Fellow Move Lovers
A SINGLE MAN
Never has a broken heart been rendered as achingly beautiful as Colin Firth’s portrayal of Professor George Falconer in Tom Ford’s A Single man. Anyone who has suffered the loss of a loved one will empathize with the excruciating pain and realization that the absence, the void is eternal.
George moves through his life, a life where everything is obsessively organized; shirts, ties, bedroom, kitchen all sterile and bereft of warmth, knowing that one uncontrolled movement will shatter into a thousand points of light, the havoc within. He looks in the mirror and sees not what the world sees but a vessel housing and protecting his pain. He has made it sacred.
An art historian said that a work of art interrogates the time in which it was created.
This movie based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood takes place in 1962. Tom Ford (a fashion designer); Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and the musical score by Abel Korzeniowski have depicted a story of love and loss with such dignity and integrity that it will rest forever on a pedestal of movie masterpieces.
FIVE STARS!!!!!!!!
For Now……………..Peneflix
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
“IT’S COMPLICATED”
“It’s complicated”, a major ingredient of twenty-first century vernacular, is a euphuism for our inability to explain our ineptitudes, poor decisions or complications from personal or professional relationships gone awry. The situation we manufactured but no longer want ownership of, and are too mortified to confess to its creation and too embarrassed to seek help. But Nancy Meyers masterfully tackles the complications of the divorced Jane and Jake Adler with such skill and wisdom that never again will I utter the words “it’s complicated” without a silent but joyous chuckle. This movie charms, pleases and succeeds in lifting the spirits to unchartered heights.
Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin are flawless. Their characters exude confidence, charm and vulnerability. They have been wounded; the scars are obvious, but endured. The screen pulsated with their humanness.
The trophy goes to Meyers. She climbed into the minds, hearts and psyches of “women of a certain age” turned them inside out, so the beauty within, the sensuality that never withers but intensifies with time spilled off the screen onto an audience relishing and rooting for a woman who could be a grandmother. Why not, can’t grandmothers be desirable?
Myers has been doing this for years (Something’s Gotta Give, What Women Want) but “It’s Complicated” is the 24 carat diamond in the crown. Her females are accomplished women; secure and mature. Primarily they like what they have become; the youthful unrealized fantasies are no substitute for the power of surmounting life’s obstacles, unscathed. Wrinkles, widening hips, drooping lids are badges to be flaunted, not flaws to be surgically erased. They are ensconced in beautiful but lived in homes; reflecting the security of their taste, not a decorators.
The script is hilarious; every line by every actor delivered with precise comedic timing.
Special applause to John Kraniski, whose portrayal of Harley, the soon to be son-in-law, is rich in subtle nuances.
The movie is most sensual in the cuisine creating scenes. You salivate as Jane (like Julia Child) prepares Croque Monsieurs (open-faced grilled cheese sandwiches) for Adam or at his request warm chocolate croissants in her shuttered pastry shop; ideal setting for an eventual assignation. Food and love, a partnership that satiates both the palate and the heart; a copious theme on the screen (Tom Jones, Julie/Julia) and the real world.
In conclusion it is Jake who says “It’s Complicated”. No impediment will halt Jane’s evolution to be a “woman of a certain age”, shining and thriving in every glorious minute.
FOUR & 1/2 STARS!
For Now…………
Peneflix
“IT’S COMPLICATED”
“It’s complicated”, a major ingredient of twenty-first century vernacular, is a euphuism for our inability to explain our ineptitudes, poor decisions or complications from personal or professional relationships gone awry. The situation we manufactured but no longer want ownership of, and are too mortified to confess to its creation and too embarrassed to seek help. But Nancy Meyers masterfully tackles the complications of the divorced Jane and Jake Adler with such skill and wisdom that never again will I utter the words “it’s complicated” without a silent but joyous chuckle. This movie charms, pleases and succeeds in lifting the spirits to unchartered heights.
Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin are flawless. Their characters exude confidence, charm and vulnerability. They have been wounded; the scars are obvious, but endured. The screen pulsated with their humanness.
The trophy goes to Meyers. She climbed into the minds, hearts and psyches of “women of a certain age” turned them inside out, so the beauty within, the sensuality that never withers but intensifies with time spilled off the screen onto an audience relishing and rooting for a woman who could be a grandmother. Why not, can’t grandmothers be desirable?
Myers has been doing this for years (Something’s Gotta Give, What Women Want) but “It’s Complicated” is the 24 carat diamond in the crown. Her females are accomplished women; secure and mature. Primarily they like what they have become; the youthful unrealized fantasies are no substitute for the power of surmounting life’s obstacles, unscathed. Wrinkles, widening hips, drooping lids are badges to be flaunted, not flaws to be surgically erased. They are ensconced in beautiful but lived in homes; reflecting the security of their taste, not a decorators.
The script is hilarious; every line by every actor delivered with precise comedic timing.
Special applause to John Kraniski, whose portrayal of Harley, the soon to be son-in-law, is rich in subtle nuances.
The movie is most sensual in the cuisine creating scenes. You salivate as Jane (like Julia Child) prepares Croque Monsieurs (open-faced grilled cheese sandwiches) for Adam or at his request warm chocolate croissants in her shuttered pastry shop; ideal setting for an eventual assignation. Food and love, a partnership that satiates both the palate and the heart; a copious theme on the screen (Tom Jones, Julie/Julia) and the real world.
In conclusion it is Jake who says “It’s Complicated”. No impediment will halt Jane’s evolution to be a “woman of a certain age”, shining and thriving in every glorious minute.
FOUR & 1/2 STARS!
For Now…………
Peneflix
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
AVATAR
In Hinduism the word avatar, derived from the Sanskrit, avatana (incarnation) is primarily associated with the god Vishnu, the preserver. To straighten out the foibles of man he appears in human form; the two most recognized avatars are Krishna starring in the Mahabharata and Rama the hero in the Ramayana epic.
James Cameron’s (Titanic) Avatar is based on the 1992 book Cyber Punk by Neal Stephenson. You create your own three dimensional alter ego. Barely capable of navigating my DVR this is the culmination of my Virtual reality sensibility. But cloning I comprehend; never missing a party, how divine!
The story is preposterous but if you can suspend belief and don the three dimensional glasses you can enjoy the experience; although the bonding with one’s seat seems interminable.
We westerners have invaded Pandora (in Greek mythology the woman created specifically by Zeus to open the box and deluge the world with disease, evil, pain but softened with a sprinkle of hope); to mix with and understand the indigenous population and persuade them to relocate or suffer annihilation. The gestation occurs in a huge Petri tank and the process is fascinating.
The moral is achingly obvious; man’s greed for territorial expansion unchanged through the millenniums. An efficacious touch was the arrows vs. the artillery.
The actors, all gave notable performances but Stephen Lang, the epitome of military intransigence, is staggeringly real as Col. Miles Quaritch. He soars and scores a perfect missile in every scene.
What was problematic is the 3-dimensional filming technique; it has been around for many years yet never massively appealed to movie audiences.
The first attempt was in 1915 followed in 1922 by Power of Love at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The Italians and Russians venture into the genre in the 30’s and 40’s. The pivotal breakthrough was Warner Brother’s 3-D stereophonic sound, The House of Wax in 1953.
James Cameron a god in the film world creates the finest scenario for the 3-D experience. He eliminates the boundaries between the viewer and the film; we are in Pandora. Perhaps the flaw is the glasses; during the three hour Avatar I occasionally removed them and saw the blurred images and could no longer suspend my belief and with a shrug of the shoulders decided Pandora was not for me!
THREE STARS!
NINE
Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ opened in 1963. I was a student in Rome, Italy and this film, so revolutionary changed forever my expectations or satisfactions with the traditional Hollywood fare (Doris Day/Rock Hudson); guts, glory, fantasy and freedom, packaged so lusciously and sensually that Fellini became a shaman, guru to us expats in Rome.
Inebriates of Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimee, Anita Ekberg (La Dolce Vita); appetites never satiated, we went in ever expanding groups over and over to 8 ½, until every scene was permanently etched on our impressionable and fertile souls.
So my anticipatory taste buds were on high alert as I waited for the commencement of Rob Marshall’s (Chicago) rendition of Fellini’s 8 ½ …Nine. My hopes plummeted within minutes.
Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood) plays the stooped, tortured, ghoulish Guido, hiding behind dark glasses and cigarettes; so bereft of substance that at any second he might evaporate ghostlike in a haze of nicotine. He is a brilliant actor, miscast.
The plot revolves around the women he needs to survive; they are his sycophants. It is inscrutable what they see in him.
Fellini always said that 8 ½ referenced the number of films he had directed up to this point: not the women.
The women are resplendent. They sing, dance, gyrate, cry and pay homage to the dysfunctional Guido. Penelope Cruz (mistress) flawless; Marion Cotillard (wife) perfectly poignant; Nicole Kidman (muse) magnificent; Sophia Loren (mother) iconic;
Judi Dench (costume designer, his Edith Head) always dignified; Kate Hudson (journalist) completely compelling.
But the most sensational, lustfully luscious, Fergie (Black Eyed Peas) is mesmerizing as Saraghina, Guido’s youthful initiation into the enchantments of the female species. She bears a strong resemblance to Anita Ekberg and is hypnotic performing the only song worth humming or remembering, “Be Italian”.
A more satisfying two hours would be spent watching Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960),
8 ½, or my all time favorite Fellini flick, Juliet of the Sprits (1965).
Nine receives not 8 ½ but only………
TWO & 1/2 STARS!
For Now……..
Peneflix
AVATAR
In Hinduism the word avatar, derived from the Sanskrit, avatana (incarnation) is primarily associated with the god Vishnu, the preserver. To straighten out the foibles of man he appears in human form; the two most recognized avatars are Krishna starring in the Mahabharata and Rama the hero in the Ramayana epic.
James Cameron’s (Titanic) Avatar is based on the 1992 book Cyber Punk by Neal Stephenson. You create your own three dimensional alter ego. Barely capable of navigating my DVR this is the culmination of my Virtual reality sensibility. But cloning I comprehend; never missing a party, how divine!
The story is preposterous but if you can suspend belief and don the three dimensional glasses you can enjoy the experience; although the bonding with one’s seat seems interminable.
We westerners have invaded Pandora (in Greek mythology the woman created specifically by Zeus to open the box and deluge the world with disease, evil, pain but softened with a sprinkle of hope); to mix with and understand the indigenous population and persuade them to relocate or suffer annihilation. The gestation occurs in a huge Petri tank and the process is fascinating.
The moral is achingly obvious; man’s greed for territorial expansion unchanged through the millenniums. An efficacious touch was the arrows vs. the artillery.
The actors, all gave notable performances but Stephen Lang, the epitome of military intransigence, is staggeringly real as Col. Miles Quaritch. He soars and scores a perfect missile in every scene.
What was problematic is the 3-dimensional filming technique; it has been around for many years yet never massively appealed to movie audiences.
The first attempt was in 1915 followed in 1922 by Power of Love at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The Italians and Russians venture into the genre in the 30’s and 40’s. The pivotal breakthrough was Warner Brother’s 3-D stereophonic sound, The House of Wax in 1953.
James Cameron a god in the film world creates the finest scenario for the 3-D experience. He eliminates the boundaries between the viewer and the film; we are in Pandora. Perhaps the flaw is the glasses; during the three hour Avatar I occasionally removed them and saw the blurred images and could no longer suspend my belief and with a shrug of the shoulders decided Pandora was not for me!
THREE STARS!
NINE
Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ opened in 1963. I was a student in Rome, Italy and this film, so revolutionary changed forever my expectations or satisfactions with the traditional Hollywood fare (Doris Day/Rock Hudson); guts, glory, fantasy and freedom, packaged so lusciously and sensually that Fellini became a shaman, guru to us expats in Rome.
Inebriates of Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimee, Anita Ekberg (La Dolce Vita); appetites never satiated, we went in ever expanding groups over and over to 8 ½, until every scene was permanently etched on our impressionable and fertile souls.
So my anticipatory taste buds were on high alert as I waited for the commencement of Rob Marshall’s (Chicago) rendition of Fellini’s 8 ½ …Nine. My hopes plummeted within minutes.
Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood) plays the stooped, tortured, ghoulish Guido, hiding behind dark glasses and cigarettes; so bereft of substance that at any second he might evaporate ghostlike in a haze of nicotine. He is a brilliant actor, miscast.
The plot revolves around the women he needs to survive; they are his sycophants. It is inscrutable what they see in him.
Fellini always said that 8 ½ referenced the number of films he had directed up to this point: not the women.
The women are resplendent. They sing, dance, gyrate, cry and pay homage to the dysfunctional Guido. Penelope Cruz (mistress) flawless; Marion Cotillard (wife) perfectly poignant; Nicole Kidman (muse) magnificent; Sophia Loren (mother) iconic;
Judi Dench (costume designer, his Edith Head) always dignified; Kate Hudson (journalist) completely compelling.
But the most sensational, lustfully luscious, Fergie (Black Eyed Peas) is mesmerizing as Saraghina, Guido’s youthful initiation into the enchantments of the female species. She bears a strong resemblance to Anita Ekberg and is hypnotic performing the only song worth humming or remembering, “Be Italian”.
A more satisfying two hours would be spent watching Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960),
8 ½, or my all time favorite Fellini flick, Juliet of the Sprits (1965).
Nine receives not 8 ½ but only………
TWO & 1/2 STARS!
For Now……..
Peneflix
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
THE YOUNG VICTORIA & BROKEN EMBRACES
Never I have seen two movies in a twenty-four hour span that were so deliciously satiating; comparable to a titillating, palate- pampering dining experience, each exquisite swallow, gone but not forgotten.
THE YOUNG VICTORIA
The beguiling Emily Blount (The Devil Wears Prada) captures the innocence, grace and metal of the seventeen year old queen to be. Rupert Friend (Pride & Prejudice) is aptly cast as Albert, her cousin and suitor. Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind) gives a superb performance as Lord Melbourne, the politically adroit advisor to the inexperienced Queen.
Sara Ferguson adds a royal touch as a producer.
Julian Fellows (actor turned screen writer) won the Oscar for Gosford Park and will rank once again, among the contenders for this finely tuned piece of scripting.
Victoria and Albert both born in 1819; married in 1840; and with impressive fecundity produced nine children while ruling jointly over England’s economic and imperial expansion for twenty years.
This film is glorious to look at; the manicured English gardens, sculptured to perfection; the luscious opulence of the palaces; wardrobes and jewels glisten with excessive and stunning wealth.
Primarily this is a love story. Victoria as Queen must propose to the man of her choice and this is a scene that transcends their positions; two people who rise above the awkwardness and embrace as any loving couple would.
They also suffer the tensions of the first year of marriage: pregnancy, his role as the Queen’s husband and striving to come to terms with everyday life together.
The viewer will relate and rejoice as these trials are resolved.
As the film reached it conclusion, I silently screamed NO! Does this mean I have to leave? I stayed and watched every credit, the lights came on and the cleaning crew politely worked around me, until with dreaded alacrity I departed.
FOUR STARS!
BROKEN EMBRACES
This is the fourth and most successful pairing of Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz.
A partnership reminiscent of Pygmalion/Aphrodite, Svengali/Tilby, Professor Higgins/Eliza Doolittle. In the case of Almodovar and Cruz it has been mutually beneficial to both parties.
Penelope Cruz is rapturous, luminescent and at the peak of her powerful career; she is totally captivating and believable as Lena, the sprite who inspires love and obsession. It is a magical performance. She seems much more comfortable in her native tongue; audiences often feel that the character is diminished by an accent. She proved audiences wrong in garnishing the academy award for best supporting actress in Vicky, Cristina,
Barcelona!
I was emotionally ambushed from the first line. Without exception every character exudes humanness, flawed but genuine to the core. Mateo (aka Harry Caine) is given a depth of such magnitude by Lluis Homar that you empathize but not pity the man from the initial humorous moment.
Blanca Portillo as Judit is outstanding, she possess and controls and dominates every scene she appears in. Watching her was heart rendering. She is the glue that holds the story together; her catharsis is revolutionary in its candidness.
The story is unveiled in a series of flashbacks over a fourteen year period. It involves a love triangle, jealousy, and lessons in human fragility. The intimate scenes are passionate but not lewd; even hilarious and fraught with levity. There was not a maudlin or manipulative moment in this spectacular film.
Ultimately it is Penelope Cruz who takes full ownership for the success and vitality of Broken Embraces. There is one fleeting moment when she passes a Matisse like painting and her beauty matches and surpasses the work of art.
Leaving I realized with rarefied and painful clarity that all embraces are ephemeral and doomed to be broken.
FIVE STARS!
Caveat. For those of you who missed The Hurt Locker, it has been re-released. It is one of the best non-documentary war stories ever told. Kathryn Bigelow’s genius should be recognized by the Academy in the spring. It is a four star must see!
For Now…………Peneflix
THE YOUNG VICTORIA & BROKEN EMBRACES
Never I have seen two movies in a twenty-four hour span that were so deliciously satiating; comparable to a titillating, palate- pampering dining experience, each exquisite swallow, gone but not forgotten.
THE YOUNG VICTORIA
The beguiling Emily Blount (The Devil Wears Prada) captures the innocence, grace and metal of the seventeen year old queen to be. Rupert Friend (Pride & Prejudice) is aptly cast as Albert, her cousin and suitor. Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind) gives a superb performance as Lord Melbourne, the politically adroit advisor to the inexperienced Queen.
Sara Ferguson adds a royal touch as a producer.
Julian Fellows (actor turned screen writer) won the Oscar for Gosford Park and will rank once again, among the contenders for this finely tuned piece of scripting.
Victoria and Albert both born in 1819; married in 1840; and with impressive fecundity produced nine children while ruling jointly over England’s economic and imperial expansion for twenty years.
This film is glorious to look at; the manicured English gardens, sculptured to perfection; the luscious opulence of the palaces; wardrobes and jewels glisten with excessive and stunning wealth.
Primarily this is a love story. Victoria as Queen must propose to the man of her choice and this is a scene that transcends their positions; two people who rise above the awkwardness and embrace as any loving couple would.
They also suffer the tensions of the first year of marriage: pregnancy, his role as the Queen’s husband and striving to come to terms with everyday life together.
The viewer will relate and rejoice as these trials are resolved.
As the film reached it conclusion, I silently screamed NO! Does this mean I have to leave? I stayed and watched every credit, the lights came on and the cleaning crew politely worked around me, until with dreaded alacrity I departed.
FOUR STARS!
BROKEN EMBRACES
This is the fourth and most successful pairing of Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz.
A partnership reminiscent of Pygmalion/Aphrodite, Svengali/Tilby, Professor Higgins/Eliza Doolittle. In the case of Almodovar and Cruz it has been mutually beneficial to both parties.
Penelope Cruz is rapturous, luminescent and at the peak of her powerful career; she is totally captivating and believable as Lena, the sprite who inspires love and obsession. It is a magical performance. She seems much more comfortable in her native tongue; audiences often feel that the character is diminished by an accent. She proved audiences wrong in garnishing the academy award for best supporting actress in Vicky, Cristina,
Barcelona!
I was emotionally ambushed from the first line. Without exception every character exudes humanness, flawed but genuine to the core. Mateo (aka Harry Caine) is given a depth of such magnitude by Lluis Homar that you empathize but not pity the man from the initial humorous moment.
Blanca Portillo as Judit is outstanding, she possess and controls and dominates every scene she appears in. Watching her was heart rendering. She is the glue that holds the story together; her catharsis is revolutionary in its candidness.
The story is unveiled in a series of flashbacks over a fourteen year period. It involves a love triangle, jealousy, and lessons in human fragility. The intimate scenes are passionate but not lewd; even hilarious and fraught with levity. There was not a maudlin or manipulative moment in this spectacular film.
Ultimately it is Penelope Cruz who takes full ownership for the success and vitality of Broken Embraces. There is one fleeting moment when she passes a Matisse like painting and her beauty matches and surpasses the work of art.
Leaving I realized with rarefied and painful clarity that all embraces are ephemeral and doomed to be broken.
FIVE STARS!
Caveat. For those of you who missed The Hurt Locker, it has been re-released. It is one of the best non-documentary war stories ever told. Kathryn Bigelow’s genius should be recognized by the Academy in the spring. It is a four star must see!
For Now…………Peneflix
Friday, December 18, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
Yes, I have returned from a warm and luscious hiatus. While relishing the only place in the continental United States that was bathed in sunshine I still managed to sit in a darkened and cool theatre to view:
INVICTUS
After a week of digesting this film, another jewel by Clint Eastwood (a man who never tires of reinventing himself) I have reached the prescient conclusion that the poem Invictus is the true star of this movie.
It was written in 1875 by British poet William Ernest Henley (1849-1902). It is worthy of
repetition;
Invictus (unconquered in Latin)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods that be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
As a child Henley was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bone and eventually lost a foot to the disease. His spirit remained undaunted throughout his life. It was this poem that served as a beacon of fortitude for Nelson Mandela during his twenty- seven years of incarceration.
Morgan Freeman is Nelson Mandela; a role he was destined to play. So rarely does an actor have the attributes of the character he portrays, either real or fictional that the viewer could not fathom anyone else in the role. (Only Clark Gable could capture the inimitable charms and skullduggery of Rhett Butler; or Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice).
The plot revolves around the challenges Mandela had to conquer as the first black president of South Africa; he legitimately feared polarization and brilliantly decided that the game of rugby was the chemical needed to narrow the monumental divide between the Afrikaners and the blacks they so loathed and feared. He goes against the advice of his aids and keeps the Springbok mascot (gazelle), a symbol of oppression and white domination. He enlists as his disciple the captain of the Springbok team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) and together conceive the illusive miracle……winning the World Cup in one years’ time.
Pienaar’s conversion fueled by Invictus is masterfully crafted. Matt Damon, accent and all, gives Pienaar the gentle grace and strength of a leader without a splash of sentimentality.
Watching the film I realized that something was lacking. Looking for a depth at least a thousand leagues under the sea; but instead remained at the lake level. Maybe Morgan Freeman’s imitation of Mandela was too perfect. Or possibly an over abundance of the rugby game and its rutting sound effects.
Nelson Mandela is an icon of our modern times, almost godlike in his accomplishments.
Always in the top ten of whom you would “like to have as a dinner partner”. But as I watched the film, lines from a poem by Richard Lovelace waltzed through my mind:
Stone walls do not a prison make
Nor iron bars a cage
Minds innocent and quiet
Take that for a hermitage.
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free
Angels alone, that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.
Nelson Mandela is a dazzling example that there are no shackles that can hinder the flight of a soul so pure it reigns with the celestial.
THREE & 1/2 STARS!
For Now……….Peneflix
Yes, I have returned from a warm and luscious hiatus. While relishing the only place in the continental United States that was bathed in sunshine I still managed to sit in a darkened and cool theatre to view:
INVICTUS
After a week of digesting this film, another jewel by Clint Eastwood (a man who never tires of reinventing himself) I have reached the prescient conclusion that the poem Invictus is the true star of this movie.
It was written in 1875 by British poet William Ernest Henley (1849-1902). It is worthy of
repetition;
Invictus (unconquered in Latin)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods that be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
As a child Henley was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bone and eventually lost a foot to the disease. His spirit remained undaunted throughout his life. It was this poem that served as a beacon of fortitude for Nelson Mandela during his twenty- seven years of incarceration.
Morgan Freeman is Nelson Mandela; a role he was destined to play. So rarely does an actor have the attributes of the character he portrays, either real or fictional that the viewer could not fathom anyone else in the role. (Only Clark Gable could capture the inimitable charms and skullduggery of Rhett Butler; or Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice).
The plot revolves around the challenges Mandela had to conquer as the first black president of South Africa; he legitimately feared polarization and brilliantly decided that the game of rugby was the chemical needed to narrow the monumental divide between the Afrikaners and the blacks they so loathed and feared. He goes against the advice of his aids and keeps the Springbok mascot (gazelle), a symbol of oppression and white domination. He enlists as his disciple the captain of the Springbok team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) and together conceive the illusive miracle……winning the World Cup in one years’ time.
Pienaar’s conversion fueled by Invictus is masterfully crafted. Matt Damon, accent and all, gives Pienaar the gentle grace and strength of a leader without a splash of sentimentality.
Watching the film I realized that something was lacking. Looking for a depth at least a thousand leagues under the sea; but instead remained at the lake level. Maybe Morgan Freeman’s imitation of Mandela was too perfect. Or possibly an over abundance of the rugby game and its rutting sound effects.
Nelson Mandela is an icon of our modern times, almost godlike in his accomplishments.
Always in the top ten of whom you would “like to have as a dinner partner”. But as I watched the film, lines from a poem by Richard Lovelace waltzed through my mind:
Stone walls do not a prison make
Nor iron bars a cage
Minds innocent and quiet
Take that for a hermitage.
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free
Angels alone, that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.
Nelson Mandela is a dazzling example that there are no shackles that can hinder the flight of a soul so pure it reigns with the celestial.
THREE & 1/2 STARS!
For Now……….Peneflix
Monday, December 7, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
BROTHERS
This is a well acted but not quite successful film. It is based on the 2004 movie Brodre by Danish director Susanne Bier (After the Wedding, Things We Lost in the Fire). The film’s success or failure rests with director Jim Sheridan. The subject matter, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and its victims is indeed timely and worthy of consideration. The Cahill family Sam, Tommy and Grace represent ordinary people living in extraordinary times.
Sam (Toby Maguire) is the flawless son of a military family; Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) the ne’er-do well son, an ex con, the perfect black sheep; Grace (Natalie Portman) the exquisite, ideal wife of soldier Sam. The plot revolves around Sam’s return to Afghanistan, being shot down, captured and tortured by the Taliban. Meanwhile back home Sam is presumed dead, buried and his grief ridden family struggles with the aftermath of eviscerating loss.
The patness and predictability of the story; the stereotypical Taliban; the metamorphosis of the characters all flowed downstream into a pool of mediocrity.
The movie is saved by the actors who are still young enough that their off screen personas have yet to transcend their screen roles (Fates suffered by Barbra Streisand and Oprah Winfrey). Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain) is gifted at portraying the vulnerable wounded soul and is mesmerizing as Tommy. Natalie Portman (Closer and The Other Boleyn Girl) elevated the act of crying to the Olympic level and remains ethereal with each tear. Toby Maguire (better known as Peter Parker, Spider Man) does the Hyde to Jekyll transformation too convincingly for my taste; but is a talent still evolving.
See, if you have two free hours and enjoy watching three actors in the embryonic stage of their film careers.
TWO AND 1/2 STARS!
UP IN THE AIR
A week ago I saw and reviewed The Messenger. The protagonist in Up in the Air, directed by Jason Reitman (Juno), is Ryan Bingham played with unwavering charm by George Clooney, a messenger in an unusual category. He flies with limited baggage around the country firing employees of companies that management lacks the courage to terminate personally. He tries, with great skill and aplomb, to spin a positive side to their trauma. These interviews played primarily by real individuals who have been euphemistically “down sized” are the focal point, and most successful aspect of the film.
Mr. Clooney whose countenance has improved with age gives a credible performance; Ryan Bingham blissfully accepts his flaws but is not intransigent to change. The catalyst for his development rests in the powers of two women. Alex (Vera Farmiga) sexually provocative and just as savvy in negotiating the elite lane of frequent fliers. Ryan’s goal is to achieve the ten million mile stratosphere, where the air is purified and shared by a privileged few. And Natalie (played with comedic brilliance by Anna Kendrick) the precocious twenty three year old hired to ground the “Ryan’s” of the corporation by firing folks via video conferencing. Natalie’s epiphany is profound.
The movie is entertaining but both Reitman and Clooney have reached higher professional peaks. Reitman’s Thank You for Smoking should be at the pinnacle of your Netflix list. Clooney’s Intolerable Cruelty exhibits his comedic flair and adroitness to perfection.
There are many contemplative messages in Up in the Air but unfortunately for the viewer it never maximizes its cruising altitude.
THREE STARS!
For Now……………..Peneflix
BROTHERS
This is a well acted but not quite successful film. It is based on the 2004 movie Brodre by Danish director Susanne Bier (After the Wedding, Things We Lost in the Fire). The film’s success or failure rests with director Jim Sheridan. The subject matter, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and its victims is indeed timely and worthy of consideration. The Cahill family Sam, Tommy and Grace represent ordinary people living in extraordinary times.
Sam (Toby Maguire) is the flawless son of a military family; Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) the ne’er-do well son, an ex con, the perfect black sheep; Grace (Natalie Portman) the exquisite, ideal wife of soldier Sam. The plot revolves around Sam’s return to Afghanistan, being shot down, captured and tortured by the Taliban. Meanwhile back home Sam is presumed dead, buried and his grief ridden family struggles with the aftermath of eviscerating loss.
The patness and predictability of the story; the stereotypical Taliban; the metamorphosis of the characters all flowed downstream into a pool of mediocrity.
The movie is saved by the actors who are still young enough that their off screen personas have yet to transcend their screen roles (Fates suffered by Barbra Streisand and Oprah Winfrey). Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain) is gifted at portraying the vulnerable wounded soul and is mesmerizing as Tommy. Natalie Portman (Closer and The Other Boleyn Girl) elevated the act of crying to the Olympic level and remains ethereal with each tear. Toby Maguire (better known as Peter Parker, Spider Man) does the Hyde to Jekyll transformation too convincingly for my taste; but is a talent still evolving.
See, if you have two free hours and enjoy watching three actors in the embryonic stage of their film careers.
TWO AND 1/2 STARS!
UP IN THE AIR
A week ago I saw and reviewed The Messenger. The protagonist in Up in the Air, directed by Jason Reitman (Juno), is Ryan Bingham played with unwavering charm by George Clooney, a messenger in an unusual category. He flies with limited baggage around the country firing employees of companies that management lacks the courage to terminate personally. He tries, with great skill and aplomb, to spin a positive side to their trauma. These interviews played primarily by real individuals who have been euphemistically “down sized” are the focal point, and most successful aspect of the film.
Mr. Clooney whose countenance has improved with age gives a credible performance; Ryan Bingham blissfully accepts his flaws but is not intransigent to change. The catalyst for his development rests in the powers of two women. Alex (Vera Farmiga) sexually provocative and just as savvy in negotiating the elite lane of frequent fliers. Ryan’s goal is to achieve the ten million mile stratosphere, where the air is purified and shared by a privileged few. And Natalie (played with comedic brilliance by Anna Kendrick) the precocious twenty three year old hired to ground the “Ryan’s” of the corporation by firing folks via video conferencing. Natalie’s epiphany is profound.
The movie is entertaining but both Reitman and Clooney have reached higher professional peaks. Reitman’s Thank You for Smoking should be at the pinnacle of your Netflix list. Clooney’s Intolerable Cruelty exhibits his comedic flair and adroitness to perfection.
There are many contemplative messages in Up in the Air but unfortunately for the viewer it never maximizes its cruising altitude.
THREE STARS!
For Now……………..Peneflix
Friday, December 4, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
Like many of you I have never been a fan of movies depicting massive world wide annihilation; especially the destruction of our United States. The majority of us are particularly sensitive after the catastrophic effects of 9/11. That being noted I did see two films where the universe as we know it has seen the apocalypse or is in the process of experiencing it. The best of the pair is………
THE ROAD
This movie is based on Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 Pulitzer winning novel. It is eerily enticing and at the same time disturbingly depressing. We are unaware of the cosmic reason for the death of civilization but know that most who survived have resorted to cannibalism and bestiality to move through each bleak and grueling day. The barren but still smoldering landscape adds unmitigating tension to every waking and sleeping moment.
The movie is brilliantly acted by Viggo Mortensen as a father whose sole mission is to keep his son alive and unharmed. The son played by Kodi Smit-McPhee; so perfect is his characterization of a child whose world has only witnessed starvation and evil, you mourn his never realized innocence.
The essence and the beauty lie in the unwavering bond of dignity, affection, poignancy and love that only increases in strength as they travel the road to the sun. Their devotion is palpable and constantly compelling.
Wonderful cameo roles by Charlize Theron as the wife and mother who lacked the fortitude to thrive is this altered state; Robert Duvall, barely recognizable as one of the “good guys”; and Guy Pearce, the ultimate knight.
This is a dark, rough and brutal film but for those who endure, its message is refined and purified, an unexpected gift.
FOUR STARS!
2012
Some believe that it took less than a week to create the universe. What can one say about a film that cost over 200 million dollars and seemed interminable before the catastrophic conclusion?
Destruction can have its entertaining value: Godzilla vs. Tokyo; King Kong vs. New York; James Bond vs. any and all evil empires! But here all boundaries and continents (except parts of Africa) are erased and the process actually becomes boring; very Warholian, repetition breeds ennui.
This is not a bad film; it is just not a great one. Based on the nonfiction book Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock, it deals with the heating of the earth’s core resulting in crustal displacement…………….hence flooding to rival Noah’s trials. There is even a scene where animal pairings are being hoisted on board major water vehicles!
The actors, in different stages of horror, meet the directorial challenges. Especially the ubiquitous Woody Harrelson (the man never takes a vacation), as a shaman or soothsayer.
John Cusak, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Amanda Peet, escape the ridiculous by feats of physical dexterity and calm under insurmountable pressure. Vintage stars, Danny Glover and George Segal add a touch of class and depth to the film.
But all the actors are secondary to the special effects, at times tedious, but still stunning in their virtuosity.
On the positive side, we have two years to book our ark, and with any luck, use miles for an upgrade.
TWO & ½ STARS!
For Now…………….
Peneflix
Like many of you I have never been a fan of movies depicting massive world wide annihilation; especially the destruction of our United States. The majority of us are particularly sensitive after the catastrophic effects of 9/11. That being noted I did see two films where the universe as we know it has seen the apocalypse or is in the process of experiencing it. The best of the pair is………
THE ROAD
This movie is based on Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 Pulitzer winning novel. It is eerily enticing and at the same time disturbingly depressing. We are unaware of the cosmic reason for the death of civilization but know that most who survived have resorted to cannibalism and bestiality to move through each bleak and grueling day. The barren but still smoldering landscape adds unmitigating tension to every waking and sleeping moment.
The movie is brilliantly acted by Viggo Mortensen as a father whose sole mission is to keep his son alive and unharmed. The son played by Kodi Smit-McPhee; so perfect is his characterization of a child whose world has only witnessed starvation and evil, you mourn his never realized innocence.
The essence and the beauty lie in the unwavering bond of dignity, affection, poignancy and love that only increases in strength as they travel the road to the sun. Their devotion is palpable and constantly compelling.
Wonderful cameo roles by Charlize Theron as the wife and mother who lacked the fortitude to thrive is this altered state; Robert Duvall, barely recognizable as one of the “good guys”; and Guy Pearce, the ultimate knight.
This is a dark, rough and brutal film but for those who endure, its message is refined and purified, an unexpected gift.
FOUR STARS!
2012
Some believe that it took less than a week to create the universe. What can one say about a film that cost over 200 million dollars and seemed interminable before the catastrophic conclusion?
Destruction can have its entertaining value: Godzilla vs. Tokyo; King Kong vs. New York; James Bond vs. any and all evil empires! But here all boundaries and continents (except parts of Africa) are erased and the process actually becomes boring; very Warholian, repetition breeds ennui.
This is not a bad film; it is just not a great one. Based on the nonfiction book Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock, it deals with the heating of the earth’s core resulting in crustal displacement…………….hence flooding to rival Noah’s trials. There is even a scene where animal pairings are being hoisted on board major water vehicles!
The actors, in different stages of horror, meet the directorial challenges. Especially the ubiquitous Woody Harrelson (the man never takes a vacation), as a shaman or soothsayer.
John Cusak, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Amanda Peet, escape the ridiculous by feats of physical dexterity and calm under insurmountable pressure. Vintage stars, Danny Glover and George Segal add a touch of class and depth to the film.
But all the actors are secondary to the special effects, at times tedious, but still stunning in their virtuosity.
On the positive side, we have two years to book our ark, and with any luck, use miles for an upgrade.
TWO & ½ STARS!
For Now…………….
Peneflix
Monday, November 30, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
Because I have yet to pass my son’s technology 101 course, I inadvertently deleted the second section of my Blog yesterday! I also see movies that appeal to me on a certain level but I do not review in depth……….
LA DANSE
Frederick Wiseman’s documentary of the Paris Opera Ballet will entertain those who are fascinated with the agility and liquidity that the human body can attain with years of practice. A marvelous testimonial to the fact that women and men can challenge gravity and touch the sky.
FOUR STARS!
FANTASTIC MR. FOX
There are not enough adjectives in Webster’s Dictionary to describe this spectacular, enchanting, whimsical animated film. All ages will be transported and rejoice in the incredible anthropomorphic characters; they become our friends and we root for their escapes and conquests.
The Fantastic Mr. Fox will live comfortably with Wall-E and Ratatouille in the echelons of iconic twenty first century film animation.
Hats or “tails” off to the incomparable Wes Anderson and Roald Dahl for this lusciously magical screen gem!
FIVE STARS!
THE MESSENGER
We have all heard the expression, “don’t kill the messenger” and have grasped its meaning but this raw and intestine wrenching tale brings our understanding to the highest level. Who considers the emotional status of these harbingers of death? The victim’s pain is accepted but the men and women who deliver the life altering blow have escaped our empathy. Due to the noble and stunning performances of Ben Foster, Samantha Morton and the ubiquitous Woody Harrelson these envoys have risen to the forefront of our consciousness; never, ever to recede.
FOUR STARS!
For Now
Peneflix
Because I have yet to pass my son’s technology 101 course, I inadvertently deleted the second section of my Blog yesterday! I also see movies that appeal to me on a certain level but I do not review in depth……….
LA DANSE
Frederick Wiseman’s documentary of the Paris Opera Ballet will entertain those who are fascinated with the agility and liquidity that the human body can attain with years of practice. A marvelous testimonial to the fact that women and men can challenge gravity and touch the sky.
FOUR STARS!
FANTASTIC MR. FOX
There are not enough adjectives in Webster’s Dictionary to describe this spectacular, enchanting, whimsical animated film. All ages will be transported and rejoice in the incredible anthropomorphic characters; they become our friends and we root for their escapes and conquests.
The Fantastic Mr. Fox will live comfortably with Wall-E and Ratatouille in the echelons of iconic twenty first century film animation.
Hats or “tails” off to the incomparable Wes Anderson and Roald Dahl for this lusciously magical screen gem!
FIVE STARS!
THE MESSENGER
We have all heard the expression, “don’t kill the messenger” and have grasped its meaning but this raw and intestine wrenching tale brings our understanding to the highest level. Who considers the emotional status of these harbingers of death? The victim’s pain is accepted but the men and women who deliver the life altering blow have escaped our empathy. Due to the noble and stunning performances of Ben Foster, Samantha Morton and the ubiquitous Woody Harrelson these envoys have risen to the forefront of our consciousness; never, ever to recede.
FOUR STARS!
For Now
Peneflix
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
Many of you have asked if I review every movie I see. The answer is a resounding NO!
Some are totally non reviewable. Viewing them falls into the category of self flagellation. Case in point………
LAW ABIDING CITIZEN
There is not enough chocolate in the universe to induce me to waste a precious brain wave on this atrocity.
THE BAD LIEUTENANT
Having read of Nicholas Cage’s financial debacles; aggravation with his money manager and the trials of divesting a myriad of castles, sprinkled around the globe. His quest for the material has imprisoned his common sense. Here we have a prime example of the Peter Principle as his character deteriorates his rank accelerates; hopefully he can blame a petit mal seizure on this despicable display of over acting. It is modern tragedy to see a talent so divine plummet to such depths.
(UNTITLED)
As I sat in the theatre with seven other people I wondered what the rest of the movie goers knew that we didn’t.
As a major contemporary art aficionado I looked forward to this ironic parody of today’s art world. But alas what could have been a major entertainment was an exercise in excruciating dullness and boredom.
Adam Goldberg (oh, he with the perpetual scowl) plays a musician who decides to commit suicide if his talents and skills were not recognized within three years; in my estimation six months would have been sufficient. His scores (with a bucket as a major instrument) imitate John Cage, but totaling lacking his brilliance. His equally ungifted brother is a bland decorative art painter.
The only reason I suffered through this worthless exercise of endurance was the performance of the gallery owner, Madeleine, wonderfully played by Marley Shelton.
She had the “art speak” down to a science; she looked at a pin stuck in a wall and took it to the Zen level.
I read that a work of art has a soul; this film was artless, heartless and unequivocally soulless.
Three out of eight left the theatre in wonderment that less than two hours seemed like an eternity!
THREE STARLESS MOVIES
For Now……………..
Peneflix
Many of you have asked if I review every movie I see. The answer is a resounding NO!
Some are totally non reviewable. Viewing them falls into the category of self flagellation. Case in point………
LAW ABIDING CITIZEN
There is not enough chocolate in the universe to induce me to waste a precious brain wave on this atrocity.
THE BAD LIEUTENANT
Having read of Nicholas Cage’s financial debacles; aggravation with his money manager and the trials of divesting a myriad of castles, sprinkled around the globe. His quest for the material has imprisoned his common sense. Here we have a prime example of the Peter Principle as his character deteriorates his rank accelerates; hopefully he can blame a petit mal seizure on this despicable display of over acting. It is modern tragedy to see a talent so divine plummet to such depths.
(UNTITLED)
As I sat in the theatre with seven other people I wondered what the rest of the movie goers knew that we didn’t.
As a major contemporary art aficionado I looked forward to this ironic parody of today’s art world. But alas what could have been a major entertainment was an exercise in excruciating dullness and boredom.
Adam Goldberg (oh, he with the perpetual scowl) plays a musician who decides to commit suicide if his talents and skills were not recognized within three years; in my estimation six months would have been sufficient. His scores (with a bucket as a major instrument) imitate John Cage, but totaling lacking his brilliance. His equally ungifted brother is a bland decorative art painter.
The only reason I suffered through this worthless exercise of endurance was the performance of the gallery owner, Madeleine, wonderfully played by Marley Shelton.
She had the “art speak” down to a science; she looked at a pin stuck in a wall and took it to the Zen level.
I read that a work of art has a soul; this film was artless, heartless and unequivocally soulless.
Three out of eight left the theatre in wonderment that less than two hours seemed like an eternity!
THREE STARLESS MOVIES
For Now……………..
Peneflix
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
It was a coincidence that I saw two movies revolving around nonfictional subjects. Both movies should be seen. Both share differences and similarities.
THE BLIND SIDE
My entire life has been surrounded by men and women who are addicted to anyone or anything that moves competitively: football, baseball, basketball, wrestling, roller skating, beach volleyball, ice hockey, floor hockey, Indy 500. You get the picture. I prefer the movie versions of these spectacles; they are shorter and sans commercial breaks!
Here Sandra Bullock (Miss Congeniality) stars as Leigh Anne Touhy, the wealthy crusader who champions the cause of Michael (Big Mike) Oher, sensitively depicted by Quinton Aaron. This is Bullock’s finest performance in years; she is back on the radar screen as a performer to watch.
Michael Oher, at six feet eight inches and three hundred and seventy-two pounds, was homeless and living on the streets of Memphis, Tennessee when he was rescued by Leigh Anne Touhy; she transforms him into a giant in the world of football. He was the first round draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens (intriguing that so many teams have sobriquets of predatory animals: bears, lions, tigers, bulls, diamondbacks) in 2009. He is an offensive tackle, protecting the blind side of the quarterback.
This is a feel-good movie, a love story and easy to watch. Particularly entertaining were the coaches playing themselves: Nick Saban, Lou Holtz, and Phil Fulmer. But the movie soared when Jay Head (playing S.J. Touhy, the precocious and youngest member of the family) negotiates his perks with each coach; he is gifted and his timing prodigious.
In conclusion, I feel all films relating to athletics should be reviewed by sport reporters; those educated in the “picks” and “plays” of the game. So many of these intricacies are lost on us neophytes. In gratitude to Leigh Anne Touhy (and my husband) I grasp “The Blind Side” and recommend that this is a movie worth SEEING!
THREE STARS
SKIN
A fascinating account of Sandra Laing, born in the 1950’s in South Africa to Afrikaners. They are white, Sandra is black. Her troubles commence when she was enrolled at ten in a private Christian school; during apartheid one was classified according to race or color. Her parents battled the courts to have her classified as white; this classification earns devastation and pain to all parties.
Lacking current technology her heritage was never tested; she chose to live in a black world, a decision rejected by her parents.
Beautifully acted by the dimpled Sophie Okonedo, as Sandra: Sam Neill, as her dominating and oftentimes cruel father: Alice Krige, as her devoted but weak mother.
I was troubled and found hard to accept the naïveté or color blindness of Sandra’s parents. Afrikaners were of Dutch, German or French ancestry who ventured to Africa with the Dutch East India Company in the seventeenth century; somehow in all those centuries a dash of color invaded the gene pool. Cause for celebration not castigation. In fairness it is challenging to imagine a world where “color” completely defines the quality of one’s existence. Reminiscent of pre-Civil War days in this country.
William Kentridge, the South African artist, has dedicated his life and talents to keeping the world aware of the egregious crimes perpetrated by apartheid. “Skin” adds another dose of consciousness to this dead—but always remembered—travesty.
FOUR STARS! (Out of a possible 5)
For Now
Peneflix
It was a coincidence that I saw two movies revolving around nonfictional subjects. Both movies should be seen. Both share differences and similarities.
THE BLIND SIDE
My entire life has been surrounded by men and women who are addicted to anyone or anything that moves competitively: football, baseball, basketball, wrestling, roller skating, beach volleyball, ice hockey, floor hockey, Indy 500. You get the picture. I prefer the movie versions of these spectacles; they are shorter and sans commercial breaks!
Here Sandra Bullock (Miss Congeniality) stars as Leigh Anne Touhy, the wealthy crusader who champions the cause of Michael (Big Mike) Oher, sensitively depicted by Quinton Aaron. This is Bullock’s finest performance in years; she is back on the radar screen as a performer to watch.
Michael Oher, at six feet eight inches and three hundred and seventy-two pounds, was homeless and living on the streets of Memphis, Tennessee when he was rescued by Leigh Anne Touhy; she transforms him into a giant in the world of football. He was the first round draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens (intriguing that so many teams have sobriquets of predatory animals: bears, lions, tigers, bulls, diamondbacks) in 2009. He is an offensive tackle, protecting the blind side of the quarterback.
This is a feel-good movie, a love story and easy to watch. Particularly entertaining were the coaches playing themselves: Nick Saban, Lou Holtz, and Phil Fulmer. But the movie soared when Jay Head (playing S.J. Touhy, the precocious and youngest member of the family) negotiates his perks with each coach; he is gifted and his timing prodigious.
In conclusion, I feel all films relating to athletics should be reviewed by sport reporters; those educated in the “picks” and “plays” of the game. So many of these intricacies are lost on us neophytes. In gratitude to Leigh Anne Touhy (and my husband) I grasp “The Blind Side” and recommend that this is a movie worth SEEING!
THREE STARS
SKIN
A fascinating account of Sandra Laing, born in the 1950’s in South Africa to Afrikaners. They are white, Sandra is black. Her troubles commence when she was enrolled at ten in a private Christian school; during apartheid one was classified according to race or color. Her parents battled the courts to have her classified as white; this classification earns devastation and pain to all parties.
Lacking current technology her heritage was never tested; she chose to live in a black world, a decision rejected by her parents.
Beautifully acted by the dimpled Sophie Okonedo, as Sandra: Sam Neill, as her dominating and oftentimes cruel father: Alice Krige, as her devoted but weak mother.
I was troubled and found hard to accept the naïveté or color blindness of Sandra’s parents. Afrikaners were of Dutch, German or French ancestry who ventured to Africa with the Dutch East India Company in the seventeenth century; somehow in all those centuries a dash of color invaded the gene pool. Cause for celebration not castigation. In fairness it is challenging to imagine a world where “color” completely defines the quality of one’s existence. Reminiscent of pre-Civil War days in this country.
William Kentridge, the South African artist, has dedicated his life and talents to keeping the world aware of the egregious crimes perpetrated by apartheid. “Skin” adds another dose of consciousness to this dead—but always remembered—travesty.
FOUR STARS! (Out of a possible 5)
For Now
Peneflix
Monday, November 23, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
FELLOW MOVIE LOVERS
AGORA
On a recent trip to Spain I opted to succumb to my addiction and went to a movie. I was thrilled to discover that Alejandro Amenabar’s (The Sea Inside, a classic favorite) Agora with the magnificent Rachel Weisz had just premièred in Madrid.
Unfortunately, the movie fell far short of my expectations! What I did admire was the courage of Amenabar and Weisz in tackling one of antiquities most inimitable women, Hypatia. Hypatia, the beautiful, brainy mathematician and astronomer living and teaching in Alexandria, Egypt in approximately 400 A.D.
She was the daughter of Theon also a mathematician who encouraged her intellectual poweress. She became the head of the Neoplatonist school of philosophy in Alexandria. She symbolized learning and science which the early Christians identified as pagan. Hence the challenge and essence of the movie; she refuses to convert and her fate is inevitable.
Always loving and lusting after the spectacle; there can never be enough plagues, chariot races, sea partings to satisfy my cravings but a little knowledge is a dangerous thing; so many of the battle scenes looked digitally produced. Only the sacking of the Alexandria library, a citadel of knowledge, proved realistic.
The religious conflicts and conquests: pagans killing Christians, Christians sacrificing and murdering pagans and Jews became at times tedious and tiresome. Only the personal aspects of Hypatia’s life held my attention. She taught some of the greatest male minds of the period but rejected their advances, more inclined to study the movement of the earth and planets and whether or not the earth is round or flat.
There have always been women of vision and wisdom, real or mythological: the artist Anselm Kiefer in his book Women of Antiquity ranks Hypatia along with Lilith, Pandora and Queen Zenobia as a foremost member of these visionaries.
Amenabar and Weisz have resurrected Hypatia and her remarkable mind, and instead of
Antiquity proves that she is indeed a woman for all centuries.
TWO & ½ STARS
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE
It is always stimulating and refreshing to see a totally unique, untold topic on the screen: Precious exceeded all of my expectations! This is a brutal, bestial, painful, one of the worst “man’s inhumanity to man” ever portrayed but yet a resplendent tale of survival. Survival of the soul.
Gabourey Sidibe as Precious gives a performance that rivals any first time actor I have witnessed in years; she is riveting. Precious is treated as a slave by her mother and father;
castigated, maligned, humiliated; their cat is cherished, she is hated. They want to keep her fat, illiterate and worthless; she is there to serve, in every degrading category.
Lee Daniels genius is that he never allowed the script to sink into sentimentality; even the fantasy sequences where Precious sees herself romanced, wrapped in fame and adoration adds levity and laughter to an audience inebriated with pain.
Precious’s salvation commences with her being admitted to an alternative school; she is at sixteen pregnant with her second child. Here she is treated with respect, not imagined but real by her teacher Blu Rain (sensitively acted by Paula Patton); who prodigiously plods Precious to write and to read; she is the angel tantamount to Mary’s (Precious’s mother) Satan: evil so tangible it hurts to watch. Mo’Nique is astounding in the role.
Maria Carey shines in a cameo role as a social worker; the most pivotal scene takes place in her office between her, Precious and Mary. The content so virulent, it is beyond comprehension.
Above all Precious, no matter how battered and shamed she was at home; no matter her physical and mental vicissitudes (she did have an aptitude for math); she took time with her appearance, always accessorizing and styling her hair; this poignancy was so pure and such an indication of the beauty within that yes, if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Precious will live forever as a screen icon!
FOUR STARS!
AGORA
On a recent trip to Spain I opted to succumb to my addiction and went to a movie. I was thrilled to discover that Alejandro Amenabar’s (The Sea Inside, a classic favorite) Agora with the magnificent Rachel Weisz had just premièred in Madrid.
Unfortunately, the movie fell far short of my expectations! What I did admire was the courage of Amenabar and Weisz in tackling one of antiquities most inimitable women, Hypatia. Hypatia, the beautiful, brainy mathematician and astronomer living and teaching in Alexandria, Egypt in approximately 400 A.D.
She was the daughter of Theon also a mathematician who encouraged her intellectual poweress. She became the head of the Neoplatonist school of philosophy in Alexandria. She symbolized learning and science which the early Christians identified as pagan. Hence the challenge and essence of the movie; she refuses to convert and her fate is inevitable.
Always loving and lusting after the spectacle; there can never be enough plagues, chariot races, sea partings to satisfy my cravings but a little knowledge is a dangerous thing; so many of the battle scenes looked digitally produced. Only the sacking of the Alexandria library, a citadel of knowledge, proved realistic.
The religious conflicts and conquests: pagans killing Christians, Christians sacrificing and murdering pagans and Jews became at times tedious and tiresome. Only the personal aspects of Hypatia’s life held my attention. She taught some of the greatest male minds of the period but rejected their advances, more inclined to study the movement of the earth and planets and whether or not the earth is round or flat.
There have always been women of vision and wisdom, real or mythological: the artist Anselm Kiefer in his book Women of Antiquity ranks Hypatia along with Lilith, Pandora and Queen Zenobia as a foremost member of these visionaries.
Amenabar and Weisz have resurrected Hypatia and her remarkable mind, and instead of
Antiquity proves that she is indeed a woman for all centuries.
TWO & ½ STARS
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE
It is always stimulating and refreshing to see a totally unique, untold topic on the screen: Precious exceeded all of my expectations! This is a brutal, bestial, painful, one of the worst “man’s inhumanity to man” ever portrayed but yet a resplendent tale of survival. Survival of the soul.
Gabourey Sidibe as Precious gives a performance that rivals any first time actor I have witnessed in years; she is riveting. Precious is treated as a slave by her mother and father;
castigated, maligned, humiliated; their cat is cherished, she is hated. They want to keep her fat, illiterate and worthless; she is there to serve, in every degrading category.
Lee Daniels genius is that he never allowed the script to sink into sentimentality; even the fantasy sequences where Precious sees herself romanced, wrapped in fame and adoration adds levity and laughter to an audience inebriated with pain.
Precious’s salvation commences with her being admitted to an alternative school; she is at sixteen pregnant with her second child. Here she is treated with respect, not imagined but real by her teacher Blu Rain (sensitively acted by Paula Patton); who prodigiously plods Precious to write and to read; she is the angel tantamount to Mary’s (Precious’s mother) Satan: evil so tangible it hurts to watch. Mo’Nique is astounding in the role.
Maria Carey shines in a cameo role as a social worker; the most pivotal scene takes place in her office between her, Precious and Mary. The content so virulent, it is beyond comprehension.
Above all Precious, no matter how battered and shamed she was at home; no matter her physical and mental vicissitudes (she did have an aptitude for math); she took time with her appearance, always accessorizing and styling her hair; this poignancy was so pure and such an indication of the beauty within that yes, if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Precious will live forever as a screen icon!
FOUR STARS!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
Questions asked and hopefully answered:
Sequence of reviews. I review them as I view them: there is no hierarchy.
I will address the sensitive issues in An Education.
AMELIA
Amelia Earhart was born in 1897 as the Victorian Age was waning and she vanished in 1937 days before her fortieth birthday. She was a crusader a visionary and a feminist before the word was coined. She rebelled against a male dominated world; she could not vote until she was twenty-three because the nineteenth amendment, giving women the right to vote was not passed until 1920. She lived through the rise of Gandhi, Mao, Hitler and the Empire State Building. But it was the Wright Brothers and their glider (airplane) that touched her soul and inspired her passion for flying; flying for freedom and fun. She never deviated or was deterred from her quest.
Mira Nair (The Namesake, Monsoon Wedding) portrays this icon of aviation with a keen eye and the sensitivity Amelia so richly deserves.
Hilary Swank, two time Academy Award winner (Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby) climbs into the mind, heart and imagination of Amelia and creates one of the greatest screen biographies of this century. Her physical resemblance to Amelia is uncanny; she captures her voice (Amelia’s gifted prose), mannerisms and ambition without sinking into the sentimental or sensational. It is a performance worthy of the highest accolades.
Richard Gere as George Putnam, Amelia’s publicist, lover and eventual husband is credible, but lacking the strength and depth required of the role. Fortunately the camera still loves this aging charismatic star.
The music, especially Cole Porter’s You Do Something to Me and the luscious cinematography tug at one’s heartstrings and tear ducts, adds an audio and visual dimension to this beautiful film.
Amelia Earhart, thanks to the talents of Mira Nair and Hilary Swank, will forever inspire both women and men to fight for and actualize their visions and dreams!
Four Stars!
AN EDUCATION
Based on the real life memoir of British journalist Lynn Barber and written for the screen by Nick Hornby (About a Boy) is brilliantly acted and crafted.
Peter Sarsgaard (Dead Man Walking) is David Goldman the deliciously charming con man who woos his way into the life and family of sixteen year old Jenny; it is magical to watch him accomplish his mission. He is the proverbial snake oil salesman; he can and does sell and steal at whim. He is amoral to the core, and Sarsgaard’s portrayal is riveting.
But Carey Mulligan as Jenny is the star; she, like the mythical goddess Athena, springs fully grown and magically wonderful on the wide screen. She plays the gifted and bored, Jenny sharing with her father the dream of “reading” English at Oxford.
This is 1961 and no matter her intellectual skills she is emotionally incapable of withstanding the onslaught of David’s campaign for her affections. She “dresses up” and laps up the titillating nightlife of London; drinking, smoking and joking with David and his friends Danny (Dominic Cooper, History Boys) and Helen (Rosamund Pike). She is experiencing a world and its vicissitudes well beyond her maturity level. Hence, an education.
Alfred Molina gives a deft and poignant performance as her father.
The disturbing factor was the movies depiction of David as a Jew and the headmistress’ ignorance in denying that Jesus Christ was Jewish. After much contemplation I felt that David was a feckless cad, who happened to be Jewish; not a Jew who was a cad.
The headmistress (played by Emma Thompson) typified many who shared her erroneous theory. But Jenny never considered David’s religious background and at seventeen loved unequivocally and with her entire being.
The movie belongs to Carey Mulligan and we anxiously await her continued meteoric ascent.
Four Stars!
MICHAEL JACKSON THIS IS IT
A compilation of over one hundred hours of taped rehearsals for Michael’s come back concert that never occurred. Kenny Ortega creates a homage that should be seen by all.
Michael Jackson’s elasticity, liquidity, and luminosity flirts with the sublime; he is truly the epitome of “poetry in motion” and we in the audience had to be bolted to our seats for the entire two hours; we still thirsted for more.
Michael Jackson, part of the Jackson Five, was denied a childhood by achieved fame and sought forever answers to questions that others discover in the growing up process. He was a genius but failed to find his true essence.
Nonetheless he will rank with the greatest of the great: Nijinsky, Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, in defying gravity and touching the celestial.
The ultimate tragedy is that his spiritualism and love of God and man could not conquer his demons.
So sad that This Was It.
Four &1/2 Stars!
LONDON DREAMS
This is almost as good as it gets in a typical Bollywood film; comprised of all the ingredients demanded by an Indian audience: rags to riches heros; loves won and lost; conflict and redemption all cloaked in glorious songs, dances, gorgeous stars and scenery.
Two powerful players in the Bollywood scene star, at their best, in this movie.
Ajay Devgan (Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, Raincoat, Omkara) plays Arjun, whose devotion to music pushes him beyond reason and Salman Khan (Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and my favorite Maine Pyar Kiya) as Manu, his sycophant and more talented best friend. Similar to the American film Amadeus. Arjun is Salieri to Manu’s
Mozart.
London Dreams is the name of the band Arjun forms in London. Eventually bringing from Punjab his closest, and most irresponsible buddy, Manu. As their reputation takes flight and Arjun’s jealousy intensifies the plot reaches its pinnacle, culminating with a major catharsis for all involved.
The enchanting and leggy Asin (Ghajini) is the love interest and definitely a talent worth watching.
The concert scenes are magnificent (worthy of an Andreas Gursky photograph ); the energy palatable, and anyone would be hard pressed to choose a favorite.
Devgan and Khan have shared the screen in the past, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam; this collaboration really works and hopefully holds another pairing in the future.
Three &1/2 Stars!
For Now……………….Peneflix
Fellow Movie Lovers
Questions asked and hopefully answered:
Sequence of reviews. I review them as I view them: there is no hierarchy.
I will address the sensitive issues in An Education.
AMELIA
Amelia Earhart was born in 1897 as the Victorian Age was waning and she vanished in 1937 days before her fortieth birthday. She was a crusader a visionary and a feminist before the word was coined. She rebelled against a male dominated world; she could not vote until she was twenty-three because the nineteenth amendment, giving women the right to vote was not passed until 1920. She lived through the rise of Gandhi, Mao, Hitler and the Empire State Building. But it was the Wright Brothers and their glider (airplane) that touched her soul and inspired her passion for flying; flying for freedom and fun. She never deviated or was deterred from her quest.
Mira Nair (The Namesake, Monsoon Wedding) portrays this icon of aviation with a keen eye and the sensitivity Amelia so richly deserves.
Hilary Swank, two time Academy Award winner (Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby) climbs into the mind, heart and imagination of Amelia and creates one of the greatest screen biographies of this century. Her physical resemblance to Amelia is uncanny; she captures her voice (Amelia’s gifted prose), mannerisms and ambition without sinking into the sentimental or sensational. It is a performance worthy of the highest accolades.
Richard Gere as George Putnam, Amelia’s publicist, lover and eventual husband is credible, but lacking the strength and depth required of the role. Fortunately the camera still loves this aging charismatic star.
The music, especially Cole Porter’s You Do Something to Me and the luscious cinematography tug at one’s heartstrings and tear ducts, adds an audio and visual dimension to this beautiful film.
Amelia Earhart, thanks to the talents of Mira Nair and Hilary Swank, will forever inspire both women and men to fight for and actualize their visions and dreams!
Four Stars!
AN EDUCATION
Based on the real life memoir of British journalist Lynn Barber and written for the screen by Nick Hornby (About a Boy) is brilliantly acted and crafted.
Peter Sarsgaard (Dead Man Walking) is David Goldman the deliciously charming con man who woos his way into the life and family of sixteen year old Jenny; it is magical to watch him accomplish his mission. He is the proverbial snake oil salesman; he can and does sell and steal at whim. He is amoral to the core, and Sarsgaard’s portrayal is riveting.
But Carey Mulligan as Jenny is the star; she, like the mythical goddess Athena, springs fully grown and magically wonderful on the wide screen. She plays the gifted and bored, Jenny sharing with her father the dream of “reading” English at Oxford.
This is 1961 and no matter her intellectual skills she is emotionally incapable of withstanding the onslaught of David’s campaign for her affections. She “dresses up” and laps up the titillating nightlife of London; drinking, smoking and joking with David and his friends Danny (Dominic Cooper, History Boys) and Helen (Rosamund Pike). She is experiencing a world and its vicissitudes well beyond her maturity level. Hence, an education.
Alfred Molina gives a deft and poignant performance as her father.
The disturbing factor was the movies depiction of David as a Jew and the headmistress’ ignorance in denying that Jesus Christ was Jewish. After much contemplation I felt that David was a feckless cad, who happened to be Jewish; not a Jew who was a cad.
The headmistress (played by Emma Thompson) typified many who shared her erroneous theory. But Jenny never considered David’s religious background and at seventeen loved unequivocally and with her entire being.
The movie belongs to Carey Mulligan and we anxiously await her continued meteoric ascent.
Four Stars!
MICHAEL JACKSON THIS IS IT
A compilation of over one hundred hours of taped rehearsals for Michael’s come back concert that never occurred. Kenny Ortega creates a homage that should be seen by all.
Michael Jackson’s elasticity, liquidity, and luminosity flirts with the sublime; he is truly the epitome of “poetry in motion” and we in the audience had to be bolted to our seats for the entire two hours; we still thirsted for more.
Michael Jackson, part of the Jackson Five, was denied a childhood by achieved fame and sought forever answers to questions that others discover in the growing up process. He was a genius but failed to find his true essence.
Nonetheless he will rank with the greatest of the great: Nijinsky, Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, in defying gravity and touching the celestial.
The ultimate tragedy is that his spiritualism and love of God and man could not conquer his demons.
So sad that This Was It.
Four &1/2 Stars!
LONDON DREAMS
This is almost as good as it gets in a typical Bollywood film; comprised of all the ingredients demanded by an Indian audience: rags to riches heros; loves won and lost; conflict and redemption all cloaked in glorious songs, dances, gorgeous stars and scenery.
Two powerful players in the Bollywood scene star, at their best, in this movie.
Ajay Devgan (Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, Raincoat, Omkara) plays Arjun, whose devotion to music pushes him beyond reason and Salman Khan (Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and my favorite Maine Pyar Kiya) as Manu, his sycophant and more talented best friend. Similar to the American film Amadeus. Arjun is Salieri to Manu’s Mozart.
London Dreams is the name of the band Arjun forms in London. Eventually bringing from Punjab his closest, and most irresponsible buddy, Manu. As their reputation takes flight and Arjun’s jealousy intensifies the plot reaches its pinnacle, culminating with a major catharsis for all involved.
The enchanting and leggy Asin (Ghajini) is the love interest and definitely a talent worth watching.
The concert scenes are magnificent (worthy of an Andreas Gursky photograph ); the energy palatable, and anyone would be hard pressed to choose a favorite.
Devgan and Khan have shared the screen in the past, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam; this collaboration really works and hopefully holds another pairing in the future.
Three &1/2 Stars!
For Now……………….Peneflix
Questions asked and hopefully answered:
Sequence of reviews. I review them as I view them: there is no hierarchy.
I will address the sensitive issues in An Education.
AMELIA
Amelia Earhart was born in 1897 as the Victorian Age was waning and she vanished in 1937 days before her fortieth birthday. She was a crusader a visionary and a feminist before the word was coined. She rebelled against a male dominated world; she could not vote until she was twenty-three because the nineteenth amendment, giving women the right to vote was not passed until 1920. She lived through the rise of Gandhi, Mao, Hitler and the Empire State Building. But it was the Wright Brothers and their glider (airplane) that touched her soul and inspired her passion for flying; flying for freedom and fun. She never deviated or was deterred from her quest.
Mira Nair (The Namesake, Monsoon Wedding) portrays this icon of aviation with a keen eye and the sensitivity Amelia so richly deserves.
Hilary Swank, two time Academy Award winner (Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby) climbs into the mind, heart and imagination of Amelia and creates one of the greatest screen biographies of this century. Her physical resemblance to Amelia is uncanny; she captures her voice (Amelia’s gifted prose), mannerisms and ambition without sinking into the sentimental or sensational. It is a performance worthy of the highest accolades.
Richard Gere as George Putnam, Amelia’s publicist, lover and eventual husband is credible, but lacking the strength and depth required of the role. Fortunately the camera still loves this aging charismatic star.
The music, especially Cole Porter’s You Do Something to Me and the luscious cinematography tug at one’s heartstrings and tear ducts, adds an audio and visual dimension to this beautiful film.
Amelia Earhart, thanks to the talents of Mira Nair and Hilary Swank, will forever inspire both women and men to fight for and actualize their visions and dreams!
Four Stars!
AN EDUCATION
Based on the real life memoir of British journalist Lynn Barber and written for the screen by Nick Hornby (About a Boy) is brilliantly acted and crafted.
Peter Sarsgaard (Dead Man Walking) is David Goldman the deliciously charming con man who woos his way into the life and family of sixteen year old Jenny; it is magical to watch him accomplish his mission. He is the proverbial snake oil salesman; he can and does sell and steal at whim. He is amoral to the core, and Sarsgaard’s portrayal is riveting.
But Carey Mulligan as Jenny is the star; she, like the mythical goddess Athena, springs fully grown and magically wonderful on the wide screen. She plays the gifted and bored, Jenny sharing with her father the dream of “reading” English at Oxford.
This is 1961 and no matter her intellectual skills she is emotionally incapable of withstanding the onslaught of David’s campaign for her affections. She “dresses up” and laps up the titillating nightlife of London; drinking, smoking and joking with David and his friends Danny (Dominic Cooper, History Boys) and Helen (Rosamund Pike). She is experiencing a world and its vicissitudes well beyond her maturity level. Hence, an education.
Alfred Molina gives a deft and poignant performance as her father.
The disturbing factor was the movies depiction of David as a Jew and the headmistress’ ignorance in denying that Jesus Christ was Jewish. After much contemplation I felt that David was a feckless cad, who happened to be Jewish; not a Jew who was a cad.
The headmistress (played by Emma Thompson) typified many who shared her erroneous theory. But Jenny never considered David’s religious background and at seventeen loved unequivocally and with her entire being.
The movie belongs to Carey Mulligan and we anxiously await her continued meteoric ascent.
Four Stars!
MICHAEL JACKSON THIS IS IT
A compilation of over one hundred hours of taped rehearsals for Michael’s come back concert that never occurred. Kenny Ortega creates a homage that should be seen by all.
Michael Jackson’s elasticity, liquidity, and luminosity flirts with the sublime; he is truly the epitome of “poetry in motion” and we in the audience had to be bolted to our seats for the entire two hours; we still thirsted for more.
Michael Jackson, part of the Jackson Five, was denied a childhood by achieved fame and sought forever answers to questions that others discover in the growing up process. He was a genius but failed to find his true essence.
Nonetheless he will rank with the greatest of the great: Nijinsky, Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, in defying gravity and touching the celestial.
The ultimate tragedy is that his spiritualism and love of God and man could not conquer his demons.
So sad that This Was It.
Four &1/2 Stars!
LONDON DREAMS
This is almost as good as it gets in a typical Bollywood film; comprised of all the ingredients demanded by an Indian audience: rags to riches heros; loves won and lost; conflict and redemption all cloaked in glorious songs, dances, gorgeous stars and scenery.
Two powerful players in the Bollywood scene star, at their best, in this movie.
Ajay Devgan (Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, Raincoat, Omkara) plays Arjun, whose devotion to music pushes him beyond reason and Salman Khan (Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and my favorite Maine Pyar Kiya) as Manu, his sycophant and more talented best friend. Similar to the American film Amadeus. Arjun is Salieri to Manu’s
Mozart.
London Dreams is the name of the band Arjun forms in London. Eventually bringing from Punjab his closest, and most irresponsible buddy, Manu. As their reputation takes flight and Arjun’s jealousy intensifies the plot reaches its pinnacle, culminating with a major catharsis for all involved.
The enchanting and leggy Asin (Ghajini) is the love interest and definitely a talent worth watching.
The concert scenes are magnificent (worthy of an Andreas Gursky photograph ); the energy palatable, and anyone would be hard pressed to choose a favorite.
Devgan and Khan have shared the screen in the past, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam; this collaboration really works and hopefully holds another pairing in the future.
Three &1/2 Stars!
For Now……………….Peneflix
Fellow Movie Lovers
Questions asked and hopefully answered:
Sequence of reviews. I review them as I view them: there is no hierarchy.
I will address the sensitive issues in An Education.
AMELIA
Amelia Earhart was born in 1897 as the Victorian Age was waning and she vanished in 1937 days before her fortieth birthday. She was a crusader a visionary and a feminist before the word was coined. She rebelled against a male dominated world; she could not vote until she was twenty-three because the nineteenth amendment, giving women the right to vote was not passed until 1920. She lived through the rise of Gandhi, Mao, Hitler and the Empire State Building. But it was the Wright Brothers and their glider (airplane) that touched her soul and inspired her passion for flying; flying for freedom and fun. She never deviated or was deterred from her quest.
Mira Nair (The Namesake, Monsoon Wedding) portrays this icon of aviation with a keen eye and the sensitivity Amelia so richly deserves.
Hilary Swank, two time Academy Award winner (Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby) climbs into the mind, heart and imagination of Amelia and creates one of the greatest screen biographies of this century. Her physical resemblance to Amelia is uncanny; she captures her voice (Amelia’s gifted prose), mannerisms and ambition without sinking into the sentimental or sensational. It is a performance worthy of the highest accolades.
Richard Gere as George Putnam, Amelia’s publicist, lover and eventual husband is credible, but lacking the strength and depth required of the role. Fortunately the camera still loves this aging charismatic star.
The music, especially Cole Porter’s You Do Something to Me and the luscious cinematography tug at one’s heartstrings and tear ducts, adds an audio and visual dimension to this beautiful film.
Amelia Earhart, thanks to the talents of Mira Nair and Hilary Swank, will forever inspire both women and men to fight for and actualize their visions and dreams!
Four Stars!
AN EDUCATION
Based on the real life memoir of British journalist Lynn Barber and written for the screen by Nick Hornby (About a Boy) is brilliantly acted and crafted.
Peter Sarsgaard (Dead Man Walking) is David Goldman the deliciously charming con man who woos his way into the life and family of sixteen year old Jenny; it is magical to watch him accomplish his mission. He is the proverbial snake oil salesman; he can and does sell and steal at whim. He is amoral to the core, and Sarsgaard’s portrayal is riveting.
But Carey Mulligan as Jenny is the star; she, like the mythical goddess Athena, springs fully grown and magically wonderful on the wide screen. She plays the gifted and bored, Jenny sharing with her father the dream of “reading” English at Oxford.
This is 1961 and no matter her intellectual skills she is emotionally incapable of withstanding the onslaught of David’s campaign for her affections. She “dresses up” and laps up the titillating nightlife of London; drinking, smoking and joking with David and his friends Danny (Dominic Cooper, History Boys) and Helen (Rosamund Pike). She is experiencing a world and its vicissitudes well beyond her maturity level. Hence, an education.
Alfred Molina gives a deft and poignant performance as her father.
The disturbing factor was the movies depiction of David as a Jew and the headmistress’ ignorance in denying that Jesus Christ was Jewish. After much contemplation I felt that David was a feckless cad, who happened to be Jewish; not a Jew who was a cad.
The headmistress (played by Emma Thompson) typified many who shared her erroneous theory. But Jenny never considered David’s religious background and at seventeen loved unequivocally and with her entire being.
The movie belongs to Carey Mulligan and we anxiously await her continued meteoric ascent.
Four Stars!
MICHAEL JACKSON THIS IS IT
A compilation of over one hundred hours of taped rehearsals for Michael’s come back concert that never occurred. Kenny Ortega creates a homage that should be seen by all.
Michael Jackson’s elasticity, liquidity, and luminosity flirts with the sublime; he is truly the epitome of “poetry in motion” and we in the audience had to be bolted to our seats for the entire two hours; we still thirsted for more.
Michael Jackson, part of the Jackson Five, was denied a childhood by achieved fame and sought forever answers to questions that others discover in the growing up process. He was a genius but failed to find his true essence.
Nonetheless he will rank with the greatest of the great: Nijinsky, Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, in defying gravity and touching the celestial.
The ultimate tragedy is that his spiritualism and love of God and man could not conquer his demons.
So sad that This Was It.
Four &1/2 Stars!
LONDON DREAMS
This is almost as good as it gets in a typical Bollywood film; comprised of all the ingredients demanded by an Indian audience: rags to riches heros; loves won and lost; conflict and redemption all cloaked in glorious songs, dances, gorgeous stars and scenery.
Two powerful players in the Bollywood scene star, at their best, in this movie.
Ajay Devgan (Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, Raincoat, Omkara) plays Arjun, whose devotion to music pushes him beyond reason and Salman Khan (Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and my favorite Maine Pyar Kiya) as Manu, his sycophant and more talented best friend. Similar to the American film Amadeus. Arjun is Salieri to Manu’s Mozart.
London Dreams is the name of the band Arjun forms in London. Eventually bringing from Punjab his closest, and most irresponsible buddy, Manu. As their reputation takes flight and Arjun’s jealousy intensifies the plot reaches its pinnacle, culminating with a major catharsis for all involved.
The enchanting and leggy Asin (Ghajini) is the love interest and definitely a talent worth watching.
The concert scenes are magnificent (worthy of an Andreas Gursky photograph ); the energy palatable, and anyone would be hard pressed to choose a favorite.
Devgan and Khan have shared the screen in the past, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam; this collaboration really works and hopefully holds another pairing in the future.
Three &1/2 Stars!
For Now……………….Peneflix
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
Your feedback, observations and criticisms have been valid and welcomed!
Some have asked for a repeat of my Five Star rating system:
Five Stars: the movie has to be flawless.
Four Stars: almost perfect.
Three Stars: good but not great.
Two Stars: go if you have absolutely nothing else to do.
One Star: the movie should not have been made.
No Stars: why was the movie made?
Yes, I intentionally changed A Serious Man to The Serious Man. Mazeltov to those who caught it!
Again yes, my Blog is very subjective; but isn’t all criticism?
Please keep the comments coming!
Now for a sample of England, Bollywood and Hollywood!
THE DAMNED UNITED
I was twenty-five when I discovered that all men did not spring forth from the womb as bonafide sports fanatics: their first conscious thought in the shape of a “ball”!
My father failed in reigning over six vociferous women and the birth of my brother fell into the category of the Second Coming; fortunately his DNA housed the sport gene and the bonding was complete!
Sport movies have always fascinated me and this is no exception. Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon) brilliantly portrays Brian Clough the doomed manager of England’s 1970’s Leeds United Football Club; it is uncanny how he has inhabited the persona of the real Clough, a performance of sheer genius. He is supported by Timothy Spall playing Clough’s very moral assistant Peter Taylor; an equally strong performance.
More than the game itself this film captures the primal essence of the power of sports: it is, like Andy Warhol’s silk screens the greatest tool in eliminating elitism; when rooting for a team your gender, education, profession, wealth or lack thereof are secondary to the euphoria or devastation of your team’s win or loss! We clap or cry together!
Whether The Damned United will rank in the halls of iconic sport films (Brian’s Song, The Natural, Hoop Dreams, Field of Dreams, The Longest Yard) only time and the fervent wish of this critic hopes that it does.
Four Stars!
BLUE
Bollywood for a westerner is an acquired taste. I took my first bite five years ago and have been gobbling them voraciously (thanks to Netflix) ever since.
The typical Bollywood film can, at times, take up a major portion of your day; not unusual to have to devote over three hours (with an interval) to the banquet. The plots are simple, the actors are a “feast for the eyes” and the endings, happy and satiating.
There are names synonymous with Bollywood; Bachchan , Khan, Kapoor, one talented dynasty breeding another.
In Blue (short by India standards, 2 hours; obviously adjusting to the westerners’ short attention span) we have a sunken treasure hunt story; a few plot twists, starring Sanjay Dutt, who unlike Roman Polanski, did the crime and served the time, and is back in hunky glory on the wide screen. But the major stars are the breath taking under water scenes filmed in the Bahamas.
There’s romance, dance and intrigue but only gets Two Stars from me!
Would recommend the following that are highly substantive and diverge from the typical Bollywood fare:
Ghajini
Lagaan
Shukriya
Maine Pyar Kiya
Dil Chahta Hai
Maine Prem Ki Diwani Hoon
Mr. & Mrs. Iyer
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
This is a wonderful fantasy based on the book by Maurice Sendak and exquisitely directed by Spike Jonze. Starring the deliciously enchanting Max Records as Max; the imaginative and misunderstood boy who creates a world where he is crowned King!
My children loved this book along with Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree; the lessons and messages for both young and old are unlimited and ageless.
This is a movie for everyone; we have all gone where the wild things are and have returned changed and enriched!
Four Stars!
For Now……………Peneflix
Your feedback, observations and criticisms have been valid and welcomed!
Some have asked for a repeat of my Five Star rating system:
Five Stars: the movie has to be flawless.
Four Stars: almost perfect.
Three Stars: good but not great.
Two Stars: go if you have absolutely nothing else to do.
One Star: the movie should not have been made.
No Stars: why was the movie made?
Yes, I intentionally changed A Serious Man to The Serious Man. Mazeltov to those who caught it!
Again yes, my Blog is very subjective; but isn’t all criticism?
Please keep the comments coming!
Now for a sample of England, Bollywood and Hollywood!
THE DAMNED UNITED
I was twenty-five when I discovered that all men did not spring forth from the womb as bonafide sports fanatics: their first conscious thought in the shape of a “ball”!
My father failed in reigning over six vociferous women and the birth of my brother fell into the category of the Second Coming; fortunately his DNA housed the sport gene and the bonding was complete!
Sport movies have always fascinated me and this is no exception. Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon) brilliantly portrays Brian Clough the doomed manager of England’s 1970’s Leeds United Football Club; it is uncanny how he has inhabited the persona of the real Clough, a performance of sheer genius. He is supported by Timothy Spall playing Clough’s very moral assistant Peter Taylor; an equally strong performance.
More than the game itself this film captures the primal essence of the power of sports: it is, like Andy Warhol’s silk screens the greatest tool in eliminating elitism; when rooting for a team your gender, education, profession, wealth or lack thereof are secondary to the euphoria or devastation of your team’s win or loss! We clap or cry together!
Whether The Damned United will rank in the halls of iconic sport films (Brian’s Song, The Natural, Hoop Dreams, Field of Dreams, The Longest Yard) only time and the fervent wish of this critic hopes that it does.
Four Stars!
BLUE
Bollywood for a westerner is an acquired taste. I took my first bite five years ago and have been gobbling them voraciously (thanks to Netflix) ever since.
The typical Bollywood film can, at times, take up a major portion of your day; not unusual to have to devote over three hours (with an interval) to the banquet. The plots are simple, the actors are a “feast for the eyes” and the endings, happy and satiating.
There are names synonymous with Bollywood; Bachchan , Khan, Kapoor, one talented dynasty breeding another.
In Blue (short by India standards, 2 hours; obviously adjusting to the westerners’ short attention span) we have a sunken treasure hunt story; a few plot twists, starring Sanjay Dutt, who unlike Roman Polanski, did the crime and served the time, and is back in hunky glory on the wide screen. But the major stars are the breath taking under water scenes filmed in the Bahamas.
There’s romance, dance and intrigue but only gets Two Stars from me!
Would recommend the following that are highly substantive and diverge from the typical Bollywood fare:
Ghajini
Lagaan
Shukriya
Maine Pyar Kiya
Dil Chahta Hai
Maine Prem Ki Diwani Hoon
Mr. & Mrs. Iyer
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
This is a wonderful fantasy based on the book by Maurice Sendak and exquisitely directed by Spike Jonze. Starring the deliciously enchanting Max Records as Max; the imaginative and misunderstood boy who creates a world where he is crowned King!
My children loved this book along with Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree; the lessons and messages for both young and old are unlimited and ageless.
This is a movie for everyone; we have all gone where the wild things are and have returned changed and enriched!
Four Stars!
For Now……………Peneflix
Monday, October 12, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
A SERIOUS MAN
Growing up in an upper middle class Christian community, studying comparative religions in college, I developed a fascination for Judaism and its amazing story of survival. From the Babylonian captivity (506 BC), Diaspora from Rome (70AD), Spanish Inquisition, expulsion from every European country and the ultimate degradation, the Holocaust, Judaism did not die, nor did its people. Why? It remains a mystery.
After embracing this religion as my own I have thrived in its glorious history, culture, philosophy and religious traditions; it is the core of my existence and I love it!
So when viewing Ethan and Joel Coen’s The Serious Man I was sickened and stunned by their portrayal of a late 1960s Jewish family and their Jewish community. Every individual is devoid of compassion, depth, sympathy and most importantly love.
They depict the rabbis as ignorant, self centered and cruel. The Coens render the familial relationships as petty, mean spirited and totally superficial. Even the Bar Mitzvah boy is stoned at his pivotal ceremony, denigrating its beautiful meaning in a young boys (and girls) religious life.
The major protagonist Larry Gopnik (exceptionally played by Michael Stuhlbarg) is the Job in this scenario; unlike Job he loses any shred of dignity by ultimately changing the failing grade of one of his students. There is not one redeeming scene in this entire film: it is pejorative, destructive and anti-semitic!
While viewing this movie with a friend we questioned the motives behind its creation? Why make your ancestors evil? Where was the respect for their family and deep rooted traditions? What kind of message does this send to the non Jewish world? After 9/11 there was another flare up of anti-Semitism; plus the financial misdeeds of Bernie Madoff; do we need another log on the proverbial pyre of Jewish hatred?
I thought of the historical wrongs perpetrated on this incredible religion and its people: the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the teachings of Martin Luther; the madness of Hitler.
Was The Serious Man necessary?
On the positive side, long after the Coens have been forgotten, Judaism will still be alive!
Seriously,
NO STARS
For Now………….Peneflix
A SERIOUS MAN
Growing up in an upper middle class Christian community, studying comparative religions in college, I developed a fascination for Judaism and its amazing story of survival. From the Babylonian captivity (506 BC), Diaspora from Rome (70AD), Spanish Inquisition, expulsion from every European country and the ultimate degradation, the Holocaust, Judaism did not die, nor did its people. Why? It remains a mystery.
After embracing this religion as my own I have thrived in its glorious history, culture, philosophy and religious traditions; it is the core of my existence and I love it!
So when viewing Ethan and Joel Coen’s The Serious Man I was sickened and stunned by their portrayal of a late 1960s Jewish family and their Jewish community. Every individual is devoid of compassion, depth, sympathy and most importantly love.
They depict the rabbis as ignorant, self centered and cruel. The Coens render the familial relationships as petty, mean spirited and totally superficial. Even the Bar Mitzvah boy is stoned at his pivotal ceremony, denigrating its beautiful meaning in a young boys (and girls) religious life.
The major protagonist Larry Gopnik (exceptionally played by Michael Stuhlbarg) is the Job in this scenario; unlike Job he loses any shred of dignity by ultimately changing the failing grade of one of his students. There is not one redeeming scene in this entire film: it is pejorative, destructive and anti-semitic!
While viewing this movie with a friend we questioned the motives behind its creation? Why make your ancestors evil? Where was the respect for their family and deep rooted traditions? What kind of message does this send to the non Jewish world? After 9/11 there was another flare up of anti-Semitism; plus the financial misdeeds of Bernie Madoff; do we need another log on the proverbial pyre of Jewish hatred?
I thought of the historical wrongs perpetrated on this incredible religion and its people: the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the teachings of Martin Luther; the madness of Hitler.
Was The Serious Man necessary?
On the positive side, long after the Coens have been forgotten, Judaism will still be alive!
Seriously,
NO STARS
For Now………….Peneflix
Friday, October 9, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
WHIP IT
The appropriate word to describe this coming of age movie is “sweet”! Drew Barrymoor’s directorial debut should be applauded; casting herself in a minor role is an exercise in humility that should also be commended.
Ellen Page (Juno, Smart People) stars as the frustrated small town teen, seething to break the binds of her very conventional existence. Ms. Page, radiates intelligence, comfort and supreme control over her characterization of Bliss (aka Babe Ruthless); she is a dynamite wizard on wheels.
Marcia Gay Harden gives a credible performance of a mother trying to actualize her dreams through her daughters: she too must come of age.
Whip It will satisfy the thirteen through twenty-five year olds. The rest, Skip It!
Two Stars!
The BOYS ARE BACK
I think it was Shakespeare who once said that if all one does is play, it becomes work! In this film the viewer is treated to two hours of tedium watching a father and his sons run, romp and role while sinking deeper and deeper into a sea of squalor: oblivious to the “cleanliness is next to godliness” mantra!
This is based on a true story and everyone can empathize with the pain of loss and the challenges of coping with grief but the movie was totally lacking in substance. Even the devastating countenance of Clive Owen and the magical landscape of Australia could not save this film from the world of mediocrity. The boys are back; oh how I wished they had stayed where they were!
Two Stars!
CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY
When I think of filmatic love stories or pairings I conger up images of Burton and Taylor, Tracy and Hepburn, O’Neal and MacGraw, Ledger and Gyllenhaal or even Fay Wray and King Kong. But in Michael Moore’s latest fantasy he partners Wall Street and its passionate quest for “capital”ism as a marriage so devoted, so strong so empirical that it will never grace the halls of a divorce court: just a criminal one.
This is NOT a documentary. Moore’s talents lie in shedding seeds of truth on his field of fiction. The financial institutions deserve much of the castigation depicted in this, at times very entertaining film but Moorism takes it into the realm of the absurd. He proselytizes that capitalism and democracy are diametrically opposed and can never coexist: his converts, members of the clergy and Congress believe that we are on the verge of an apocalypse. Apropos of a Stephen King novel.
Moore is disturbing with his black and white portrayal of the government, financial institutions and both major political parties; nothing and no one is left unscathed. But this is his right and privilege in our democratic society; we encourage discourse and dialogue between opposing opinions. Yes, it feels good to vent; no one does venting better than Moore.
The movie shines with his clever juxtapositions of past film clips with the present; naturally edited to prove his point. His chutzpah at trying to make a citizens arrest and arriving at banks with a Brinks truck to collect the bailout funds to be redistributed to the people are hilarious.
It should be noted that Mr. Moore received millions of dollars in tax incentives from the state of Michigan to film Capitalism: A Love Story in their state; and like any good capitalist, if this was disclosed, it was in very small print! Whose pockets did these incentives come from? We also know from a recent Wall Street Journal article that you can purchase a home in Detroit for the price of a Birkin bag!
Mr. Moore, instead of Wall Street, should invest some of his capital in a new suit, hat and tie!
Two & ½ Stars!
For Now……………..Peneflix
WHIP IT
The appropriate word to describe this coming of age movie is “sweet”! Drew Barrymoor’s directorial debut should be applauded; casting herself in a minor role is an exercise in humility that should also be commended.
Ellen Page (Juno, Smart People) stars as the frustrated small town teen, seething to break the binds of her very conventional existence. Ms. Page, radiates intelligence, comfort and supreme control over her characterization of Bliss (aka Babe Ruthless); she is a dynamite wizard on wheels.
Marcia Gay Harden gives a credible performance of a mother trying to actualize her dreams through her daughters: she too must come of age.
Whip It will satisfy the thirteen through twenty-five year olds. The rest, Skip It!
Two Stars!
The BOYS ARE BACK
I think it was Shakespeare who once said that if all one does is play, it becomes work! In this film the viewer is treated to two hours of tedium watching a father and his sons run, romp and role while sinking deeper and deeper into a sea of squalor: oblivious to the “cleanliness is next to godliness” mantra!
This is based on a true story and everyone can empathize with the pain of loss and the challenges of coping with grief but the movie was totally lacking in substance. Even the devastating countenance of Clive Owen and the magical landscape of Australia could not save this film from the world of mediocrity. The boys are back; oh how I wished they had stayed where they were!
Two Stars!
CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY
When I think of filmatic love stories or pairings I conger up images of Burton and Taylor, Tracy and Hepburn, O’Neal and MacGraw, Ledger and Gyllenhaal or even Fay Wray and King Kong. But in Michael Moore’s latest fantasy he partners Wall Street and its passionate quest for “capital”ism as a marriage so devoted, so strong so empirical that it will never grace the halls of a divorce court: just a criminal one.
This is NOT a documentary. Moore’s talents lie in shedding seeds of truth on his field of fiction. The financial institutions deserve much of the castigation depicted in this, at times very entertaining film but Moorism takes it into the realm of the absurd. He proselytizes that capitalism and democracy are diametrically opposed and can never coexist: his converts, members of the clergy and Congress believe that we are on the verge of an apocalypse. Apropos of a Stephen King novel.
Moore is disturbing with his black and white portrayal of the government, financial institutions and both major political parties; nothing and no one is left unscathed. But this is his right and privilege in our democratic society; we encourage discourse and dialogue between opposing opinions. Yes, it feels good to vent; no one does venting better than Moore.
The movie shines with his clever juxtapositions of past film clips with the present; naturally edited to prove his point. His chutzpah at trying to make a citizens arrest and arriving at banks with a Brinks truck to collect the bailout funds to be redistributed to the people are hilarious.
It should be noted that Mr. Moore received millions of dollars in tax incentives from the state of Michigan to film Capitalism: A Love Story in their state; and like any good capitalist, if this was disclosed, it was in very small print! Whose pockets did these incentives come from? We also know from a recent Wall Street Journal article that you can purchase a home in Detroit for the price of a Birkin bag!
Mr. Moore, instead of Wall Street, should invest some of his capital in a new suit, hat and tie!
Two & ½ Stars!
For Now……………..Peneflix
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
Fellow Movie Lovers
FAME
The delicious and gentler remake of the 1980 movie that garnished two Academy awards! Fame a four letter word that entices us to ponder its meaning; subjective to its very core. Fame comes in all packages and in all categories; the media keeps us posted on its parameters or non parameters!
The unmitigated and raw talent in this film oozes off the screen. It screams with vitality and pulls us into the world of performing arts. A refreshing look at gifted young artists; artists whose sex, race or backgrounds are totally irrelevant to their goal…………just being the best at what they do, and the competition is thrilling. Even those whose dreams are dashed, succeed in attaining a modicum of fame. Many have to be satisfied with a Warholian moment!
The movie has its flaws and clichés; but youth in retrospect is a cliché!
These young and beautiful stars, and stars they are, dance, sing, compose and act with a brightness so rarefied that I hope, unlike a supernova, they will last forever.
Three Stars!
A WOMAN IN BERLIN
Max Farberbock has created a masterpiece; based on the true story of a female journalist, struggling to survive in the waning days of WWII in the city of Berlin. The Russians are the victors and the victors take the spoils and take the spoils over and over again! A brutal, complex and at times poignantly human portrayal of “man’s inhumanity to man” (or women in this scenario)!
Nina Hoss plays Anonyma, a brilliant journalist and the perfect mold for the Aryan ideal of female perfection: blond, beautiful and loyal to the cause. There are two minutes in the early stages of the film that capture us instantly. Buoyant and educated people toasting the magnificence of Germany and its mission; in a gleaming Bauhaus living room; a room that is transformed by war but still habitable, and the stage for constant degradation.
This story was written and published anonymously. She wrote to her absent love; to record, escape and find meaning to a life unrecognizable from the glamorous one of the past. It was not well received when it was published in the late 50’s; wounds still festered between Russians and Germans. Also, German women were very sensitive to a role forced upon them by their captors.
Ultimately this is a document of revenge, power, of illusions and lives destroyed. But above all it is the story of one woman’s will to survive, through all the horrors her thirst for life and love remained unquenched!
Five Stars!
ZOMBIELAND
We’ve all had moments when we have questioned our decisions, or sanity. I had one of those moments today. After ten minutes I realized that with knowledge and foresight I chose this movie. After thirty minutes a colonoscopy would have been preferable. But by exercising supreme fortitude and because of the charm of Woody Harrelson I stayed for the conclusion (but was the first one to poll vault from my seat to the safety and saneness of the lobby)! And kept my head low to avoid detection or recognition from my peers. Really there was nothing to fear; I was the oldest member of the audience by twenty years!
In fairness many seem to really enjoy and relish the humor (lost upon humorless me); also the use of the word “like”, robbed of its legitimacy by the twenty first century culture, grates “like” nails on a blackboard on my grammatical sensitivities!
Two Stars!
For Now………………..Peneflix
FAME
The delicious and gentler remake of the 1980 movie that garnished two Academy awards! Fame a four letter word that entices us to ponder its meaning; subjective to its very core. Fame comes in all packages and in all categories; the media keeps us posted on its parameters or non parameters!
The unmitigated and raw talent in this film oozes off the screen. It screams with vitality and pulls us into the world of performing arts. A refreshing look at gifted young artists; artists whose sex, race or backgrounds are totally irrelevant to their goal…………just being the best at what they do, and the competition is thrilling. Even those whose dreams are dashed, succeed in attaining a modicum of fame. Many have to be satisfied with a Warholian moment!
The movie has its flaws and clichés; but youth in retrospect is a cliché!
These young and beautiful stars, and stars they are, dance, sing, compose and act with a brightness so rarefied that I hope, unlike a supernova, they will last forever.
Three Stars!
A WOMAN IN BERLIN
Max Farberbock has created a masterpiece; based on the true story of a female journalist, struggling to survive in the waning days of WWII in the city of Berlin. The Russians are the victors and the victors take the spoils and take the spoils over and over again! A brutal, complex and at times poignantly human portrayal of “man’s inhumanity to man” (or women in this scenario)!
Nina Hoss plays Anonyma, a brilliant journalist and the perfect mold for the Aryan ideal of female perfection: blond, beautiful and loyal to the cause. There are two minutes in the early stages of the film that capture us instantly. Buoyant and educated people toasting the magnificence of Germany and its mission; in a gleaming Bauhaus living room; a room that is transformed by war but still habitable, and the stage for constant degradation.
This story was written and published anonymously. She wrote to her absent love; to record, escape and find meaning to a life unrecognizable from the glamorous one of the past. It was not well received when it was published in the late 50’s; wounds still festered between Russians and Germans. Also, German women were very sensitive to a role forced upon them by their captors.
Ultimately this is a document of revenge, power, of illusions and lives destroyed. But above all it is the story of one woman’s will to survive, through all the horrors her thirst for life and love remained unquenched!
Five Stars!
ZOMBIELAND
We’ve all had moments when we have questioned our decisions, or sanity. I had one of those moments today. After ten minutes I realized that with knowledge and foresight I chose this movie. After thirty minutes a colonoscopy would have been preferable. But by exercising supreme fortitude and because of the charm of Woody Harrelson I stayed for the conclusion (but was the first one to poll vault from my seat to the safety and saneness of the lobby)! And kept my head low to avoid detection or recognition from my peers. Really there was nothing to fear; I was the oldest member of the audience by twenty years!
In fairness many seem to really enjoy and relish the humor (lost upon humorless me); also the use of the word “like”, robbed of its legitimacy by the twenty first century culture, grates “like” nails on a blackboard on my grammatical sensitivities!
Two Stars!
For Now………………..Peneflix
Monday, September 28, 2009
Hello Fellow Movie Lovers!!!!!!!!!!!
It was by sheer chance that two of the three movies I saw over the weekend dealt with the English Romantic poets; poets whose verses awakened in my youthful soul, fantasies of the perfect love; love that remained for all eternity in full bloom! Part of the romance was anchored in the fact that three of the four major poets died young (Keats, Byron and Shelley) only Wordsworth was able to capitalize on his poetic gift until the ripe age of seventy: in 1850 seventy was considered ancient. With age I realize that their lasting endurance rests with their inimitable power to transform the banal into the celestial.
BRIGHT STAR
Jane Campion (The Piano) recreates the love story between John Keats and Fanny Brawne.
Oh, how I wanted to love this movie. It is beautiful and poetic to look at. Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw
are credible as the young and doomed lovers. But the passion was missing, only the pain was prevalent.
Pain had permeated Keats's life; tuberculosis had robbed him of his mother and brother. At twenty he gave up a promising medical career to devote the rest of his life to poetry.
He meets the avant garde Fanny Brawne in 1818 and she becomes his muse, his bright star and the focal point of the movie. Their youth, their beauty and the magical verses titillate the mind, but only fractionally the soul and heart.
The real "thing of beauty" the brightest star was Edie Martin, playing "Toots", Fanny's younger sister. The screen pulsates with her shining presence and fades with her absence. Definitely a force to watch.
Three Stars!
Without disclosing too much of the story, Fanny Brawne, married, had three children and died at sixty-five.
She had saved all of Keats's letters (none of hers survived); they were discovered by her children after her death.
Almost two hundred years later............
DISGRACE
A fascinating film based on the novel by J. M. Coetzee (1999 Booker Prize winner); depicting post apartheid South Africa. John Malkovich portrays David Luri, a scholar and teacher of Romantic poetry; Lord Byron (not Keats) being his favorite; he secretely identifies with this gorgeous lover and conqueror of the female masses. But unlike Byron he has to purchase or intimidate his conquests, ultimately leading to his disgrace.
This movie is rich on so many levels. Malkovich, never better, paints a portrait of loneliness that was palatable. He moves in with his daughter, Lucy (Jessica Hains) on an isolated farm hours from civilization;
it is here that he commences shedding his illusions, his elitism and dealing with a woman as strong and as determined as any man. We watch as David and Lucy are changed irrecoverably by events that no one is ever prepared for. Out of the detritus emerge two people who chose divergent paths in coping with the aftermath. Slowly the boundaries between man and beast are eliminated; herein lies the success of this
quietly spectacular film. Four and 1/2 Stars!
PARIS
If I have a weakness or a bias it is for foreign films; especially French and Italian. Maybe it is because, not only do we have to see, but have to read what is transpiring on the screen hence our concentrative powers go into high gear.
There is no city that looks better than Paris and it glows in this film.
A simple story revolving around the ubiquitous themes of life, death, love and relationships. Starring Juliette Binoche as Elise and Romain Durais as Pierre (is there a French film without a Pierre?); a brother and sister facing life altering challenges.
The outstanding performance by Fabrice Luchini was the highlight; he performs a dance, so magnificent because of its unexpectedness (Tom Cruise in Risky (Frisky) Business and Hugh Grant in Love, Actually)
that we laugh with joy! His brother, played by Francois Cluzet (Tell No One) , a look alike for a young Dustin Hoffman, is predictably good.
Melanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds) whose beauty is so luminous, so breath taking, so commanding that all else fades when she graces the screen. She plays a small key role and her acting, if possible, transcends her luminosity. Three Stars!
It seems that in the world of film and the real world that relationships are consummated within minutes of meeting, oftentimes without exchanging names; whatever happened to dinner and a movie? Perished, along with the hula hoop in the middle of the last millennium!
For Now...............Peneflix
BRIGHT STAR
Jane Campion (The Piano) recreates the love story between John Keats and Fanny Brawne.
Oh, how I wanted to love this movie. It is beautiful and poetic to look at. Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw
are credible as the young and doomed lovers. But the passion was missing, only the pain was prevalent.
Pain had permeated Keats's life; tuberculosis had robbed him of his mother and brother. At twenty he gave up a promising medical career to devote the rest of his life to poetry.
He meets the avant garde Fanny Brawne in 1818 and she becomes his muse, his bright star and the focal point of the movie. Their youth, their beauty and the magical verses titillate the mind, but only fractionally the soul and heart.
The real "thing of beauty" the brightest star was Edie Martin, playing "Toots", Fanny's younger sister. The screen pulsates with her shining presence and fades with her absence. Definitely a force to watch.
Three Stars!
Without disclosing too much of the story, Fanny Brawne, married, had three children and died at sixty-five.
She had saved all of Keats's letters (none of hers survived); they were discovered by her children after her death.
Almost two hundred years later............
DISGRACE
A fascinating film based on the novel by J. M. Coetzee (1999 Booker Prize winner); depicting post apartheid South Africa. John Malkovich portrays David Luri, a scholar and teacher of Romantic poetry; Lord Byron (not Keats) being his favorite; he secretely identifies with this gorgeous lover and conqueror of the female masses. But unlike Byron he has to purchase or intimidate his conquests, ultimately leading to his disgrace.
This movie is rich on so many levels. Malkovich, never better, paints a portrait of loneliness that was palatable. He moves in with his daughter, Lucy (Jessica Hains) on an isolated farm hours from civilization;
it is here that he commences shedding his illusions, his elitism and dealing with a woman as strong and as determined as any man. We watch as David and Lucy are changed irrecoverably by events that no one is ever prepared for. Out of the detritus emerge two people who chose divergent paths in coping with the aftermath. Slowly the boundaries between man and beast are eliminated; herein lies the success of this
quietly spectacular film. Four and 1/2 Stars!
PARIS
If I have a weakness or a bias it is for foreign films; especially French and Italian. Maybe it is because, not only do we have to see, but have to read what is transpiring on the screen hence our concentrative powers go into high gear.
There is no city that looks better than Paris and it glows in this film.
A simple story revolving around the ubiquitous themes of life, death, love and relationships. Starring Juliette Binoche as Elise and Romain Durais as Pierre (is there a French film without a Pierre?); a brother and sister facing life altering challenges.
The outstanding performance by Fabrice Luchini was the highlight; he performs a dance, so magnificent because of its unexpectedness (Tom Cruise in Risky (Frisky) Business and Hugh Grant in Love, Actually)
that we laugh with joy! His brother, played by Francois Cluzet (Tell No One) , a look alike for a young Dustin Hoffman, is predictably good.
Melanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds) whose beauty is so luminous, so breath taking, so commanding that all else fades when she graces the screen. She plays a small key role and her acting, if possible, transcends her luminosity. Three Stars!
It seems that in the world of film and the real world that relationships are consummated within minutes of meeting, oftentimes without exchanging names; whatever happened to dinner and a movie? Perished, along with the hula hoop in the middle of the last millennium!
For Now...............Peneflix
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Fellow Movie Lovers
First I want to thank you for your words of approbation and encouragement in this my virginal voyage into the world of bloggers; or blogetts, in my case.
Secondly, I particularly appreciated those who shared their opinions and disagreements with some of my ratings; very valid criticisms. The major "bone of contention" was the five stars I gave Julie & Julia; especially the "lightness" or lack of substantially of the Julie role. It was on the second viewing that I concentrated on Julie; Julie, voted most likely to succeed; Julie who was wallowing in a world of mediocrity while her friends were soaring in their professions. Here is where I admired the brilliance of Nora Ephron; by casting Amy Adams (two time Academy Award nominee for Junebug and Doubt) as Julie, she found the one actress, with the strength, knowledge and intelligence to partner with the iconic Meryl Streep, playing the icon Julia Child.
Also, we have to remember the real Julie was only 30 when she turned her life around; Julia Child in her 80's
was "baked" to perfection! Julie is a work in progress; still in her 30's, and still cooking!
Thirdly, without exception everyone liked the mini reviews! In this world of information and instant gratification folks just want to know if they should see the film or not. Movies are the "fluff" of our existence;
our release from "the world is too much with us"! I promise, no gospels and no plot revelations; viewers should be left to discover how the story evolves and concludes on their own! An integral ingredient and major element of the movie experience.
9 (2009 film)
Not to be confused with District 9 (see below)
Animination has always been associated with childhood. This movie should not be seen by children under the age of ten. Produced by, among others, Tim Burton; it is a terrifying account of a world no longer recognizable; a world inhabited by evil machines ( a Louise Bourgeois sculpture come to life) and stitchniks, with heads reminiscent of footballs or baseballs. It is the proverbial contest between good and dark forces. The animination is fascinating; the movie is good; but a better bet would be to rent Wall-E; also animated and one of the best movies of 2008. Two Stars for 9!
District 9
Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings & winner of 3 Academy Awards) creates a gory and glorious futuristic film about the elimination of aliens in South Africa; who have resided there for over 20 years. Aliens who are masters of weaponery destined to be experimented upon. The creation of Wikus van der Merwe, in charge of the roundup and his metamorphosis is the focal point of the movie. Fantastic!
Oh, what I would not give, for one day to wander in the imagination of Peter Jackson!
This movie is not for the squamish! Four Stars!
Amreeka
Wonderful debut film by Cherien Dabis tackleing the universal theme of immigration; fitting into an unknown environment without losing sight of one's roots. Here we have a Palestinian mother and son moving to Chicago in the aftermath of the Iraq war; ordinary people in extraordinary times. Nisreen Faour and
Melkar Muallem give poignant and sensitive performances as the mother and son. Thought provoking, heart warming, and amazingly entertaining; we know these people; we like these people! Four Stars!
For Now..........Peneflix
Secondly, I particularly appreciated those who shared their opinions and disagreements with some of my ratings; very valid criticisms. The major "bone of contention" was the five stars I gave Julie & Julia; especially the "lightness" or lack of substantially of the Julie role. It was on the second viewing that I concentrated on Julie; Julie, voted most likely to succeed; Julie who was wallowing in a world of mediocrity while her friends were soaring in their professions. Here is where I admired the brilliance of Nora Ephron; by casting Amy Adams (two time Academy Award nominee for Junebug and Doubt) as Julie, she found the one actress, with the strength, knowledge and intelligence to partner with the iconic Meryl Streep, playing the icon Julia Child.
Also, we have to remember the real Julie was only 30 when she turned her life around; Julia Child in her 80's
was "baked" to perfection! Julie is a work in progress; still in her 30's, and still cooking!
Thirdly, without exception everyone liked the mini reviews! In this world of information and instant gratification folks just want to know if they should see the film or not. Movies are the "fluff" of our existence;
our release from "the world is too much with us"! I promise, no gospels and no plot revelations; viewers should be left to discover how the story evolves and concludes on their own! An integral ingredient and major element of the movie experience.
9 (2009 film)
Not to be confused with District 9 (see below)
Animination has always been associated with childhood. This movie should not be seen by children under the age of ten. Produced by, among others, Tim Burton; it is a terrifying account of a world no longer recognizable; a world inhabited by evil machines ( a Louise Bourgeois sculpture come to life) and stitchniks, with heads reminiscent of footballs or baseballs. It is the proverbial contest between good and dark forces. The animination is fascinating; the movie is good; but a better bet would be to rent Wall-E; also animated and one of the best movies of 2008. Two Stars for 9!
District 9
Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings & winner of 3 Academy Awards) creates a gory and glorious futuristic film about the elimination of aliens in South Africa; who have resided there for over 20 years. Aliens who are masters of weaponery destined to be experimented upon. The creation of Wikus van der Merwe, in charge of the roundup and his metamorphosis is the focal point of the movie. Fantastic!
Oh, what I would not give, for one day to wander in the imagination of Peter Jackson!
This movie is not for the squamish! Four Stars!
Amreeka
Wonderful debut film by Cherien Dabis tackleing the universal theme of immigration; fitting into an unknown environment without losing sight of one's roots. Here we have a Palestinian mother and son moving to Chicago in the aftermath of the Iraq war; ordinary people in extraordinary times. Nisreen Faour and
Melkar Muallem give poignant and sensitive performances as the mother and son. Thought provoking, heart warming, and amazingly entertaining; we know these people; we like these people! Four Stars!
For Now..........Peneflix
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Hello Fellow Movie Lovers!!!!!!!!!!!
After years of prodding by family and friends I have decided to tread gingerly into the field of nameless, faceless bloggers! Adding to the myriad of individuals posting their thoughts and opinions and hoping that there are some who agree and fewer that do not!
I LOVE movies!!!!!!!!! Millions of us do. Where does this love come from? From childhood bedtime stories that transport our young, untainted and impressionable minds into a world of make-believe and fantasy? A world that might or might not exist. From the desire to escape the mundane and sometimes
monotony of our daily existence? Searching on the screen for answers to our questions; questions about our choices our ambitions our goals, our loves? Or is our passion for film just an intricate part of our DNA?
For me it is still a question or a quest that remains unanswered.
I do not go to the movies because of the director, producer or even the actors (although I do have my favorites); I go for the story, whether based on fact or fiction; nothing pleases me more than meeting someone or something on the screen that I have never encountered before. Naturally, the success of the story relies on the talents of the above mentioned.
Each movie must be judged on its own!
It is also natural that the "stars" become our "friends" and we tend to lionize them on and off the screen; but as paying customers we should realize that they need us more than we them. Hence, I want to keep them on the screen and admire their inimitable transformative powers. I do not want to know who they sleep with, who they vote for and most importantly I do not want them to tell me who I should vote for!
That being said, my reviews will be based on a five star system:
Five Stars, the movie has to be flawless in all categories.
Four Stars, almost perfect.
Three Stars, good but not great.
Two Stars, go if you have absolutely nothing else to do.
One Star, the movie should not have been made.
Due to the length of my introduction these mini reviews of recent releases are listed below:
Inglorious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino's ultimate WWII fantasy. It is worth the price of admission to see the
stunning performance of Christoph Waltz; the most charming portrayal of evil visited upon the screen in recent memory. He is definitely worthy of an Academy Award nominatoin! Four Stars!
The Informant: Matt Damon's characterization of the brilliant savant Mark Whitacre is breathtaking; he is at the pinnacle of his acting career; my guess, an Academy Award performance. Steven Soderbergh's adapation of the true tale of the demise of Archer Daniels Midland is riveting. Four Stars
The Burning Plain: panned by some, I thoroughly relished the intricacy of the story woven by director
Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros); the remarkable and gorgeous Charlize Theron and the still breathtaking Kim Basinger give performances worthy of their previous Academy Awards. Three Stars.
The September Issue: Unlike The Devil Wears Prada or The Last Emperor, left me cold. The only interesting and successful aspect of the film was the very real depiction of the pressure and the stress of making their September deadline. Fashion addicts will enjoy the clothes; travelers, the scenes from Paris, New York, Rome and London. Two Stars.
The Baader Meinhof Complex: great German film! A fair and unbalanced look at the real life gang and their march from idealism to anarchy. What I loved about this movie was that we, the viewer,could draw our own conclusions. The motives of the Baader Meinhof gang and their demise have been the subject of debate and scrutiny since its inception in the late 60's to the present. The famed German painter, Gerhard Richter, has immortalized them in some monumental works. Four Stars.
Extract: from commencement to conclusion my fervent wish was to "extract" myself from this film. It was a total waste of talent, with the exception of Ben Affleck (whose talent has always been questionable) who does a fine job as "stoned" bar owner. The 25-40 audience might be able to educate me in the subtleties
and humor that totally escaped my observations. Two Stars...............and I am being generous!
My One and Only; a gem of a film starring Renee Zellweger, about the formative travails of George Hamilton. A sensitive, real and delightful flick, just fun, easy on the eye and mind. Three Stars.
Saved the best for last:
Julie and Julia; from the first delicious minute this mouth-watering inspirational film was a pure unmitigated
joy to experience. Due to the inimitable talents of Meryl Streep, Julia Child once again reigns in our kitchens!
Ms. Streep is the Midas in the world of celluloid; every role she embraces turns to gold. Her genius will once again be recognized on Academy Award night. Also, Amy Adams deserves accolades for her performance as a frustrated writer whose passion for food saves her soul! Horrah for Nora Ephron for giving us this fabulous love story! Five Stars.
For Now..........
Penelope
I LOVE movies!!!!!!!!! Millions of us do. Where does this love come from? From childhood bedtime stories that transport our young, untainted and impressionable minds into a world of make-believe and fantasy? A world that might or might not exist. From the desire to escape the mundane and sometimes
monotony of our daily existence? Searching on the screen for answers to our questions; questions about our choices our ambitions our goals, our loves? Or is our passion for film just an intricate part of our DNA?
For me it is still a question or a quest that remains unanswered.
I do not go to the movies because of the director, producer or even the actors (although I do have my favorites); I go for the story, whether based on fact or fiction; nothing pleases me more than meeting someone or something on the screen that I have never encountered before. Naturally, the success of the story relies on the talents of the above mentioned.
Each movie must be judged on its own!
It is also natural that the "stars" become our "friends" and we tend to lionize them on and off the screen; but as paying customers we should realize that they need us more than we them. Hence, I want to keep them on the screen and admire their inimitable transformative powers. I do not want to know who they sleep with, who they vote for and most importantly I do not want them to tell me who I should vote for!
That being said, my reviews will be based on a five star system:
Five Stars, the movie has to be flawless in all categories.
Four Stars, almost perfect.
Three Stars, good but not great.
Two Stars, go if you have absolutely nothing else to do.
One Star, the movie should not have been made.
Due to the length of my introduction these mini reviews of recent releases are listed below:
Inglorious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino's ultimate WWII fantasy. It is worth the price of admission to see the
stunning performance of Christoph Waltz; the most charming portrayal of evil visited upon the screen in recent memory. He is definitely worthy of an Academy Award nominatoin! Four Stars!
The Informant: Matt Damon's characterization of the brilliant savant Mark Whitacre is breathtaking; he is at the pinnacle of his acting career; my guess, an Academy Award performance. Steven Soderbergh's adapation of the true tale of the demise of Archer Daniels Midland is riveting. Four Stars
The Burning Plain: panned by some, I thoroughly relished the intricacy of the story woven by director
Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros); the remarkable and gorgeous Charlize Theron and the still breathtaking Kim Basinger give performances worthy of their previous Academy Awards. Three Stars.
The September Issue: Unlike The Devil Wears Prada or The Last Emperor, left me cold. The only interesting and successful aspect of the film was the very real depiction of the pressure and the stress of making their September deadline. Fashion addicts will enjoy the clothes; travelers, the scenes from Paris, New York, Rome and London. Two Stars.
The Baader Meinhof Complex: great German film! A fair and unbalanced look at the real life gang and their march from idealism to anarchy. What I loved about this movie was that we, the viewer,could draw our own conclusions. The motives of the Baader Meinhof gang and their demise have been the subject of debate and scrutiny since its inception in the late 60's to the present. The famed German painter, Gerhard Richter, has immortalized them in some monumental works. Four Stars.
Extract: from commencement to conclusion my fervent wish was to "extract" myself from this film. It was a total waste of talent, with the exception of Ben Affleck (whose talent has always been questionable) who does a fine job as "stoned" bar owner. The 25-40 audience might be able to educate me in the subtleties
and humor that totally escaped my observations. Two Stars...............and I am being generous!
My One and Only; a gem of a film starring Renee Zellweger, about the formative travails of George Hamilton. A sensitive, real and delightful flick, just fun, easy on the eye and mind. Three Stars.
Saved the best for last:
Julie and Julia; from the first delicious minute this mouth-watering inspirational film was a pure unmitigated
joy to experience. Due to the inimitable talents of Meryl Streep, Julia Child once again reigns in our kitchens!
Ms. Streep is the Midas in the world of celluloid; every role she embraces turns to gold. Her genius will once again be recognized on Academy Award night. Also, Amy Adams deserves accolades for her performance as a frustrated writer whose passion for food saves her soul! Horrah for Nora Ephron for giving us this fabulous love story! Five Stars.
For Now..........
Penelope
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