into a testament to the irrepressible human urge to love, create and dream. With his third film, director and artist Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls) forges a visually stunning ode to what drives a man to go on when all truly seems lost. Through a mesmerizing blast of color, beauty and humor, Schnabel tells the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, Mathieu Amalric, the high-flying editor of French Elle who was renowned for his sense of humor and style, his joie de vivre and amorous energy, when, in an instant, his world was plunged into the depths of catastrophe. Adapted for the screen by Ronald Harwood (The Pianist). Co-starring Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze and Max Von Sydow. This movie made me weep. I found it one of the finest films I have seen, a true Masterpiece from an experienced and fine director. Truly Outstanding in every sense of the word. A Masterpiece. A visual Poem. I read the book but the film is a Masterpiece. It left me speechless, everyone just stayed in their seats, no one moved when it was over. It was all about connectedness and the yearning for passion and desire, and communication, and the need to be heard and understood and validated and recognized. It is about memory and consciousness and imagination. It made me cry. Joel Morgenstern. “This year (picking the top 10) I have tried to ferret out my true feelings on the basis of one sole criterion. Which of these superb films left me literally speechless? Only one did. If anyone had asked me what I thought as I left this movie. I could not have managed a single word. Julian Schnabel’s film, adapted by Ronald Harwood from the memoir of the same title by Jean-Dominique Bauby, is small in scale. And it’s in French, with English subtitles, a fact that will limit its audience in our increasingly insular culture-as if a film about a man able to communicate only with his left eyelid weren’t sufficiently limited in its mass appeal. But that is not what the film is about really. Bauby’s slender volume, which he dictated letter by letter by blinking that eyelid, speaks to nothing less than the twin miracles of human consciousness and memory. And, the beauty of his book bespeaks the transformative power of art. Those are the themes Mr. Schnabel and his collaborators took on when they chose to do the screen vision. The film rises majestically to the challenge.” #1 on my list of the top 10 of the year! I agree.
The Savages. Theater. Opening to rave reviews I wonder if my expectations were raised to high? It is the story of two siblings who have little to do with each other but is forced to rise to the occasion to take care of their elderly father who has Parkinson’s and dementia. He was rarely there for them as children and all the sibling competition and resentments and attitudes come to the surface along with their fragile and emotionally damaged lives. It is a sad film and a familiar story of American slice of life. But after The Diving Bell, which was uplifting in a strange kind of way, this movie disappointed compared to the The Diving Bell.
The Savages. Theater. Opening to rave reviews I wonder if my expectations were raised to high? It is the story of two siblings who have little to do with each other but is forced to rise to the occasion to take care of their elderly father who has Parkinson’s and dementia. He was rarely there for them as children and all the sibling competition and resentments and attitudes come to the surface along with their fragile and emotionally damaged lives. It is a sad film and a familiar story of American slice of life. But after The Diving Bell, which was uplifting in a strange kind of way, this movie disappointed compared to the The Diving Bell.
Like in Heaven, 2005
TCM. This movie stars Reese Witherspoon who gets into a car crash and is in a coma. She comes back to haunt her old apartment and falls in love with Mark Rullafo (David) who is now living in it. There are all kinds of destiny points and it is a delightful charming romantic comedy that I thoroughly enjoyed although the critics panned it.
Juno
Theater. (2x) A charming, lovely, funny comedy, yet heartwarming of a young 16-year-old girl who gets pregnant. The dialogue is fresh and original and sassy and sharp, and very entertaining. It is a delightful film that I thoroughly enjoyed. Not to be missed. I loved this movie. She reminded me a lot of myself, her body that is, when I was 16 years old. The movie is funny and sassy and sharp with crisp dialogue. It was terrific. I saw it twice. Ellen Page carries the film and I think her performance is worthy of an Oscar nomination. As Joel Morgenstern from the Wall Street Journal said when he put Juno in his top ten, "Ellen Page's voice, simultaneously urgent and edgy, tossing off the pungent one-liners and studiedly casual aphorisms that constitute the pregnant Juno main line of defense -- against a world that treats her like a misfit clown, and against a scared, sensitive self that doesn't want to be outed." He put The Diving Bell as his #1 as would I.
The Kite Runner
Theater. A good rendition from the film, although the book is far superior. They left out some key things as when the girl tells Amir that she is not a virgin. And, the father confesses the truth to his son in order for him to understand forgiveness. But I was choked up in tears at the end, because he was able to fine atonement and redeem himself through his friend’s son. A good solid movie.
Straight Into The Evening
Theater. Went to see this absolutely phenomenal wonderful independent film. It takes place in Manhattan and the city streets are used well. It is about an aging famous old writer who is searched out by a young Ph/d student who is writing her thesis on him. He is suffering with the inability to finish his novel that he has been working on for ten years. This young student unlocks in him his own conflict and block. There is a back-story with the daughter and her boyfriend but the entire dialogue was literally and literally referenced. It was a highbrow film as you see the frustration with growing old, with recognizing that your former fame has not remained, with the meaning of the creative process. The entire film was so well done, well acted, and it was such a glory to hear such marvelous dialogue and references to literary figures and analysis of them. What an absolute filling up of the ears. Try not to miss it.
Silas Marner
DVD. Starring Ken Kinglsley, this 1985 BBC/PBS production is simply marvelous. Well done and moving and poignant and simple, yet complex, it tells the story and transformation of Silas, a man obsessed with money but who is restored to humanity through love.
Enchanted
Theater. A Walt Disney Production staring Mr. McDreamy from Grey’s Anatomy, this cartoon fairy-tale becomes a reality show, when the princess is thrown into a well and ends up human, but with all the fairytale attributes, in Manhattan. It is a silly movie, well executed for what it is, and I enjoyed it more than Sonja. Forgot what popcorn movies were like!
Atonement
Theater. The movie stars Kiera Knightly who is deeply in love with the son of one of their servants. Through the eyes of her 13-year-old sister who misreads what she sees in the behavior of her sister and Robbie, the sister tells a lie that forever alters all of their lives. Robbie is sent to prison for 4 year where he is released to war and dies. Knightly becomes a nurse and drowns and the sister is forever tormented by her sin. We all left in a lousy angry mood.
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Theater. The winner of the highest award at the Cannes this year, this Romanian film is gritty and harsh and desperate and harrowing. It has an underlying intensity and tension built into it.
It takes place under the communists when abortion was illegal and the dedication of friendship in how far this one girl went into order to accompany and help her roommate. Phenomenal film.
Persepolis
Theater. A young woman’s life in Iran after the ‘78 revolution, via an animation based on the graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi. In French featuring the voices of Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve and Danielle Darrieux. Satrapi co-directed. “Among the most original and moving films at Cannes this year, marked by a highly expressive and varied drawing style and the sense of a plucky young woman navigating the turbulent currents of politics, family and adolescence.” (L.A. Weekly) I found this highly creative film moving and comprehensive and told through the eyes of a Muslim girl and full of heart and soul. This is about a Muslim girl in Iran; also I read the book, right at the fall of the revolution and how she and her family survive and her observations and perceptions of what happened. It is the immigrant experience, being an outsider, not belonging, struggling to hear your voice heard, standing up for what you believe in, taking great risks at the price of your safety.
The Honey dripper
Theater. Directly by John Sayles this slow moving, yet story-telling film takes place in Alabama 1950 and takes place over two days. It is about a failing black bar and singing place and through the arrival of a black guitar player the honkey tonk place is transformed.
The Orphanage
Theater. Directed by the director of Pan’s Labyrinth, this new film by him is about a young woman who returns to the Orphanage of her youth. Ghosts that claim the life of her soon-to-be dying son and ultimately claim her life as she seeks to find his life and body haunt it.
Sad and poignant and scary. He must be obsessed with death and the life beyond and the loss of innocence and childhood. Someone who lives close to life and death lives close to the spirits that haunt the human soul.
