Jun 17, 2011
(rated ,100 mins.) Limited release
Following on the footsteps of James Toback’s luke warm “Two Girls and A Guy” and then “The Pick Up Artist”, I’ve kept fingers crossed for a movie that would someday stand-up to his hit screenplay “Bugsy”. “Black and White” is its first challenge.
A semi improv flick on hip hop and “gangstas”, Toback fills the screen with models, rappers, and celebrities many of which play off their real life selves. Brooke Shields does a fine job as the documentary filmmaker to her husband Robert Downey Jr. The audience roars when Toback makes reference to Downey Jr. being unable to attend his own premiere because “some sick and twisted Judge gets his ollies out of locking him up every time he gets high.” Even Oli “Power” Grant from the Wu-Tang clan, has a strong presence over the almost awkward Ben Stiller and his grad school gal pal, Claudia Schiffer. There’s great irony in Mike Tyson playing himself as he rounds out a cast of offbeat characters.
First saw this at the Toronto Film Festival and liked it then. Glad it made a leap to wide screen release.
Jun 17, 2011
FYI: Spanish with sub-titles: “Tragic” seems to be the word that comes to mind in watching the harrowing performance of Javier Bardem as Uxbal from Barcelona. He’s a man caught in a world of death (his), the here-after (he’s a psychic), his parenting (he has two small children) and the slums of Barcelona…an underground world of knock-off purses and illegal immigrants. On that note, the movie feels like four forces that never quite merge into any cohesive plot, yet we stay glued on Uxbal’s life story, anxious to see who will take care of the children should he pass away. Where’s the mother to the children, you ask? Fighting off bi-polar disorder… thus making our single father more of a hero in a not-so-heroic film. Director Alejandro Gonzalez last brought us Babel. In this, he gets a performance out of Bardem that will not only earn Oscar buzz, but his character has a keen insight into darkness, plunges into his own destructive grimness, and at the same time, it’s his sheer determination to see it all through that makes him an unlikely hero. Three tiaras
Jun 17, 2011
(86 mins. Not rated) The story of a few Ben & Jerry type guys from Vermont who begin a singing career at college bands, dorms and eventually go on to do Madison Square Gardens and Europe. It’s a low-key, lots of down to earth analogies, philosophies and events in a documentary about the band members of the group, Phish. These crunchy, granola guys are amusing, engaging and Rolling Stone Magazine calls them the “most important band of the ‘90’s.” Their simple story-telling works. One incident in particular when some members of the audience shunned them with nasty posters was amusing. In reply they screamed into their microphones “Who cares. You already paid us!” Director Todd Philips gained early notoriety for his groundbreaking documentaries “Hated” and “Frat House” which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1998.
Jun 17, 2011
(rated R, 93 mins.) John Buckingham (Ben Chaplin) is a simple bank manager in London. So, what does he do when he’s lonely and wants a wife? Find one on the internet of course! When the Russian mail order bride named Nadia (Nicole Kidman) arrives, every man would be tickled pink, except she doesn’t speak English but that’s ok because she compensates in the language of love. Until one morning two friends (Vincent Cassel and Matthew Kassovitz) show up on the doorstep able to translate, but also seduce and rob them. Now it’s a story of John trying to scheme a way back to get his dignity. It’s fun to watch this madcap adventure with Kidman as a bad girl temptress with her “To Die For” attitude. The real life Australian and two Frenchmen threesome portray awesome Russians. But it’s Chaplin who keeps the energy going in this quirky caper (although a quick call to the police could have shortened the story to just under an hour). A great setup that in the end becomes pointless.
Jun 17, 2011
(rated R) Some of us know the pain and desperation we never overcome, in losing a loved one. Instead, we just learn to live with it. And often we fantasize that we could have our loved one back in any way possible. When Anna (Nicole Kidman) loses her husband Sean, she tries to go on. Fast forward ten years later, she’s to marry Joseph (Danny Huston) when a ten year old boy, also named Sean (Cameron Bright) arrives unannounced in her home, saying that he is her reincarnated husband. With its Edgar Allen Poe eerie lighting, a captivating yet depressing soundtrack and a theme reminiscent of “Ghost” meets “Somewhere In Time”, the movie covers all the bases. And then there’s the acting. Kidman’s face delivers such vulnerable hope and confusion, while Sean is innocent, yet at the same time convincing with his in-control performance. Lauren Bacall is perfectly cast as Kidman’s mother and deadpan matriarch, of their affluent upper-east-side family; and that’s where the best part of this movie lies – because the characters are from a sophisticated family, we see how this caliber of people might respond to such circumstances, compared to the usual average Joe types we meet in other thrillers. Kidman and Bright share union that is believable and hypnotic, penetrating our souls much the way “Lolita” did, with the same proper pace, that allows enough time for the audience to accept such an inappropriate situation. And in the end we learn, just as an unsettled soul can’t rest, neither can the living who lost them.
