by Christina Waters | Mar 1, 2011 | Movies |
Longtime policy analyst, filmmaker and historian of the Latin American revolutionary scene, Saul Landau comes to town next week for a screening – March 2 at 7pm – of his new documentary film Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up?
Sifting through the knotted entrails of US/Latin American relations over the past 50 years, Landau has unearthed priceless eye-witness interviews, rare footage of Fidel Castro and disturbing evidence exposing the criss-crossing trail of “extreme prejudice” between Washington, Miami and Havana.
While most of us have forgotten the convoluted steps leading up to the Bay of Pigs showdown, Landau has not. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Mar 1, 2011 | Movies |
by Christina Waters | Mar 1, 2011 | Home, Movies |
by Christina Waters | Feb 23, 2011 | Home, Movies |
By now you all know the story. Two brothers, one a crackhead, the other a straight-arrow. Both are fighters, one on the way down, the other on the way up.
Domineering mom, dysfunctional but loving family. Barmaid with a heart of gold.
Co-producer Darron (The Wrestler) Aronofsky knows his gritty rustbelt atmosphere. The collars here in the film’s location of Lowell, Mass, aren’t just blue, they’re fraying blue, just like the language that punctuates the dialogue like so much taser fire.
I went to see The Fighter mainly so I could make a few reasoned calls as to Oscars, and I will just cut to the chase and admit that yes, Christian Bale should absolutely walk away with the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Skeletal, glazed-eyed and letter perfect with New England accent and rhythms, Bale – along with co-star Mark Wahlberg – creates the most physically electrifying opening to a film this side of Do the Right Thing. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Sep 21, 2010 | Home, Movies |
Dutch director Anton Corbijn makes beautiful people and places look, well, beautiful.
Corbijn hasn’t an idea in his head, but he knows how to make ancient cobblestone stairways look blitheringly atmospheric. He knows how to show off buck naked actors, and their assets, to voyeuristic perfection.
He knows how to photograph George Clooney’s best angles. (And yes, there are quite a few of those.)
But he really has no clue as to how to create an absorbing cinematic experience. Pity really.
So much to work with, so little point.
The American is a non-film disguised as (more…)
by Christina Waters | Sep 14, 2010 | Home, Movies |
Eat Pray love is either better or worse than I expected. Like a wine that cannot be technically faulted, yet fails to engage the senses, this film seems to lack any distinction.
What it does have is a few fleeting glimpses of a potentially great actress struggling to break out of her contemporary, aging babe, Pretty Woman strait (sic) jacket. So frustrating, this one. The film is somehow packed to the hilt with clich̩s Рwise little brown people, ex-pats finding each other and eating, dancing and drinking with gusto, peasant women disapproving of single women Рyet also misses rich opportunities to bombard us with Hallmark moments.
St. Peter’s dome by sunset – a perfect all-purpose establishing shot that tells us we, and Liz Gilbert (the author/protagonist), are in Rome. You can practically smell the garlic and taste the wine. Yet we don’t get many glamor shots of the Eternal City. Instead we submit to silly new friends bonding episodes — so much so that between Roberts’ pleading eyes (more…)
