by Christina Waters | Jan 19, 2008 | Home, Movies |
How much is Julian Schnabel paying the film critics? There’s no other reason why intelligent film-goers would succumb to the sophomoric exercise in cinematic vanity that is The Diving Bell & the Butterfly. Intrigued by raves from a wide range of reviewers, including local filmies, I wasted $7 and two hours on this pathetic excuse for a movie about a magazine editor confined to almost complete paralysis and the “life lessons” he learns thanks to attractive therapists, hand-held camerawork and of course, those crucial sub-titles.
Did Schnabel really think that making the film in French would elevate its mawkish, soporific effect? It doesn’t. It just means that you listen to lots of French speakers while you’re being bored to tears.
Wait, I know. Schnabel (a well-connected New York artist famous for painting on really big plates) decided to invoke the “Atonement effect.” You know, that’s where you shamelessly capitalize on a five-minute cameo by a major-but-aging star. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Jan 4, 2008 | Home, Movies |
How can we explain the Disney-produced mess that is National Treasure 2? How is it possible that Nicolas Cage – with his monochromatic, slack-jawed, puppy-eyed expression, his bad dye job, his cornball tendency to break out in patriotic sweats at the drop of a hat – how is it possible that this man continues to get work in the movies? (Surely it can’t still be the Coppola thing, can it?)
Lacking script, direction, competent acting (except from old pros Jon Voigt, Ed Harris and Helen Mirren, who must have needed the money), National Treasure 2 lurches through a visual wikipedia of great films from the past.
From Indiana Jones we get the underground treasure thing and rolling boulders. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Dec 16, 2007 | Home, Movies |
Last week we were all over the map – Luca in Carmel, Soif for appetizers, and Au Midi for dinner. All wonderful stuff in general, with scallops, root veggies and wintry natural meat dishes showing off nicely.
Across Dolores Street from Winfield Gallery, Luca sits between Ocean and Seventh, in a contemporary re-design that moves from the intimate front bar seating, past the wood-burning pizza ovens, into a huge back dining room. Heavy beamed ceilings in the front room, brick barrel vaulting in back, attest to the vintage of this attractive space, masterminded by Mirabel Hotel and Restaurant Group entrepreneur David (Bouchée) Fink.
The lunch menu created by Executive Chef Jason Balestrieri (formerly of LA’s Patina) was instantly appealing, and our quartet ordered glasses of earthy Sardinian Cannonau to go with a shared arugula, pecorino and pear salad, a pizza Margherita, another pizza topped with caramelized onion and wild funghi and a shared salumi plate of artisan-made salametto and speck. I could admire the view of large slabs of hams and cured salumi hanging in a glass aging chamber from my spot on the banquette.
Every flavor was sparkling, from the delicious, ungreasy meats to the
perfect pizza. Crisp crust, chewy delicious dough, buffalo mozzarella and San Marzano tomato topping. The arugula salad — inflected with beets and thin slivers of pear — was generous enough for us all to enjoy. Even the opening salvo of crusty bread was terrific, served with an addictive olive oil and balsamic mixture filled with chopped olives.
Put Luca on your list next time you’re in Carmel – open for lunch (during the week) and dinner daily – 831/625-6500.
by Christina Waters | Dec 16, 2007 | Home, Movies |
The exact youthful energy, yearning innocence and reckless abandon that Baby Boomers brought to the world-altering ’60s is packed into Across the Universe, Julie (Frida, The Lion King) Taymor’s deceptively complex romp through the dawning of the age of counter-cultural awakening.
Ambitiously rife with imagination and spunk, the film takes Boomers on a magical mystery tour through the soundtrack of their coming of age.
That would be the Beatles, whose songs are re-awakened by the young cast who sing their way through a slender tale of boys and girls, hippies and wannabes, worlds colliding and tripping into the psychedelic fantastic. For any viewer old enough to remember all the lyrics, this film will more than reward its overly-long (and sometimes hokey) feast of sights and sounds.
Joe Alexander is brilliant as Max (above left), whose sister Lucy (in the sky with …played by Evan Rachel Wood) falls in love with a young Liverpudlian Jude (Jim Sturgess, above right). (more…)
by Christina Waters | Oct 18, 2007 | Home, Movies |
Can you say “perfect film?” An existential tale of corporate corruption that plays like Greek tragedy crossed with Kafka. That’s Michael Clayton, the latest George Clooney cinematic encounter produced by a handful of gifted directors, written/directed by Tony Gilroy (who wrote all the “Bourne” films) and flawlessly cast.
Given Clooney’s remarkable presence, you enter the theater expecting slick, glamor and extreme urban style. What you get, thanks to the gritty intelligence of the entire filmic package, is a dreamlike membrane of loss, grit and greed whose central Everyman is an emotionally bruised company fixer for a New York corporate law firm.
Clooney is our era’s Marilyn Monroe. The camera adores him. It is impossible not to be drawn to his screen image, his brooding beauty — which is now tinged by enough middle-aged seediness to be haunting. The loss of Michael Clayton’s personal center echoes the threadbare quality of the northeast itself, and while never showy, the camerawork of Robert Elswit etches the disintegration just under the surface of humans, landscape and social networks gathered into this vivid film. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Aug 8, 2007 | Home, Movies |
Hot and fast enough to pierce full body armor, The Bourne Ultimatum locks on and doesn’t let up for almost two hours. Utterly jet-propelled, this flick delivers rock solid movie licks and then some. Don’t even think about waiting until it’s out in DVD — you gotta see this one on the Big Screen so that you can go for what amounts to one Very Big Ride.
I promise that you will be glued to your seat, unable to breathe, during this intense and intelligent flash cinema spectacle. Let’s just say that Bourne makes James Bond look positively lethargic. (more…)
