Down South, Singing the Indie Blues
November 30th, 2007
Twenty-seven years and 16 features after they began their mutual career, John Sayles and Maggie Renzi are still making movies.
Archive for November, 2007
Striking Screenwriters Dismiss New Proposals
November 30th, 2007
The screenwriters called the proposals from producers a “a massive rollback,” and called on their members to continue their walkout.
No Country for Old Men
November 21st, 2007
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Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, Kel... Review: Misguided souls will tell you that No Country for Old Men is out for blood, focused on vengeance and unconcerned with the larger world outside a standard-issue suspense plot. Those people, of course, are deaf, dumb and blind to anything that isn't spelled out between commercials on dying TV networks. Joel and Ethan Coen's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel is an indisputably great movie, at this point the year's very best. Set in 1980 in West Texas, where the chase is on for stolen drug money, the film — a new career peak for the Coen brothers, who share writing and directing credits — is a literate meditation (scary words for the Transformers crowd) on America's bloodlust for the easy fix. It's also as entertaining as hell, which tends to rile up elitists. What do the... Rating: 4 Stars |
I’m Not There
November 21st, 2007
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Starring: Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell, Richard Gere, Julianne Moore, Char... Review: So what if nothing is revealed. Todd Haynes is a mischievous visionary who puts the music and the myth of Bob Dylan before us in I'm Not There and dares us not to revel in the troubadour's poetic, contentious, ever-changing essence. It's a feast for the eyes, the ears and the Dylanologist scratching around our minds and hearts. And, get this, never once does Haynes mention the name of the mesmeric changeling at his film's center. There's no need: Cover versions of Dylan songs occupy the movie like angels and demons doing battle at an exorcism. Not content with just one actor to portray Dylan in the act of inventing and reinventing himself, Haynes hired six and hit the jackpot with Cate Blanchett. She burns through Haynes' head-trip odyssey like an illuminating torch. Blanchett's soon-to-be... Rating: 3 Stars |
Beowulf
November 21st, 2007
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Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone, Robin Wright-Penn... Review: I expected the film version of the epically tedious Old English poem to be a craptacular. Director Robert Zemeckis used the same motion-capture process in 2004's The Polar Express and turned live actors into digital humans who looked invaded by body snatchers. Boy, have things changed. The eighth-century Beowulf, goosed into twenty-first-century life by a screenplay from sci-fi guru Neil Gaiman and Pulp Fiction's Roger Avary, will have you jumping out of your skin and begging for more. Be sure to see it in 3-D. I can't vouch for the flat version, but the 3-D Beowulf will debut on a record number of digital screens (1,000, and 90 in IMAX). Put on those plastic glasses and ride, baby, ride. I've never seen a 3-D movie pop with this kind of clarity and oomph. It's outrageously entertaining.... Rating: 3 Stars |
Margot at the Wedding
November 21st, 2007
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Starring: Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black, John Turturro Review: Director Noah Baumbach, Oscar-nominated for writing the 2005 gem The Squid and the Whale, is the rarest kind of filmmaker in formula Hollywood: He makes every word count without cheating on his characters for an easy laugh. Margot at the Wedding, following Kicking and Screaming, Mr. Jealousy and Squid, is a moral tale in the tradition of France's Eric Rohmer. It's the people, not the plot, driving this comedy of appalling manners. And Baumbach, with acute intelligence and annihilating wit, writes people with flaws we can (if we're honest) recognize as our own. Nicole Kidman plays Margot, a short-story writer who leaves Manhattan to attend the wedding of her teacher sister, Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), at the run-down family home in the Hamptons. Sound simple? Wait. Margot hasn't seen... Rating: 3 Stars |
Enchanted (Walt Disney)
November 21st, 2007
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Starring: Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Idina M... Review: You might want to remember the name Amy Adams. It's star-is-born time for the Colorado Mormon, who won a supporting-actress Oscar nomination for 2005's Junebug, which few saw (dumb move). Enchanted has the makings of a supersize sugarcoated hit, and Adams is just the spicy princess you want to take home and PG-love. Not since Julie Andrews rode an umbrella to glory in Mary Poppins has Disney given us such a real-life doll. Actually, Adams' Giselle starts off as a cartoon, a princess who finds her prince (James Marsden), only to have his bitch-queen mother (Susan Sarandon) banish her to hell. That would be Times Square, where the characters take on flesh and blood. OK, it's corny. Script contrivance, thy name is having Giselle take refuge in the Manhattan apartment of a McDreamy divorce... Rating: 3 Stars |
Starting Out in the Evening
November 21st, 2007
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Starring: Lauren Ambrose, Karl Bury, Anitha Gandhi, Sean T. Krishnan, Frank... Review: Frank Langella has won a slew of awards for his stage work, including a Tony this year for playing Tricky Dick in Frost/Nixon. But on film, most recently in Good Night, and Good Luck, Langella flies under the Academy radar. Wake up, voters. In Starting Out in the Evening, adapted from Brian Morton's novel by director Andrew Wagner, Langella delivers a master class in acting. He's playing Leonard Schiller, an aging author aching from the loss of his wife, a weak heart and literary neglect. So when firebrand grad student Heather Wolfe (a wondrous Lauren Ambrose) calls for an interview, Leonard is reluctantly reawakened to his talent and sexuality. How the two merge is the haunting business of Wagner's remarkable film, indelibly marked by Langella's deeply felt portrait of a lion in winter. Rating: 3 Stars |
Review: Home for the holidays, with a few secrets in tow
November 21st, 2007
RATING: (POLITE APPLAUSE)This Christmas: Comedy-drama. Starring Delroy Lindo, Idris Elba, Loretta Devine, Regina King and Mekhi Phifer. Written and directed by Preston A. Whitmore II. (PG-13. 117 minutes. At Bay area theaters.) One family member pulls out a...
Six Bob Dylan characters in search of an author
November 21st, 2007
RATING: (SNOOZING VIEWER)I'm Not There: Imaginative biopic. Starring Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Richard Gere. Directed by Todd Haynes. (R. 135 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.) Anyone can make a bad movie, but it takes a good...
