Posted in Art house fare, tagged Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kathy Bates, MarionCotillard, Owen Wilson, Pablo Picasso, Paris, Rachel McAdams, Woody Allen on June 9, 2011| 4 Comments »
“MIDNIGHT IN PARIS” My rating: B
90 minutes | MPAA rating:
Some films are lavish eight-course meals. Others are pastries.
“Midnight in Paris” is of the second variety, but since it was made by Woody Allen (one of his best efforts of recent years, in fact) and unfolds in the most evocative city on Earth, it’s a most satisfying pastry. Every bite provides a lovely escape. (more…)
Posted in Art house fare, tagged Denis Villeneuve, Lebanon on June 3, 2011| 1 Comment »
“INCENDIES” My rating: A
120 minutes | No MPAA rating | French and Arabic with subtitles.
Twelve hours after watching Denis Villeneuve’s “Incendies,” I’m still on a cinema high and more certain than ever that this is some sort of masterpiece.
The Oscar-nominated (for foreign language film) “Incendies” (French for “fires”) is about war and peace, about family and forgiveness. It has more pure horror and more unforced emotional beauty than any film I’ve seen in ages, yet it delivers its potent payload with a minimum of sentimentality and filmic melodrama.
It’s the story of one life, but also about how the ripples from that life (more…)
Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged Caldwell Esselstyn, Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., dairy, Lee Fulkerson, meat, T. Colin Campbell, vegan, veganism, vegetarianism on June 3, 2011| Leave a Comment »
“Forks Over Knives” My rating: B
90 minutes | No MPAA rating
Eat your veggies.
That’s the message of “Forks Over Knives,” a new documentary that argues that most of the physical maladies afflicting modern man — obesity, diabetes, cancer, pulmonary disease — could be hugely reduced if we steered clear of meat and dairy and chowed down on fresh vegetables, fruit and whole grains.
Lee Fulkerson’s film joins a growing list of titles (“Food, Inc.,” etc.) pushing for a radical rethinking of America’s diet. It presents a thorough, hard-to-refute case based largely on decades of research by two physicians, Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. and T. Colin Campbell, both of whom grew up on dairy farms and later rejected the dietary wisdom of their youths.
“Forks…” is convincing, citing research (more…)
Posted in Art house fare, Cinema Espanol, New on DVD on May 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »
For a long time gay cinema had basically one story: the coming-out tale.
But the liberalization of public attitudes about homosexuality (for most people under age 40 it’s simply not an issue) has meant that a “gay movie” now can be many things.
At the center of the Peruvian feature “Undertow” (on DVD May 31) is a same-sex relationship, but you’d be doing the picture a disservice by pigeonholing it as a gay movie.
Writer/director Javier Fuentes-Leon packs this feature with all sorts of good stuff. It’s a very realistic (more…)
Posted in Art house fare, tagged Naomie Harris, Oliver Litono on May 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »
“THE FIRST GRADER” My rating: C
103 minutes | PG-13
“The First Grader” is well-meaning, sincere and a bit dull.
Too bad. It had the makings of a real emotional powerhouse, but somehow all the juice in this fact-based tale dried up on the way to the screen
Oliver Litono as "The First Grader'
Ann Peacock’s screenplay is based on events in the life of Kimani N’gan’ga Maruge, a Kenyan who at the age of 84 decided he wanted to learn to read and write.
His efforts to get an education set off a firestorm of controversy, (more…)
Posted in Art house fare, tagged Caroline Bottaro, chess, Corsica, Kevin Kline, Sandrine Bonnaire on May 27, 2011| 1 Comment »
“QUEEN TO PLAY” My rating: B+
97 minutes | No MPAA rating | French with subtitles.
“Queen to Play” is a devastatingly romantic movie about a woman falling in love.
Not with a man. With the game of chess. And with herself.
Sandrine Bonnaire (“Vagabond,” “M. Hire”) is Helene, a working-class wife and mother. Her husband Ange (Francis Renaud) works construction, while Helene is a maid at a small hotel on their spectacularly beautiful island of Corsica. She also cleans houses.
Early in Caroline Bottaro’s debut feature, (more…)
Posted in Art house fare, tagged Martijn Lakemeier, netherlands, world war ii on May 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »
"Winter in Wartime"
“WINTER IN WARTIME” My rating: B
103 minutes | Rated R | Dutch with subtitles.
A child’s simplified view of right and wrong is shattered in “Winter in Wartime,” a snowbound drama from the Netherlands.
Elsewhere in Europe WWII is still raging, but in the town where young Michiel (Martijn Lakemeier) lives the horrors are far away.
Still, Michiel hates the occupying Germans and is contemptuous of his father Johan (Raymond Thiry), the local mayor who spends much time trying to smooth over prickly relations between the Nazis and resentful residents. Johan wants only to ensure the survival of his people, but Michiel views him as a cowardly collaborator.
Far more worthy of emulation, he believes, is his Uncle Ben (more…)
Posted in Art house fare, tagged bruce greenwood, Kelly Reichardt, Meek's Crossing, michelle williams, paul dano on May 23, 2011| 2 Comments »
“MEEK’S CUTOFF” My rating: B-
1:44 | Rated PG
In her minimalist features “Old Joy” and “Wendy and Lucy,” filmmaker Kelly Reichardt quietly explored relationships among unremarkable individuals in contemporary America.
In “Meek’s Cutoff” she takes the same lightly-plotted approach with the members of a small wagon train slogging along the Oregon Trail in the 1840s.
“Meek’s,” which might be described as a proto-Western, is a daring change of pace, one that has a big payoff intellectually but less of one emotionally and narratively.
The three married couples that make up the tiny caravan are being led by Meek (more…)
Posted in Art house fare, tagged Chris Kerson, crime drama, Sean Kirkpatrick on May 20, 2011| 1 Comment »
“COST OF A SOUL” My rating: B-
Rated R
In “Cost of a Soul” first-timer pretentiousness battles with terrific performances and a fantastic sense of atmosphere. In the end the good stuff outweighs the sketchy stuff.
Sean Kirkpatrick’s Philly-lensed crime drama (opening May 20 in KC at the Independence 20) is the winner of the first Big Break movie contest sponsored by Rogue Pictures and AMC theaters. It suggests a real talent at work.
Chris Kerson in "Cost of a Soul"
At heart it’s a coming-home story about two Iraq veterans, one black, one white.
DD (Will Blagrove) returns to his inner city home determined to live a straight life. Easier said than done, since his older brother is a biggie on the local drug scene. The best DD can hope for is to keep his impressionable younger brother out of the life.
The more interesting story follows Tommy (more…)
Posted in Art house fare, tagged Anton Yelchin, Beaver, Jennifer Lawrence, Jody Foster, Mel Gibson, puppet on May 19, 2011| 1 Comment »
“THE BEAVER” My rating: B-
91 minutes | PG-13
Adore him or abhor him, Mel Gibson is the reason to see Jody Foster’s “The Beaver.”
As Walter Black, a toy company executive sliding into a paralyzing world of depression, Gibson registers a degree of mental anguish that is shocking.
In his eyes there is so much hurt, fear and weary resignation that your first impression is that his recent public humiliations (drunken driving, anti-Semitic remarks, crazy violent telephone rants to the mother of his youngest child) have done a devastating number on the formerly cocky movie heartthrob.
Here’s another explanation: Maybe Gibson is just a really good actor.
Butler's Cinema Scene 