Jun 17, 2011
(Rated R, 74 min.) Released October
If you’re a young woman who wants to be a boy with lesbian tendencies, I can promise you that a trailer park is the last place to call home. White-trash folk have little tolerance towards tender and sometimes sensitive situations.
In this biological drama, Hillary Swank plays Teena Marie Brandon, a 21-year-old Nebraskan who passed herself off as a boy, before acquaintances turn on her in a violent attack. Chloe Sevigny portrays Lana, the young boy/girl’s love interest who will go to any measures to get herself on a traveling path as far away as possible from her go-nowhere, poor factory, drunken lifestyle. Even if the outcome is risking her own life for what she believes in. This story sort of plays out like the poor man’s “Romeo and Juliet” set in the 90s.
Under the direction of Kimberly Pierce, this true drama is based on a sensational murder case in which the hatred and fear of unorthodox sexuality ran deep. Swank is Oscar material, heads and tails above any other actress, but the storyline’s sexual violence and language may be extremely disturbing to some viewers.
Jun 17, 2011
(rated PG-13) Ryan (Freddie Prinze Jr) and Jennifer (Claire Forlani) are opposites who definitely do not attract. At least that’s what they’ve always believed. When they met at twelve, they disliked each other. When they met again as teenagers, they loathed each other. But when they met in college, the uptight Ryan and the free-spirited Jennifer find their differences bind them together and a rare friendship develops. A lighter “When Harry Met Sally’ with the repetitive swat fly joke/storyline that wants us to want them to get it together already, after a series of other date disasters. Think those famous should be couples and their quest to get there: Niles and Daphne of “Frasier”, Sam and Rebecca on “Cheers” Dave and Maddie on “Moonlighting”. Their annoying chemistry pays off in a smooth recovery (sort of). Their love for each other never really grows on us yet they manage to get away with it by making it seem to the audience like they’re having fun in their quest. Forlani plays the bubbly, adorable, Latin major lead that is a total flip from her sophisticated high brow girl in last year’s “Meet Joe Black.” Jason Biggs steals the movie as Prinze’s roommate sometimes named “Steve” sometimes named “Hunter” who just wants a girl to “love him for who he is” if he could only figure out who that is. Amanda Detmer is great as the cute, ditzy, slightly neurotic, lives for her therapist roommate, to Forlani. Good clean laughs, no “F” word once. Stick around for the credit/outtakes with Biggs. Hilarious. Oh, and “American Pie” it’s not.
Jun 17, 2011
(rated PG-13) From director Don Roos comes an offbeat romantic drama about a spirited widow falling for a smooth-talking ex-alcoholic salesman, only to discover that he has more in common with her than he first lets on. Turns out he gave up an airplane seat to a widow’s husband pre-plane crash and now he’s in her life to help her “bounce” back. Under pressure to be a hit because the leading role players are both Oscar winners; Ben Affleck and his on screen/off screen, on/off honey Gwyneth Paltrow. The movie works because of a smart script and real life chemistry. Roos did better with his directorial debut “The Opposite Of Sex” but it’s the charm of Affleck/Paltrow that makes this Miramax stamp-of-approval flick well worth a date night out.
Jun 17, 2011
(rated R, 93 mins.) For anybody going through divorce, mid-life crisis, affairs, or internet romances, this poignantly adorable comedy covers the lives of eight people and how they somehow all intermix in the end.
Amy Irving stars in this sub-titled story that was the official Berlin Film Festival 2000 selection and opening night film at the Miami Film Festival. She’s elegant, charming, and seductive as a widowed American English teacher working in Rio de Janeiro where she shares an unexpected chemistry with her co-star Antonio Fagundes. The other couples names are nobody an American would recognize, but who cares. They are all brilliant performers that pull their weight in bringing together an ensemble story of intermingling worlds.
A favorite scene is the boring balding, lawyer who flies to Rio to meet his internet romance. He tells one of the cast, “corporate law is not exactly a babe magnet” so he tells the “Girl From Ipanema” he’s a “SoHo artist with a loft, named Gary” with waist long hair. A great woven tale that will have you sharing the hopes in fate and soulmates.
Jun 17, 2011
(rated Not rated, 92 mins.) Based on the memoirs of the noted author/poet Brendan Behan comes the story of a 16-year old republican, on a bombing mission from Ireland to Liverpool during WWII. Apprehended and imprisoned in Borstal, a reform institute for young offenders Brendan (Shawn Hatosy) is suddenly forced to live face-to-face with those he perceived as “the enemy”. Tossed into an emotional vortex with a new friend, Charlie (Danny Dyer), Behan is forced to discover new meanings of love, loss and bigotry. Michael York portrays the headmaster while daughter Liz (Eva Birthistle) gives Behan even more to contemplate in recognizing life’s simpler pleasures. Directed by Peter Sheridan, brother of Jim Sheridan, producer (My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father) the tale spiritually evolves Behan into reflections of his own inner truths accomplished with skilled and seemingly simple acting.
