S ometimes science tells us more than we really want to know. Though in these troubled times we cling to the notion that we as a species are basically decent and moral, there is that sneaking suspicion that we are perhaps clinging to a pipe dream of civilization and that the truth is something best… Read More »
ONE HOUR PHOTO
Its not a terribly original premise. Lonely guy longs for the warmth and comfort of a family and becomes attached to what he considers to be the ideal set up. Still, obsession can be tantalizing fodder for film when handled correctly, which in the case of ONE HOUR PHOTO, its not. It has all the excitement,… Read More »
MICHAEL CLAYTON
MICHAEL CLAYTON begins with a monologue by Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), a brilliant but unhinged litigator who has spent too much of his life defending the indefensible. In it, beautifully encapsulated, is the heart of the film, which is to say, that it’s only a madman who has the clarity of vision to do the… Read More »
LA VIE EN ROSE (LA MOME)
Edith Piaf was no ordinary singer. She lived live at a fever pitch, driven by demons from her horrific childhood, and cruel twists of fate that together drove her to an early grave. No ordinary bio-pic would do to capture the essence of what Piaf was, rather than what happened to whom and when. And… Read More »
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Danny Boyle’s brilliant new film, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, is the improbable tale of how innocence triumphs against the most seemingly impossible odds. It begins and ends on the fateful night when Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), a former slum resident, plaything of an indifferent world, and current tea-boy in Mumbai, is about to answer a question on… Read More »
COCO CHANEL AND IGOR STRAVINSKY
COCO CHANEL AND IGOR STRAVINSKY is a lush yet curiously lifeless retelling of the affair between the eponymous duo. Each was the driving force behind a redefinition of art in the 20th century, she fashion, he music. Each was unswerving in following a inner muse that led them to unexplored country. The film about the… Read More »
ONDINE
Neil Jordan reaches deep into his Celtic soul and comes up with ONDINE, a dark romance that teases the meaning of myth into the starkly contemporary setting of a small Irish fishing village. The time is the present, but the location gives a timeless quality to the story of a fisherman who nets a beautiful… Read More »
ANIMAL KINGDOM
ANIMAL KINGDOM is a devastatingly powerful film with a brilliant performance from newcomer James Frecheville as J, a 17-year-old set adrift between a criminal family that he barely knows, and a legal system that until then has done a spectacular job of failing him. It begins with the camera drifting across two dead souls, the… Read More »
ANIMAL KINGDOM
ANIMAL KINGDOM is a devastatingly powerful film with a brilliant performance from newcomer James Frecheville as J, a 17-year-old set adrift between a criminal family that he barely knows, and a legal system that until then has done a spectacular job of failing him. It begins with the camera drifting across two dead souls, the… Read More »
EAT PRAY LOVE
EAT PRAY LOVE is a glossy travelogue of a flick, full of stereotypes and caricatures providing a colorful backdrop to Julia Roberts’ glamour lighting. Based on the book of the same name by Elizabeth Gilbert, it is the personal journey towards inner happiness taken by Liz (Julie Roberts) as she learns the lessons of the… Read More »