Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway
Fair Game
"Fair Game" is the real life story of Valerie Plame, the female spy who was outed by Robert Novak in 2003. Naomi Watts stars as Plame, who gives her role a proper understated tone. When the camera opens on this political drama, Plame is sitting in a stark office building. She is disarmingly soft and direct. She uses her blond, bright-eyed looks as a maternal weapon in espionage to get her precise information.
Nobody gets tough with Plame because her comforting generic appearance repels suspicion. She seems more mom than Mata Hari. Sean Penn is her husband, Joseph Wilson who was a former ambassador to Niger. At the start, Wilson believes that America has the best interest of its people at heart.
Gradually throughout the film tension mounts. Does Iraq have enriched uranium in those ominous sounding aluminum tubes? Indeed the CIA is pressured to get the information necessary to cast Iraq as an immediate threat.
We see Plame as a good mom, caring and compassionate one minute and then jetting off the next. On the mothering scorecard Watts' Plame is a 21st century update of "Leave it to Beaver" but all is not rosy--Plame has recurring nightmares. Worse, her husband is fed up and world-weary of her constant exiting. From the looks of things, Mr. Wilson hasn't slept in weeks. Penn's face is all sag and his body asymetrical motion.
Needless to say Plame presses on badgering conection after connection. She is a curious mixture of soft stubborness. Except for the initial scene it is remarkable that no one flirts with her. Naomi Watts embodies the Hitchcock Idea of a femme fatale: Cool as ice but with fire underneath.
Things come to a head when her hubby writes an editorial in The New York Times about the absence of uranium tubes in Iraq. Then abruptly on a day that would make Disney feel at home, a paperboy launches the
morning paper into the air with a snap and history is made.
Director Doug Liman of "The Bourne Identity" films has the tough job of balancing facts with matinee-style suspense but the strong performance of Watts brings it all together.
"Fair Game" emphasizes the suspense of everyday political life. While less over the top than the Bourne films, Valerie Plame is every bit as provocative as Jason Bourne, because of her tough spy core underneath
a maternal instinct.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Fair Game (Rhoades)
“Fair Game” Cries No Fair in Spy Game
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
You read the headlines: Back in 2003 the wife of a respected diplomat was outed as a CIA agent.
Purportedly this was Dick Cheney’s revenge for Joe Wilson’s New York Times op-ed piece challenging the administration’s Weapons of Mass Destruction excuse for invading Iraq.
Former Ambassador Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame was known to her friends as a quiet suburban housewife, while in fact she’d been running a team of CIA assets in the Middle East. Talk about secret lives. But that’s the spy game.
This illegal revelation about Valerie Plame threatened her and her family, not to mention a network of CIA agents and informants. No fair, her husband cried, setting off what has been called Plamegate along with a series of ethical debates and lawsuits.
“Fair Game,” the movie version of those events, is currently revealing all at the Tropic Cinema.
Blonde and demure, Naomi Waits stars as Valerie. Sean Penn takes on the role of her husband Joseph C. Wilson IV. She’s calm and cool; he fumes and rages. Both actors play off each other with a precision that bespeaks their third movie together.
The real-life story: As a covert officer in the CIA’s Counter-Proliferation Division, Valerie was looking into the rumor that Iraq was buying enriched uranium from Niger. When the CIA enlisted her husband’s help in the investigation, he came up dry. And said so – writing in a July 2003 New York Times op-ed piece titled “What I Didn’t Find in Africa” that “some of the intelligence related to Iraq’s nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.”
A few days later, Washington Post columnist Robert Novak reported that “Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me that Wilson’s wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate.”
The CIA was unhappy to have one of its covert officers exposed. The director asked the Justice Department to investigate. President George W. Bush admitted there had been “a leak” from his administration about Plame. “I want to know who it is,” he said. “And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of.”
According to grand jury testimony, it was Bush administration officials Richard Armitage, Karl Rove, and Lewis “Scooter” Libby who unveiled then-classified CIA officer Valerie E. Wilson (A/K/A Valerie Plame) to members of the press.
Key West’s Tim Gratz knew Rove in college, when both worked for the Young Republicans, putting on seminars in Wisconsin. Tim describes Rove as “a friend of mine” and defends him, saying, “It is my understanding that Rove had nothing to do with it. Rove spent a huge amount of money on legal fees defending himself. Rove tells a dramatic story how the lawyer finally cleared him through a very intense scrutiny of old Rove e-mails.”
Tim adds, “In College Republican politics both Rove and I had reputations as being ‘squishy,’ not true conservatives. Most people find that hard to believe about Rove but I guess it really shows how far right the College Republican leadership was. We used to wear buttons that read ‘Nuke Hanoi.’”
As for Scooter Libby, he was sentenced to thirty months in prison for perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements, but this sentence was commuted as being “excessive” by President Bush.
Libby admitted he had discussed leaking Valerie Plame’s CIA status to reporters with Vice President Dick Cheney during a July 12, 2003, trip aboard Air Force Two. He told investigators that the President of the United States via Cheney had ordered him to leak the classified information about Plame in order to bolster the case for the Iraq War.
Armitage, second-in-command at the State Department, was identified as the “primary” source who spoke with reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Novak. But he was never charged, having cooperated with the investigators who “found no evidence that Armitage knew of Plame’s covert CIA status when he talked to Novak and Woodward.”
The Wilsons brought a civil law suit against Cheney, Libby, Rove, and Armitage on July 19, 2007. However, Wilson v Cheney was subsequently dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The film is based both on Valerie Plame’s memoir, “Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House,” and her husband’s memoir, “The Politics of Truth.” The title for Plame’s book comes from TV correspondent Chris Matthews: “I just got off the phone with Karl Rove. He says, and I quote, ‘Wilson’s wife is fair game.’” Rove later denied saying it.
As for the movie version of “Fair Game,” director Doug Liman knows how to turn a newspaper headline into an exciting spy thriller. After all, he gave us that heart-pounding rendition of “The Bourne Identity” with Matt Damon.
Even so, the film hovers between being a biopic and a thriller, not quite making up its mind. Nonetheless, moviegoers have been satisfied. One summed it up this way: “If you view Doug Liman's ‘Fair Game’ outside of the politics and controversy around what actually happened, what you get is a solidly directed, well scripted, fantastically acted domestic drama where the wife just happens to be a spy.”
As for the Wilsons’ lawsuit, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal. “This decision means that government officials can abuse their power for political purposes without fear of repercussion,” responded the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Private citizens like the Wilsons, who see their careers destroyed and their lives placed in jeopardy by administration officials seeking to score political points and silence opposition, have no recourse.”
Two years ago Joe Wilson joined a private equity fund as vice chairman, to advise the firm’s expansion in areas of Africa considered “politically sensitive.” Valerie is reportedly a housewife in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
You can check: Valerie is not listed as an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency. But then again, as a covert operator, she never was.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
You read the headlines: Back in 2003 the wife of a respected diplomat was outed as a CIA agent.
Purportedly this was Dick Cheney’s revenge for Joe Wilson’s New York Times op-ed piece challenging the administration’s Weapons of Mass Destruction excuse for invading Iraq.
Former Ambassador Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame was known to her friends as a quiet suburban housewife, while in fact she’d been running a team of CIA assets in the Middle East. Talk about secret lives. But that’s the spy game.
This illegal revelation about Valerie Plame threatened her and her family, not to mention a network of CIA agents and informants. No fair, her husband cried, setting off what has been called Plamegate along with a series of ethical debates and lawsuits.
“Fair Game,” the movie version of those events, is currently revealing all at the Tropic Cinema.
Blonde and demure, Naomi Waits stars as Valerie. Sean Penn takes on the role of her husband Joseph C. Wilson IV. She’s calm and cool; he fumes and rages. Both actors play off each other with a precision that bespeaks their third movie together.
The real-life story: As a covert officer in the CIA’s Counter-Proliferation Division, Valerie was looking into the rumor that Iraq was buying enriched uranium from Niger. When the CIA enlisted her husband’s help in the investigation, he came up dry. And said so – writing in a July 2003 New York Times op-ed piece titled “What I Didn’t Find in Africa” that “some of the intelligence related to Iraq’s nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.”
A few days later, Washington Post columnist Robert Novak reported that “Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me that Wilson’s wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate.”
The CIA was unhappy to have one of its covert officers exposed. The director asked the Justice Department to investigate. President George W. Bush admitted there had been “a leak” from his administration about Plame. “I want to know who it is,” he said. “And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of.”
According to grand jury testimony, it was Bush administration officials Richard Armitage, Karl Rove, and Lewis “Scooter” Libby who unveiled then-classified CIA officer Valerie E. Wilson (A/K/A Valerie Plame) to members of the press.
Key West’s Tim Gratz knew Rove in college, when both worked for the Young Republicans, putting on seminars in Wisconsin. Tim describes Rove as “a friend of mine” and defends him, saying, “It is my understanding that Rove had nothing to do with it. Rove spent a huge amount of money on legal fees defending himself. Rove tells a dramatic story how the lawyer finally cleared him through a very intense scrutiny of old Rove e-mails.”
Tim adds, “In College Republican politics both Rove and I had reputations as being ‘squishy,’ not true conservatives. Most people find that hard to believe about Rove but I guess it really shows how far right the College Republican leadership was. We used to wear buttons that read ‘Nuke Hanoi.’”
As for Scooter Libby, he was sentenced to thirty months in prison for perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements, but this sentence was commuted as being “excessive” by President Bush.
Libby admitted he had discussed leaking Valerie Plame’s CIA status to reporters with Vice President Dick Cheney during a July 12, 2003, trip aboard Air Force Two. He told investigators that the President of the United States via Cheney had ordered him to leak the classified information about Plame in order to bolster the case for the Iraq War.
Armitage, second-in-command at the State Department, was identified as the “primary” source who spoke with reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Novak. But he was never charged, having cooperated with the investigators who “found no evidence that Armitage knew of Plame’s covert CIA status when he talked to Novak and Woodward.”
The Wilsons brought a civil law suit against Cheney, Libby, Rove, and Armitage on July 19, 2007. However, Wilson v Cheney was subsequently dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The film is based both on Valerie Plame’s memoir, “Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House,” and her husband’s memoir, “The Politics of Truth.” The title for Plame’s book comes from TV correspondent Chris Matthews: “I just got off the phone with Karl Rove. He says, and I quote, ‘Wilson’s wife is fair game.’” Rove later denied saying it.
As for the movie version of “Fair Game,” director Doug Liman knows how to turn a newspaper headline into an exciting spy thriller. After all, he gave us that heart-pounding rendition of “The Bourne Identity” with Matt Damon.
Even so, the film hovers between being a biopic and a thriller, not quite making up its mind. Nonetheless, moviegoers have been satisfied. One summed it up this way: “If you view Doug Liman's ‘Fair Game’ outside of the politics and controversy around what actually happened, what you get is a solidly directed, well scripted, fantastically acted domestic drama where the wife just happens to be a spy.”
As for the Wilsons’ lawsuit, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal. “This decision means that government officials can abuse their power for political purposes without fear of repercussion,” responded the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Private citizens like the Wilsons, who see their careers destroyed and their lives placed in jeopardy by administration officials seeking to score political points and silence opposition, have no recourse.”
Two years ago Joe Wilson joined a private equity fund as vice chairman, to advise the firm’s expansion in areas of Africa considered “politically sensitive.” Valerie is reportedly a housewife in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
You can check: Valerie is not listed as an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency. But then again, as a covert operator, she never was.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Week of November 19 to November 25 (Mann)
What’s on at the Tropic
by Phil Mann
by Phil Mann
It’s hard to believe, but a foreign-language film has been outperforming some of the mainstream alternatives at the Tropic this past week. It’s THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, which has amassed a following driven by the popularity of the trilogy of books about Dragon Tattoo girl Lisbeth Salander. But the success of the translation to the screen owes much to the brilliant portrayal by Noomi Rapace in the title role.
She’s as hard as males, and more computer savvy than Mark Zuckerberg. You probably know the contours of the story, of Lisbeth’s abuse by the men in her family and by sinister right-wing forces, and her unique and relentless means of gaining revenge. If you’ve seen the first two parts of the trilogy, you’re already committed to this concluding episode. If not, it’s a great story on its own. Lisbeth is again being framed by the evildoers, but she has Millenium magazine and Micke Nyqvist on her side, plus her own gutsy self. She’s held over for another week, just for you.
This week Lisbeth’s competition will come from Russell Crowe starring in THE NEXT THREE DAYS. He’s still a gladiator, but this time he’s fighting the legal system rather than Romans. His wife is serving a life sentence for a murder which she probably didn’t commit, but that’s not important. What’s important is that she has exhausted her appeals, leaving him no choice but extra-legal means to get her out. In other words, a prison break. The script and direction are by Oscar winner Paul Haggis (Crash, The Million-Dollar Baby), who knows how to generate “an edge-of-the-seat morality play which builds in intensity every step of the way en route to its exciting conclusion.” (TheLoop21.com)
Also coming to the starting line is SECRETARIAT, the biography of the legendary stallion whose record times in the 1973 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes still stand. (His official winning time in the Preakness was not a record, but that time is in dispute, with the Daily Racing Form attributing to him a time that would tie the current record.) I suppose telling you all this might constitute a spoiler, but if you don’t know that this horse won the Triple Crown and is possibly the greatest hunk of horseflesh that ever trod the track, you’re not likely to be a reader of this sophisticated journal. Anyhow, the races are all there, exciting, almost dazzling on screen. Fleshed out by the story of his female owner, Penny Chenery (Diane Lane), and her triumph in a male-dominated world, this is a great movie for the kids, as well as sports fans.
This week’s Special Event is the first in a new series of plays direct from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. Joining opera and ballet on the Tropic’s cinema arts calendar, we’ll be seeing Romeo and Juliet and As You Like It later this season. But this week it’s LOVE’S LABOR’S LOST. An out-and-out comedy featuring wordplay and coy characters, this performance has been specially filmed for high def digital presentation.
I count a visit to the Globe, a replica reconstruction of the original Elizabethan theater, where I stood in the pit to watch a play whilst higher-paying customers were arrayed in stadia seats around me, as a high point in my theater-going life. If you come and see the Globe players at the Tropic in this production, of which the New York Times says, “as dewy as a morning in May…this production lands every joke,” close your eyes and imagine you’re back in 1598. But in one of thepremium seats.
Comments please, to pmann99@gmail.com
[from Key West, the newspaper -- www.kwtn.com]
Secretariat (Brockway)
Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway
Secretariat
If you want a "Rocky" story with an equestrian heart, you have it with Disney's "Secretariat".
The film is a true tall-tale of the most winning horse in history. Diane Lane stars as horse owner Penny Chenery. Right from the get-go, Penny is up against it. Her mother dies and the horse farm faces dire straits, as huge debt plunges the idyllic Chenery farm (complete with blue sky and technicolor stables) into near bankruptcy.
Enter a conniving horse villain that wants to sell the horses for half of what they are worth. But alas, in true Disney fashion, Penny won't budge. She has the soul of a romantic horse-whisperer and the ambition of a champion owner. Diane Lane gives us just what we expect with dramatic heart and soft nuances of body language in her performance. She is not meant to be a sit- at- home housewife. Underneath her warm exterior, Lane's Chenery is as competitive as her horse and built for the carnivorous showplace of the track, circa 1972.
One of the most rewarding aspects of "Secretariat" is its facile ability to show the symbiotic relationship between owner, horse and trainer. And moreover, the apprehension within the culture of the Kentucky Derby---its greed and ego. There is malevolence with mint juleps, but without guns. We get a history lesson with our Cinderella- hooved story. The horse Secretariat apparently became a kind of counterculture hero, dismissed as an old ailing horse at the time of the "flower power" movement.
Watching the film, you get the feeling that Secretariat was cheered right along with Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg. Indeed, one glance at Lucien Laurin's (John Malkovich) hallucinogenically bright wardrobe will convince you that it's possible. The lasting smartness and empathy of the film is that it treats the horse himself as an actual character and personality, and it does so without any anthropomorphic wizardry or Disney cartooning.
Secretariat's eyes are full of as much pathos and determination as Clint Eastwood or Eli Wallach. During a pre-race walk, our equine hero gives a hostile exchange to the opponent horse directly out of "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly."
A Disney film is an American tradition in many ways. We know what we are getting: magic, benevolent mayhem, and heart-flung celebrational stories. What makes "Secretariat" stand out from the rest of the pack, is its perfect interplay between both human and animal worlds, counterculture youth and wealthy cliques. The dynamic harmony produced without any cloying push, gives each scene a quirky joy that mirrors the clashing patterns of Lucien Laurin's many suits.
Secretariat
If you want a "Rocky" story with an equestrian heart, you have it with Disney's "Secretariat".
The film is a true tall-tale of the most winning horse in history. Diane Lane stars as horse owner Penny Chenery. Right from the get-go, Penny is up against it. Her mother dies and the horse farm faces dire straits, as huge debt plunges the idyllic Chenery farm (complete with blue sky and technicolor stables) into near bankruptcy.
Enter a conniving horse villain that wants to sell the horses for half of what they are worth. But alas, in true Disney fashion, Penny won't budge. She has the soul of a romantic horse-whisperer and the ambition of a champion owner. Diane Lane gives us just what we expect with dramatic heart and soft nuances of body language in her performance. She is not meant to be a sit- at- home housewife. Underneath her warm exterior, Lane's Chenery is as competitive as her horse and built for the carnivorous showplace of the track, circa 1972.
One of the most rewarding aspects of "Secretariat" is its facile ability to show the symbiotic relationship between owner, horse and trainer. And moreover, the apprehension within the culture of the Kentucky Derby---its greed and ego. There is malevolence with mint juleps, but without guns. We get a history lesson with our Cinderella- hooved story. The horse Secretariat apparently became a kind of counterculture hero, dismissed as an old ailing horse at the time of the "flower power" movement.
Watching the film, you get the feeling that Secretariat was cheered right along with Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg. Indeed, one glance at Lucien Laurin's (John Malkovich) hallucinogenically bright wardrobe will convince you that it's possible. The lasting smartness and empathy of the film is that it treats the horse himself as an actual character and personality, and it does so without any anthropomorphic wizardry or Disney cartooning.
Secretariat's eyes are full of as much pathos and determination as Clint Eastwood or Eli Wallach. During a pre-race walk, our equine hero gives a hostile exchange to the opponent horse directly out of "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly."
A Disney film is an American tradition in many ways. We know what we are getting: magic, benevolent mayhem, and heart-flung celebrational stories. What makes "Secretariat" stand out from the rest of the pack, is its perfect interplay between both human and animal worlds, counterculture youth and wealthy cliques. The dynamic harmony produced without any cloying push, gives each scene a quirky joy that mirrors the clashing patterns of Lucien Laurin's many suits.
The Next Three Days (Brockway)
Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway
The Next Three Days
Are the local Pittsburgh police and the criminal justice system sinister and uncaring ? Do community college teachers weild any physical power in protection?
No, this is not an extra review of "Waiting for 'Superman'" I'm writing about "The Next Three Days" the new edge- of-your- seat thriller directed by Hollywood Maestro Paul Haggis.
Russell Crowe is Literature professor John Brennan. His wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) is up for the murder of her boss due to a bit of silly circumstantial evidence. She brushed up against the murderer's bloody coat and touched the weapon (a fire extinguisher) unbeknownst to her. When John tries to appeal, the lawyer is cold and unfeeling. Who would believe her? She had an ax to grind with her boss. After all, her fingerprints were on the weapon. His wife is sent to prison.
Suddenly John springs into action. He will take matters into his own hands. Go Russell! He creates a huge wall map with all kinds of pictures, dollar signs, financial figures, connections and squiggly scrawls. Because of this, I cannot help but think of Glenn Beck's chalkboard conundrums, yet John is not aiming for conspiracy here, he only wants to free his wife.
John needs passports so he goes into a seedy bar and promptly gets beaten to a pulp. His wife becomes more and more withdrawn and even John's parents are convinced of Lara's crimes. Then John needs money so he stakes out a drug dealer's house and shoots the dealer after a tense shootout, recalling some of Mad Mel Gibson's revenge films.
With every violent and disapointing episode, John's face is a study in existential woe. But he gets the needed cash. Crowe in his role is forced to become a kind of Libertarian family man fighting against the law, similar to Denzel Washington in "John Q".
In one incredible scene, Lara opens the door on a busy Pittsburgh freeway, her head inches from the road as Russell Crowe hangs on his wife's hand at about 80 mph. Yikes! When they finally stop and pull over, silent but warm with each other, their survival is almost comic relief.
Suffice it to say, if you like your heroes to be tough and punchy yet with enough literary sophistication to expound on Don Quixote, then "The Next Three Days" is made just for you.
The Next Three Days (Rhoades
“Next Three Days” Breaks Out at Tropic
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
How far would you go to save someone you love from unjust imprisonment?
Well, John Brennan (the character played by Russell Crowe in “The Next Three Days”) would stop at nothing, even willing to break his wife out of prison when all else fails.
Accused of murder, Brennan’s wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) has been incarcerated for three years. After her final appeal is exhausted, she turns suicidal, moaning to her husband, “I don’t think I can last twenty years.”
“I promised you this will not be your life,” responds Brennan, a milquetoast English teacher in a small community college who has been trying desperately to hold the family together.
So he decides to break his wife out of prison. “We have no other choice,” he tells her.
Yes, despite all the upfront angst and courtroom drama, this is essentially a prison break movie. “The Next Three Days” can be found going over the wall at the Tropic Cinema.
A prison break requires careful timing, fast cars, and great danger. Not exactly Brennan’s thing. That’s why he consults an expert, an ex-con (a cameo by Liam Neeson) who has escaped from several prisons in his criminal past.
“Whatta you wanna know?” the ex-con growls.
“How you escaped when no one else could?” implores the frantic husband.
“No prison in the world is airtight,” comes the terse response. “Each one has a key. You just have to find it.”
Nonetheless, he agrees to tutor Brennan: “You have to have the entire plan already in place. And you have to ask yourself, can you kill a guard, leave your kid at a gas station? Because to do this thing, that’s what you have to become.”
The plan requires a gun (“Where do you put the bullets?” asks the awkward pupil), passports, money, clockwork timing. He has three days to pull it off. “From the time they make the call, the police are gonna have the center of the city sealed tight in fifteen minutes. Within thirty-five minutes they can have cops at every toll booth on the Interstate,” warns the ex-con. “They will shoot you on sight.”
Can Brennan pull it off? “You have to ask yourself if you can do it,” advises the ex-con. “And if you can’t, don’t start. You’ll just get someone killed.”
The rest of the movie depicts our reluctant hero executing a daring escape, his young son Luke (Ty Simpkins) in tow. His wife nervously following her husbands instructions. This leads to an exciting chase through the streets of Pittsburgh as police pursue the Brennan family.
Okay, let’s ignore the implausibility of the prison break – willing suspension of disbelief and all that. Accept that it’s a thrilling cat-and-mouse game designed to keep the audience of the edge of their seats. A popcorn movie.
Instead, let’s turn to the moral dilemmas inherent in this film. All the evidence points to Lara’s guilt, that she killed her boss. But her husband rages with a blind faith that she’s innocent. “She could never do something like that,” he insists, despite signs to the contrary.
Even though most of Brennan’s actions are wrong (read: illegal), the audience still sees him as a hero. But does righting an injustice excuse criminal acts? Does saving a loved one allow the possibility of killing an innocent bystander or policeman? Back to our original question: How far would you go to save someone you love from unjust imprisonment?
Two-time Oscar winner Paul Haggis (“Crash,” “In The Valley of Elah”) wrote, directed and produced “The Next Three Days.” However, it’s actually a remake of the 2007 French film “Pour Elle” (translation: “Anything for Her”), an underappreciated gem by Fred Cavayé.
Why did Academy Award-winner Russell Crowe sign on to do this film? “Because it’s a story about an ordinary man who has to take extraordinary action,” he says. “The overarching question is, would you on behalf of somebody that you love turn into a person in order to help her that she couldn’t love? To me that was a fascinating question.”
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
How far would you go to save someone you love from unjust imprisonment?
Well, John Brennan (the character played by Russell Crowe in “The Next Three Days”) would stop at nothing, even willing to break his wife out of prison when all else fails.
Accused of murder, Brennan’s wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) has been incarcerated for three years. After her final appeal is exhausted, she turns suicidal, moaning to her husband, “I don’t think I can last twenty years.”
“I promised you this will not be your life,” responds Brennan, a milquetoast English teacher in a small community college who has been trying desperately to hold the family together.
So he decides to break his wife out of prison. “We have no other choice,” he tells her.
Yes, despite all the upfront angst and courtroom drama, this is essentially a prison break movie. “The Next Three Days” can be found going over the wall at the Tropic Cinema.
A prison break requires careful timing, fast cars, and great danger. Not exactly Brennan’s thing. That’s why he consults an expert, an ex-con (a cameo by Liam Neeson) who has escaped from several prisons in his criminal past.
“Whatta you wanna know?” the ex-con growls.
“How you escaped when no one else could?” implores the frantic husband.
“No prison in the world is airtight,” comes the terse response. “Each one has a key. You just have to find it.”
Nonetheless, he agrees to tutor Brennan: “You have to have the entire plan already in place. And you have to ask yourself, can you kill a guard, leave your kid at a gas station? Because to do this thing, that’s what you have to become.”
The plan requires a gun (“Where do you put the bullets?” asks the awkward pupil), passports, money, clockwork timing. He has three days to pull it off. “From the time they make the call, the police are gonna have the center of the city sealed tight in fifteen minutes. Within thirty-five minutes they can have cops at every toll booth on the Interstate,” warns the ex-con. “They will shoot you on sight.”
Can Brennan pull it off? “You have to ask yourself if you can do it,” advises the ex-con. “And if you can’t, don’t start. You’ll just get someone killed.”
The rest of the movie depicts our reluctant hero executing a daring escape, his young son Luke (Ty Simpkins) in tow. His wife nervously following her husbands instructions. This leads to an exciting chase through the streets of Pittsburgh as police pursue the Brennan family.
Okay, let’s ignore the implausibility of the prison break – willing suspension of disbelief and all that. Accept that it’s a thrilling cat-and-mouse game designed to keep the audience of the edge of their seats. A popcorn movie.
Instead, let’s turn to the moral dilemmas inherent in this film. All the evidence points to Lara’s guilt, that she killed her boss. But her husband rages with a blind faith that she’s innocent. “She could never do something like that,” he insists, despite signs to the contrary.
Even though most of Brennan’s actions are wrong (read: illegal), the audience still sees him as a hero. But does righting an injustice excuse criminal acts? Does saving a loved one allow the possibility of killing an innocent bystander or policeman? Back to our original question: How far would you go to save someone you love from unjust imprisonment?
Two-time Oscar winner Paul Haggis (“Crash,” “In The Valley of Elah”) wrote, directed and produced “The Next Three Days.” However, it’s actually a remake of the 2007 French film “Pour Elle” (translation: “Anything for Her”), an underappreciated gem by Fred Cavayé.
Why did Academy Award-winner Russell Crowe sign on to do this film? “Because it’s a story about an ordinary man who has to take extraordinary action,” he says. “The overarching question is, would you on behalf of somebody that you love turn into a person in order to help her that she couldn’t love? To me that was a fascinating question.”
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Love's Labor's Lost (Rhoades)
You Can Find “Love’s Labour’s Lost”
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
William Shakespeare wrote about 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a scattering of other works. His plays consist of 17 comedies, 11 histories, and 11 tragedies. Many of them were performed at the Globe Theater in London.
“Love’s Labour’s Lost” was an early comedy written by Shakespeare in the mid 1590s.
The play opens with the King of Navarre and his three noblemen deciding to devote three years to study and vowing not to succumb to the company of women during this time. The King makes this oath despite the fact that a princess and her three ladies are coming to visit his court. To be safe, he has them camp in a distant field; nevertheless, he and his men become enamored with the ladies.
There are many other humorous sub-plots. Even a play within a play. A clever story, it abounds with wordplay, puns, and literary allusions.
“Love’s Labour’s Lost” is noted for using the word honorificabilitudinitas (“the state of being able to achieve honors”), the longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels.
However, you don’t have to fly to England to see a modern rendition of “Love’s Labour’s Lost.” The Globe Theater is coming to you, with a cinematic performance scheduled at the Tropic Cinema on November 23 at 7 p.m. and again on November 30 at 2 p.m.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
William Shakespeare wrote about 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a scattering of other works. His plays consist of 17 comedies, 11 histories, and 11 tragedies. Many of them were performed at the Globe Theater in London.
“Love’s Labour’s Lost” was an early comedy written by Shakespeare in the mid 1590s.
The play opens with the King of Navarre and his three noblemen deciding to devote three years to study and vowing not to succumb to the company of women during this time. The King makes this oath despite the fact that a princess and her three ladies are coming to visit his court. To be safe, he has them camp in a distant field; nevertheless, he and his men become enamored with the ladies.
There are many other humorous sub-plots. Even a play within a play. A clever story, it abounds with wordplay, puns, and literary allusions.
“Love’s Labour’s Lost” is noted for using the word honorificabilitudinitas (“the state of being able to achieve honors”), the longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels.
However, you don’t have to fly to England to see a modern rendition of “Love’s Labour’s Lost.” The Globe Theater is coming to you, with a cinematic performance scheduled at the Tropic Cinema on November 23 at 7 p.m. and again on November 30 at 2 p.m.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Secretariat (Rhoades)
“Secretariat” Wins at Box Office
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
A few years back my wife and I enjoyed a lovely Sunday afternoon at Saratoga, watching the ladies in their finery, the men clutching bet tickets, the thoroughbred horses racing around the track. It was a heady experience, joining the crowd, rooting for a favorite horse as it approached the finish line.
You can get your own racing fix at the Tropic Cinema this weekend, where the movie “Secretariat” is playing. This is the story of the horse that won the Triple Crown. Or more specifically about Penny Chenery, the Virginia “housewife” who bred and championed Secretariat to victory despite all odds.
Diane Lane (“Nights at Rodanthe,” “Under the Tuscan Sun”) captures Penny’s flinty determination and conviction of “I’m that right” about the ability of the large chestnut colt that she nicknamed “Big Red.”
John Malkovich (“Burn After Reading,” “The Great Buck Howard”) is delightfully eccentric as Lucien Lauren, the horse’s trainer. Otto Thornwarth plays the jockey who rode Secretariat into the record books – as well as induction into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
Scott Glenn, James Cromwell, and Fred Dalton Thompson round out the cast, great character actors all.
The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing consists of a series of three races for three-year-old horses – the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes.
Only eleven horses have ever won all three. And in 1973 Secretariat was the first to win in twenty-five years, establishing new records that have yet to be broken at the Kentucky Derby and Belmont.
What makes this movie different from “Seabiscuit” (2003) and “Phar Lap” (1983)? Rather than focusing on the horse, we get a sharply etched portrait of Helen Bates “Penny” Tweedy (nee Chenery). In 1983 Penny was the first woman ever admitted as a member of The Jockeys Club. And she served as president of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association from 1976 to 1984.
Diane Lane fits into the role of Penny as comfortably as a ladies glove. Nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in “Unfaithful,” she’s a fine actress. Now happily married to actor Josh Brolin, she had a turbulent childhood. She starred in her first movie (“A Little Romance” with Sir Laurence Olivier) at 13. And appeared on the cover of Time Magazine shortly afterwards. Then she was caught up in her parent’s tug-of-war divorce. Her father eventually won custody, taking her to work with him in his New York taxicab, when her mother moved to Georgia. At 15 she ran off to California with actor Christopher Atkins (“Blue Lagoon”), but returned a week later. She eventually went to Hollywood on her own. Getting so-so roles with steamy sex scenes (“Lady Beware,” “The Big Town,” “Knight Moves”), her career stalled. She was married for six years to moody actor Christopher Lambert (“Highlander”).
Now she’s come into her own. Having once made that difficult transition from child star to grown-up star, she’s just now made that equally difficult transition from sexy young thing to mature character – a determined housewife who breaks into the boys’ club of thoroughbred racing.
Secretariat died in 1989 at the age of 19. Penny Chenery has retired to Colorado to be near her children. And Diane Lane does her part in preserving the legend of the horse that did the impossible and the lady who believed in him.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
A few years back my wife and I enjoyed a lovely Sunday afternoon at Saratoga, watching the ladies in their finery, the men clutching bet tickets, the thoroughbred horses racing around the track. It was a heady experience, joining the crowd, rooting for a favorite horse as it approached the finish line.
You can get your own racing fix at the Tropic Cinema this weekend, where the movie “Secretariat” is playing. This is the story of the horse that won the Triple Crown. Or more specifically about Penny Chenery, the Virginia “housewife” who bred and championed Secretariat to victory despite all odds.
Diane Lane (“Nights at Rodanthe,” “Under the Tuscan Sun”) captures Penny’s flinty determination and conviction of “I’m that right” about the ability of the large chestnut colt that she nicknamed “Big Red.”
John Malkovich (“Burn After Reading,” “The Great Buck Howard”) is delightfully eccentric as Lucien Lauren, the horse’s trainer. Otto Thornwarth plays the jockey who rode Secretariat into the record books – as well as induction into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
Scott Glenn, James Cromwell, and Fred Dalton Thompson round out the cast, great character actors all.
The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing consists of a series of three races for three-year-old horses – the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes.
Only eleven horses have ever won all three. And in 1973 Secretariat was the first to win in twenty-five years, establishing new records that have yet to be broken at the Kentucky Derby and Belmont.
What makes this movie different from “Seabiscuit” (2003) and “Phar Lap” (1983)? Rather than focusing on the horse, we get a sharply etched portrait of Helen Bates “Penny” Tweedy (nee Chenery). In 1983 Penny was the first woman ever admitted as a member of The Jockeys Club. And she served as president of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association from 1976 to 1984.
Diane Lane fits into the role of Penny as comfortably as a ladies glove. Nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in “Unfaithful,” she’s a fine actress. Now happily married to actor Josh Brolin, she had a turbulent childhood. She starred in her first movie (“A Little Romance” with Sir Laurence Olivier) at 13. And appeared on the cover of Time Magazine shortly afterwards. Then she was caught up in her parent’s tug-of-war divorce. Her father eventually won custody, taking her to work with him in his New York taxicab, when her mother moved to Georgia. At 15 she ran off to California with actor Christopher Atkins (“Blue Lagoon”), but returned a week later. She eventually went to Hollywood on her own. Getting so-so roles with steamy sex scenes (“Lady Beware,” “The Big Town,” “Knight Moves”), her career stalled. She was married for six years to moody actor Christopher Lambert (“Highlander”).
Now she’s come into her own. Having once made that difficult transition from child star to grown-up star, she’s just now made that equally difficult transition from sexy young thing to mature character – a determined housewife who breaks into the boys’ club of thoroughbred racing.
Secretariat died in 1989 at the age of 19. Penny Chenery has retired to Colorado to be near her children. And Diane Lane does her part in preserving the legend of the horse that did the impossible and the lady who believed in him.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Week of November 12 to November 18 (Mann)
What’s on at the Tropic
by Phil Mann
It’s always interesting to see what Scot (the Tropic’s film programmer) has come up with. This week there are three new films that will make you laugh, make you cringe, and make you wonder.
The laughs will come from MORNING GLORY a comedy from the pen of Aline Brosh McKenna , the screenwriter of The Devil Wears Prada. The theme again is the travails of an overly earnest working girl coping with a larger-than-life figure. This time it’s Rachel McAdams, as the producer of a failing morning TV show, who has to whip an aging star news anchor (Harrison Ford) into working on her show, which is fluff TV, as he sees it. With Jeff Goldblum to add the necessary harrumphing, and Diane Keaton as Ford’s co-host, Morning Glory hits the comedic ground running. And it keeps going. “A funny entertainment.... the kind [of comedy] I like best. It grows from human nature and is about how people do their jobs and live their lives.” (Roger Ebert)
The cringe factor is produced by THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, the final stage in Lisbeth Salander’s struggle with the world. Again played by Noomi Rapace, Lisbeth is her own worst enemy, as her distrust of everyone makes it almost impossible for even her ally Mikael Nyqvuist to help her. She’s hospitalized, recovering from a bullet to the head, and then she’s standing trial for murder, looking her ravishing Goth best. It’s “a rousing, grueling, almost operatically scaled finale to the series.” (Salon.com)
The American remake of the original Dragon Tattoo is now filming and scheduled for release next year. The Girl is being played by Rooney Mara, who’s now on the Tropic screens as Mark Zuckerberg’s lost girlfriend Erica Albright in THE SOCIAL NETWORK. If you’ve seen that movie, you’ll know that she plays a peripheral, but oddly central, role. If you haven’t seen it, it’s held over for another week, giving you a chance to catch a movie that is highly touted for multiple Oscars. By the way, the fact police have informed me that the real Mark Zuckerberg has had the same girlfriend, with whom he lives, for seven years. In other words, there is no real Erica Albright. So? There’s also not really a Girl With The Dragon Tattoo… is there?
And the wonder will come from Clint Eastwood’s HEREAFTER, a kind of exploration of the afterlife, but not really. There are three interwoven stories: a French television journalist (Cecile de France) who barely survives the tsunami in Thailand, a pre-teen British schoolboy (Frankie McLaren) who is coping with the tragic loss of his twin brother, and an America psychic (Matt Damon) who is trying to escape from the burdens of his talent. Each of the stories is a wonderful set piece in itself. The tsunami reenactment is terrifyingly real, and there’s a sexy food sequence that subtly recalls Tom Jones. All this drives the film and creates characters about whom we care. It’s their life stories that matter and make the movie satisfying. As to the hereafter, even Eastwood can’t take us there, though he can make us wonder a little.
On the Special Events calendar, there’s a benefit sing-a-long screening. It’s the SOUND OF MUSIC with Julie Andrews, plus You and Your Friends! Proceeds benefit the Bahama Village Mentoring Program of A Positive Step. Get your tickets at the Tropic $25.
Comments, please, to pmann99@gmail.com
[from Key West, the newspaper - www.kwtn.com]
by Phil Mann
It’s always interesting to see what Scot (the Tropic’s film programmer) has come up with. This week there are three new films that will make you laugh, make you cringe, and make you wonder.
The laughs will come from MORNING GLORY a comedy from the pen of Aline Brosh McKenna , the screenwriter of The Devil Wears Prada. The theme again is the travails of an overly earnest working girl coping with a larger-than-life figure. This time it’s Rachel McAdams, as the producer of a failing morning TV show, who has to whip an aging star news anchor (Harrison Ford) into working on her show, which is fluff TV, as he sees it. With Jeff Goldblum to add the necessary harrumphing, and Diane Keaton as Ford’s co-host, Morning Glory hits the comedic ground running. And it keeps going. “A funny entertainment.... the kind [of comedy] I like best. It grows from human nature and is about how people do their jobs and live their lives.” (Roger Ebert)
The cringe factor is produced by THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, the final stage in Lisbeth Salander’s struggle with the world. Again played by Noomi Rapace, Lisbeth is her own worst enemy, as her distrust of everyone makes it almost impossible for even her ally Mikael Nyqvuist to help her. She’s hospitalized, recovering from a bullet to the head, and then she’s standing trial for murder, looking her ravishing Goth best. It’s “a rousing, grueling, almost operatically scaled finale to the series.” (Salon.com)
The American remake of the original Dragon Tattoo is now filming and scheduled for release next year. The Girl is being played by Rooney Mara, who’s now on the Tropic screens as Mark Zuckerberg’s lost girlfriend Erica Albright in THE SOCIAL NETWORK. If you’ve seen that movie, you’ll know that she plays a peripheral, but oddly central, role. If you haven’t seen it, it’s held over for another week, giving you a chance to catch a movie that is highly touted for multiple Oscars. By the way, the fact police have informed me that the real Mark Zuckerberg has had the same girlfriend, with whom he lives, for seven years. In other words, there is no real Erica Albright. So? There’s also not really a Girl With The Dragon Tattoo… is there?
And the wonder will come from Clint Eastwood’s HEREAFTER, a kind of exploration of the afterlife, but not really. There are three interwoven stories: a French television journalist (Cecile de France) who barely survives the tsunami in Thailand, a pre-teen British schoolboy (Frankie McLaren) who is coping with the tragic loss of his twin brother, and an America psychic (Matt Damon) who is trying to escape from the burdens of his talent. Each of the stories is a wonderful set piece in itself. The tsunami reenactment is terrifyingly real, and there’s a sexy food sequence that subtly recalls Tom Jones. All this drives the film and creates characters about whom we care. It’s their life stories that matter and make the movie satisfying. As to the hereafter, even Eastwood can’t take us there, though he can make us wonder a little.
On the Special Events calendar, there’s a benefit sing-a-long screening. It’s the SOUND OF MUSIC with Julie Andrews, plus You and Your Friends! Proceeds benefit the Bahama Village Mentoring Program of A Positive Step. Get your tickets at the Tropic $25.
Comments, please, to pmann99@gmail.com
[from Key West, the newspaper - www.kwtn.com]
Hereafter (Brockway)
Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway
Hereafter
Clint Eastwood is respected for giving authentic naturalistic detail in his films. He is noted for showing life as it is lived, without unnecessary emphasis on effects or computer graphics. Eastwood is tops when he dramatizes the struggles of life and the magic of coincidence. In Eastwood's latest "Hereafter", he tackles the philosophical issue of an afterlife. At the films start, we are in the realm of a vacationland in the South Pacific. We hear a joyous Spielbergian soundtrack underscored with deep sonorous tones. The camera is slow and voyeuristically furtive around the corners of a hotel. We just know that we're in for it.
A beautiful reporter (Cecile de France) goes out for a stroll to the local market. Then a deep Godzilla-like rumble as a huge wave comes roaring ashore. The tsunami attacks everything in its path as if in a nightmare, echoing not only the real-life tsunami in Samoa, but also the hyper-intensity of Katrina in New Orleans, James Cameron's "Titanic" and the well known horror of 9-11. Bodies are heaped under houses, some impaled. Others scream in panic and drown. Our reporter is struck in the head by debris and she floats through the deeps like a fallen astronaut. With her pale skin and flaming red hair she looks like a Pre-Raphaelite Ophelia. She is brought to shore unconscious and we are pulled into her spiritual core--zap!--- we see a surge of white light and a group of shadowy figures who resemble the faceless aliens of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Enter George Lonnegan (Matt Damon) who is a down and out, out of work psychic who has left the spiritual world behind. Too many of George's relationships have been severed over his psychic ability. He sleeps with audiobooks in the hopes of drowning out past memories.
Then we are in London with two twin youngsters who attempt to cover for their drug-addicted mother. The mom sends one of the boys to the chemist for a drug that will allow her to quit. The older boy goes in his brother's place and promptly gets struck by a truck when he tries to outrun some bullies. Thus, the three characters are bereft in loss.
Matt Damon's character joins a cooking class but he just goes through the motions of slicing tomatoes. Reluctantly he decides to rekindle his psychic pursuits, but an impromptu session during a date throws him off kilter and he flies to London in pursuit of Charles Dickens. The reporter gets an idea to write a book on Mitterrand but when she is cheated on by a boyfriend she decides to research the afterlife, publish her book on near death experiences and head to the London Bookfair. The three characters, then, are magically at the same place at exactly the same time. Eureka!
We are told in Spielberg fashion that the white light is a universal experience and that those we have loved will be waiting for us when we pass on. The twin youngster (Frankie McLaren) bears a resemblance to young Lukas Haas in "Witness" he is pale deliberate and wide-eyed. In narrative tone, the film is similar to an M. Night Shalaman tale. Matt Damon is earnest, melancholy and understated. Eerilly laconic and boyish. So wistful as to be a human whisper at times.
"Hereafter" works best when mystery confounds its characters. It does not matter if our friends are waiting for us when we die. The message is in the present and how we choose to interpret events. The most potent image of the film is the imagined kiss between Damon and de France . The scene in its epic ambivalence employs the same effects as in the documentary "What the Bleep Do We Know?" Like a visual koan, "Hereafter" is the riddle of one hand clapping, ultimately more potent by showing us less, than the final spinning top image in "Inception."
Hereafter
Clint Eastwood is respected for giving authentic naturalistic detail in his films. He is noted for showing life as it is lived, without unnecessary emphasis on effects or computer graphics. Eastwood is tops when he dramatizes the struggles of life and the magic of coincidence. In Eastwood's latest "Hereafter", he tackles the philosophical issue of an afterlife. At the films start, we are in the realm of a vacationland in the South Pacific. We hear a joyous Spielbergian soundtrack underscored with deep sonorous tones. The camera is slow and voyeuristically furtive around the corners of a hotel. We just know that we're in for it.
A beautiful reporter (Cecile de France) goes out for a stroll to the local market. Then a deep Godzilla-like rumble as a huge wave comes roaring ashore. The tsunami attacks everything in its path as if in a nightmare, echoing not only the real-life tsunami in Samoa, but also the hyper-intensity of Katrina in New Orleans, James Cameron's "Titanic" and the well known horror of 9-11. Bodies are heaped under houses, some impaled. Others scream in panic and drown. Our reporter is struck in the head by debris and she floats through the deeps like a fallen astronaut. With her pale skin and flaming red hair she looks like a Pre-Raphaelite Ophelia. She is brought to shore unconscious and we are pulled into her spiritual core--zap!--- we see a surge of white light and a group of shadowy figures who resemble the faceless aliens of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Enter George Lonnegan (Matt Damon) who is a down and out, out of work psychic who has left the spiritual world behind. Too many of George's relationships have been severed over his psychic ability. He sleeps with audiobooks in the hopes of drowning out past memories.
Then we are in London with two twin youngsters who attempt to cover for their drug-addicted mother. The mom sends one of the boys to the chemist for a drug that will allow her to quit. The older boy goes in his brother's place and promptly gets struck by a truck when he tries to outrun some bullies. Thus, the three characters are bereft in loss.
Matt Damon's character joins a cooking class but he just goes through the motions of slicing tomatoes. Reluctantly he decides to rekindle his psychic pursuits, but an impromptu session during a date throws him off kilter and he flies to London in pursuit of Charles Dickens. The reporter gets an idea to write a book on Mitterrand but when she is cheated on by a boyfriend she decides to research the afterlife, publish her book on near death experiences and head to the London Bookfair. The three characters, then, are magically at the same place at exactly the same time. Eureka!
We are told in Spielberg fashion that the white light is a universal experience and that those we have loved will be waiting for us when we pass on. The twin youngster (Frankie McLaren) bears a resemblance to young Lukas Haas in "Witness" he is pale deliberate and wide-eyed. In narrative tone, the film is similar to an M. Night Shalaman tale. Matt Damon is earnest, melancholy and understated. Eerilly laconic and boyish. So wistful as to be a human whisper at times.
"Hereafter" works best when mystery confounds its characters. It does not matter if our friends are waiting for us when we die. The message is in the present and how we choose to interpret events. The most potent image of the film is the imagined kiss between Damon and de France . The scene in its epic ambivalence employs the same effects as in the documentary "What the Bleep Do We Know?" Like a visual koan, "Hereafter" is the riddle of one hand clapping, ultimately more potent by showing us less, than the final spinning top image in "Inception."
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Brockway)
Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest
"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest" is the latest installment of the Lisbeth Salander "Millenium" Trilogy directed by Daniel Alfredson. The film opens with a dreamy image of fire coupled with the sound of a scream that could just as well be the start of a David Lynch film. It is a riveting hook.
Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) is nearly lifeless on a hospital bed with three bullet wounds. But as the primary hero, we know she'll be okay. Her father is a Russian agent and a horrible sadist/rapist. In the previous film, Lisbeth as a cyber-sleuth and Goth crusader had to take matters in her own hands and try to dispose of her maniac father. Given that he is built like a Minotaur with a face like a cauliflower and a sociopathic beast, we don't blame her.
The deadly dad now lies across the hall, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Bond villain Blofield. Suddenly another agent enters the room and shoots Lisbeth's father through the head and there is one less member of a very dysfunctional family. But will Sweden's criminal ring ever be uncovered? And will Lisbeth ever have closure and be recognized as a sister of Edward Scissorhands, possessing sound mind and body?
It doesn't really matter. The fun is in the watching. Demure and darkly delicious, Lisbeth is the most compelling character in the series. She is part video vixen, part Pippi Longstocking, part cyberpunk. And nothing gets past her. The full length dragon tattoo along her back is an existential shield, embodying her survival in a violent but equally picturesque Sweden.
Her main adversary in this film is her shadowy pale and murderous half brother, Ronald Niedermann (Micke Spreitz) The nearly mute relative seems a direct cousin to the frightful albino monk in "The Da Vinci Code" with even a bit of Michael Myers added for menacing measure. Brother Ronald doesn't walk so much as stalk. A true Boogeyman, without emotion, Ronald has the added advantage (or disadvantage) of being unable to feel physical pain. When Lisbeth luckily drills him in the foot, we are shocked because Ronald becomes as harmless as a Bugs Bunny cartoon despite his malevolence. He is like the killer in "Scream" that misses his footing.
Ultimately, the lasting power in the film is the laconic charisma of Noomi Rapace and the aloof sensual power that she brings to her role. When she is perched in a moonlit window as Lisbeth Salander, Rapace is as iconic as Batman; but she echoes Edward scissorhands as much as The Dark Knight---by standing guard over a corrupt city, her Mohawk is held high in sly ridicule against a bland conformist waterfront.
"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest" is the latest installment of the Lisbeth Salander "Millenium" Trilogy directed by Daniel Alfredson. The film opens with a dreamy image of fire coupled with the sound of a scream that could just as well be the start of a David Lynch film. It is a riveting hook.
Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) is nearly lifeless on a hospital bed with three bullet wounds. But as the primary hero, we know she'll be okay. Her father is a Russian agent and a horrible sadist/rapist. In the previous film, Lisbeth as a cyber-sleuth and Goth crusader had to take matters in her own hands and try to dispose of her maniac father. Given that he is built like a Minotaur with a face like a cauliflower and a sociopathic beast, we don't blame her.
The deadly dad now lies across the hall, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Bond villain Blofield. Suddenly another agent enters the room and shoots Lisbeth's father through the head and there is one less member of a very dysfunctional family. But will Sweden's criminal ring ever be uncovered? And will Lisbeth ever have closure and be recognized as a sister of Edward Scissorhands, possessing sound mind and body?
It doesn't really matter. The fun is in the watching. Demure and darkly delicious, Lisbeth is the most compelling character in the series. She is part video vixen, part Pippi Longstocking, part cyberpunk. And nothing gets past her. The full length dragon tattoo along her back is an existential shield, embodying her survival in a violent but equally picturesque Sweden.
Her main adversary in this film is her shadowy pale and murderous half brother, Ronald Niedermann (Micke Spreitz) The nearly mute relative seems a direct cousin to the frightful albino monk in "The Da Vinci Code" with even a bit of Michael Myers added for menacing measure. Brother Ronald doesn't walk so much as stalk. A true Boogeyman, without emotion, Ronald has the added advantage (or disadvantage) of being unable to feel physical pain. When Lisbeth luckily drills him in the foot, we are shocked because Ronald becomes as harmless as a Bugs Bunny cartoon despite his malevolence. He is like the killer in "Scream" that misses his footing.
Ultimately, the lasting power in the film is the laconic charisma of Noomi Rapace and the aloof sensual power that she brings to her role. When she is perched in a moonlit window as Lisbeth Salander, Rapace is as iconic as Batman; but she echoes Edward scissorhands as much as The Dark Knight---by standing guard over a corrupt city, her Mohawk is held high in sly ridicule against a bland conformist waterfront.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Morning Glory (Rhoades)
“Morning Glory” Is Delightful Wake-Up Call
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
Jenna Stauffer, the young television sportscaster who is part of my Key West family, wants one day to have her own morning show. Kind of like the “Regis and Kelly” format she does with Larry Smith on Wednesday nights at the Bottlecap.
But maybe she shouldn’t go see “Morning Glory,” the new comedy playing at the Tropic Cinema. It might make her think twice.
Sure, the early-morning television program depicted in this silly movie is played for laughs. A young producer (Rachael McAdams) hires a washed-up talking head (Harrison Ford) to co-anchor Daybreak with the by-the-book regular host (Diane Keaton). Predictably, sparks fly.
Keaton is appalled at the hire. “Is he going to cook? Is he going to do fashion statement? Gossip?”
“Not my thing,” growls Ford.
After the career he’s had, he has standards. For instance, he refuses to say the word “fluffy.”
Be careful what you ask for. “Daybreak is understaffed, under funded. Any producer that works there will be publicly ridiculed, overworked, under paid – awful,” decries boss Jeff Goldblum.
“I’ll take it,” McAdams chirps.
But there’s a moral: That if the hard-working, career-driven young producer doesn’t stop to smell the roses, she will end up like the embittered old pro who “had nothing till you came along and hired me.”
“It’s only my job, it’s not my whole life,” she protests. Words she has to learn.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
Jenna Stauffer, the young television sportscaster who is part of my Key West family, wants one day to have her own morning show. Kind of like the “Regis and Kelly” format she does with Larry Smith on Wednesday nights at the Bottlecap.
But maybe she shouldn’t go see “Morning Glory,” the new comedy playing at the Tropic Cinema. It might make her think twice.
Sure, the early-morning television program depicted in this silly movie is played for laughs. A young producer (Rachael McAdams) hires a washed-up talking head (Harrison Ford) to co-anchor Daybreak with the by-the-book regular host (Diane Keaton). Predictably, sparks fly.
Keaton is appalled at the hire. “Is he going to cook? Is he going to do fashion statement? Gossip?”
“Not my thing,” growls Ford.
After the career he’s had, he has standards. For instance, he refuses to say the word “fluffy.”
Be careful what you ask for. “Daybreak is understaffed, under funded. Any producer that works there will be publicly ridiculed, overworked, under paid – awful,” decries boss Jeff Goldblum.
“I’ll take it,” McAdams chirps.
But there’s a moral: That if the hard-working, career-driven young producer doesn’t stop to smell the roses, she will end up like the embittered old pro who “had nothing till you came along and hired me.”
“It’s only my job, it’s not my whole life,” she protests. Words she has to learn.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Rhoades)
“Girl Who Kicked Hornet’s Nest” Continues Story
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
May as well admit it. I’ve never had the attention span for epic movies or television miniseries or books that weigh more than three pounds. That’s why I’m glad the late Steig Larsson divided his singular tale of a crusading Swedish journalist and a weirdo computer hacker into three volumes – “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.”
These books are known as the Millennium Trilogy, that being the name of the fictional magazine that middle-aged crusader Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) publishes. His partner in solving crimes is a petite punker chick, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace). As the title of the first book implies, she has a large dragon tattooed on her back, not to mention spiky hair, purple lipstick, and various body piercings.
This unlikely duo makes a great team when it comes to bringing down evil financial empires, serial killers, and rogue Russian spies. Not exactly Nick and Nora Charles, but you get the idea.
So why am I talking about books in a movie column? Because the third film based on these thrillers is currently playing at the Tropic Cinema.
You’ve probably read all three books. Some 40 million people worldwide have. But
here’s a case where the faithful (though slightly abridged) films are almost as satisfying as the ink-on-paper originals. A great way to see the characters come to life.
In the first two books (as well as the subtitled Swedish film adaptations) we met disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist who had been hired to find the truth behind a missing girl.
And by joining forces with antisocial computer genius Lisbeth Salander, he indeed solves the crime. Lisbeth walks away with a fortune hacked from a bad guy’s bank account and Mikael walks away with his reputation restored.
Then along comes a series of murders in the second book/film, all evidence pointing toward Lisbeth. Mikael’s quest to prove her innocence turns up biker gangs, a giant who feels no pain, and the girl’s evil-but-absent father. At the end of the second book, Lisbeth nabs dear ol’ dad, but not before he shoots her in the head.
The third book – and movie – proceeds without pause, our girl Lisbeth in the hospital under police custody while loyal Mikael conspires to prove her innocence.
The Swedish title for the original volume was “Män som hatar kvinnor” (translation: Men Who Hate Women.”) And throughout the series our girl Lisbeth is raped, beaten, shot in the head, even buried alive. So you can clearly see the theme of violence against women.
Larsson was disgusted by it, having helplessly witnessed the gang rape of a young girl. Turns out, her name was Lisbeth.
What we like about our fictional heroine is that she fights back, taking down her enemies without pause or remorse, giving no quarter. Emotionally satisfying.
However, Lisbeth Salander remains sidelined for much of this third installment, recuperating in the hospital, going on trial, leaving Mikael Blomkvist to do the footwork. Yet in the end Lisbeth faces off with the genetically mutated giant and all the loose ends come together. But likely you already know that from reading the books.
Yes, you will definitely want to see “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,” especially if you’ve read the books. But it’s a pretty good ride even if you haven’t.
Then you can start the series all over again with next year’s Hollywood remake, this time starring Daniel Craig (007 in the James Bond movies) and Rooney Mara (the girlfriend who got away in “The Social Network”) as Blomkvist and Salander. It promises to hold my attention.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
May as well admit it. I’ve never had the attention span for epic movies or television miniseries or books that weigh more than three pounds. That’s why I’m glad the late Steig Larsson divided his singular tale of a crusading Swedish journalist and a weirdo computer hacker into three volumes – “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.”
These books are known as the Millennium Trilogy, that being the name of the fictional magazine that middle-aged crusader Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) publishes. His partner in solving crimes is a petite punker chick, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace). As the title of the first book implies, she has a large dragon tattooed on her back, not to mention spiky hair, purple lipstick, and various body piercings.
This unlikely duo makes a great team when it comes to bringing down evil financial empires, serial killers, and rogue Russian spies. Not exactly Nick and Nora Charles, but you get the idea.
So why am I talking about books in a movie column? Because the third film based on these thrillers is currently playing at the Tropic Cinema.
You’ve probably read all three books. Some 40 million people worldwide have. But
here’s a case where the faithful (though slightly abridged) films are almost as satisfying as the ink-on-paper originals. A great way to see the characters come to life.
In the first two books (as well as the subtitled Swedish film adaptations) we met disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist who had been hired to find the truth behind a missing girl.
And by joining forces with antisocial computer genius Lisbeth Salander, he indeed solves the crime. Lisbeth walks away with a fortune hacked from a bad guy’s bank account and Mikael walks away with his reputation restored.
Then along comes a series of murders in the second book/film, all evidence pointing toward Lisbeth. Mikael’s quest to prove her innocence turns up biker gangs, a giant who feels no pain, and the girl’s evil-but-absent father. At the end of the second book, Lisbeth nabs dear ol’ dad, but not before he shoots her in the head.
The third book – and movie – proceeds without pause, our girl Lisbeth in the hospital under police custody while loyal Mikael conspires to prove her innocence.
The Swedish title for the original volume was “Män som hatar kvinnor” (translation: Men Who Hate Women.”) And throughout the series our girl Lisbeth is raped, beaten, shot in the head, even buried alive. So you can clearly see the theme of violence against women.
Larsson was disgusted by it, having helplessly witnessed the gang rape of a young girl. Turns out, her name was Lisbeth.
What we like about our fictional heroine is that she fights back, taking down her enemies without pause or remorse, giving no quarter. Emotionally satisfying.
However, Lisbeth Salander remains sidelined for much of this third installment, recuperating in the hospital, going on trial, leaving Mikael Blomkvist to do the footwork. Yet in the end Lisbeth faces off with the genetically mutated giant and all the loose ends come together. But likely you already know that from reading the books.
Yes, you will definitely want to see “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,” especially if you’ve read the books. But it’s a pretty good ride even if you haven’t.
Then you can start the series all over again with next year’s Hollywood remake, this time starring Daniel Craig (007 in the James Bond movies) and Rooney Mara (the girlfriend who got away in “The Social Network”) as Blomkvist and Salander. It promises to hold my attention.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Nowhere Boy (Brockway)
Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway
Nowhere Boy Sam Taylor-Wood seems to have a connection with John Lennon. As a fine art photographer, she appropriated the famous Leibovitz Lennon / Yoko Ono cover in Rolling Stone magazine. During filming of "Nowhere Boy", the new biopic of young John Lennon, it is reported that Taylor-Wood thought of pulling out of the project, but as she went to her car, the Lennon song "Starting Over" abruptly played on the radio. Wood saw it as a sign. From the start,"Nowhere Boy" has a vivid nostalgic feeling. John the Kid is late for class and his running frenzy is re-created in a direct imitation of the chaotic camerawork in "A Hard Day's Night. There is an immediate thrill that you get from seeing newcomer Aaron Johnson as a teenage Lennon. The physical resemblance is startling. And the cinematography detailing the first beats of what would become The Beatles has an oddly curious Steven Spielberg echo. The film can be seen as an innocent and unpretentious "Back to The Future" for rock and roll. As John rides his wobbly bicycle down crooked brick lanes we catch a glimpse of a leafy green sign. Aha! There's Strawberry Fields! Through the windows of the quaint looking motorcars and cottages one can almost hear the opening trumpets of "Penny Lane". With his oversize round glasses, school uniform and smirking grin, Lennon appears as a kind of Harry Potter imagined by Elvis Presley as he is plagued by dreams of his absent mother in a shocking red dress. After repeated haunting visions of an ocean and fighting parents, John plays hooky from his stern Aunt Mimi (Kristen Scott Thomas) and seeks his scofflaw mom. His mother, Julia, (Anne-Marie Duff) is bohemian with a playful sensuality in contrast to the strict schoolmarmish aunt. Indeed Lennon's mother is also a bit incestuous with him: she lies on top of the boy provocatively as they sit together on the sofa. The tension is clear. Young John takes guitar lessons from his wild Mum, but his aunt will have none of it. She proceeds to tell Kid Lennon that his mom was a unstable floozy that deliberately abandoned him and was institutionalized. John becomes an Angry Young Man--a kind of rockabilly hybrid of John Osborne and Buddy Holly. He is moody and mercurial, shuffled in affection from aunt to mother. Even the spirit of James Dean is present. When he walks through the streets of Liverpool we suddenly see that all the guys are styled after "Rebel Without a Cause". John transforms into a flippant and sarcastic almost- adult. A teenage Paul comes on the scene in a white suit with a pink carnation in his lapel, looking like a Pinnochio Dandy. Righto! Despite his odd appearance among the toughs, Paul emerges as the most practical. As he says, "It's all just music." The film does not pull punches despite its nostalgic tone. In one scene John gets into a fistfight with Paul during his mother's funeral. They both return with bloody mouths, savagely soiling their preppy attire. In that moment, the youngsters could be easily mistaken for "Clockwork Orange" thugs rather than the feel-good British rockers that they became. Before John goes off to Hamburg to find fame, there are closeups of John smoking while smoke pours from his nose and mouth under a bright blue sky perhaps foretelling of his later hookah smoking in India, his playful Surrealism and his periodic withdrawl from public life. There are other interesting details: early Lennon drawings are shown: quirky beasts, that inspire Yellow Submarinean thoughts. And when John first learns the guitar, the film is sped up in a more obvious homage to "A Clockwork Orange". From anger and hurt feelings, from remorse and revolution in music, shot with style and substance, this film narrates the somewhere path from wounded kid to world music icon.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Week of November 5 to November 11 (Mann)
What’s on at the Tropic
by Phil Mann
It’s pretty unusual for a documentary to take over the main screen at the Tropic. Michael Moore’s provocative films manage it, and the only other documentarian to make that claim is Davis Guggenheim, the filmmaker behind Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.
Now Guggenheim is back with a film of his own, WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”, and it’s attracting even more attention than the last one. The subject this time is public education, not only what’s wrong with it, but what might be done to make it right. It’s hard to think of anything more timely, because education reform may be the only subject that might bridge the yawning right-left divide in American politics. That is to say, the only thing where there’s some hope of public policy progress over these next two years of divided government.
So come see the movie, and pay attention, folks. The Monroe County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Joseph Burke will introduce the 7:00pm screening on Friday, and he hopes to generate discussion. “Waiting for Superman” focuses on the charter school movement, showing with case studies how 222 some of the least hopeful students can be groomed to excel. And he exhibits a strong bias in favor of “good teachers” and against the tenure system that tends to entrench teachers with little regard for quality.
Like any good film, documentary or otherwise, the power of the narrative comes from the story the filmmaker wants to tell. Guggenheim clearly has a message. Like it or not, it’s worth listening to.
NOWHERE BOY, isn’t a documentary, but it’s the next thing to one, a true-to-life biopic, based on a memoir written by John Lennon’s half-sister. The subject is the youth of the iconic Beatle, and how he came from a nowhere Liverpool to the top of the world. Lennon was raised by an aunt (played by Kristin Scott-Thomas) and uncle until his teen years, when his previously absent party-girl mother returned to the scene. She gave him a guitar, and …. the rest is history. It’s “an elegantly rendered surprise…. a classic British family melodrama,” says Salon.com.
For those of you who want something less real, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, the second in Steig Lawsson’s Millennium Trilogy about the adventures of computer whiz and feminist hero Lisbeth Salander comes back to the screen. The theater is also rerunning the original THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. See them both and get ready for the final film, THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, coming next week. The wonderful Noomi Rapace continues in the title role, as does Michael Nyqvist as her male foil.
As a special treat for Millennium Trilogy fans, the Tropic will be running a one-hour portrait of Lawsson. As most of you know, he was a crusading journalist who poured his soul into the trilogy, only to die at 50, before it was published. This special extra will be free, to Tropic members only. A great reason to join and begin saving $4 on every movie , every day, all year long.
Special Events include the Bolshoi Ballet performance of THE FLAMES OF PARIS (one performance only on Tuesday), and a Red Cross Veteran’s Day Celebration on Thursday, with coffee and donuts and a free screening of the movie RUSSKIES.
[from Key West, the newspaper - www.kwtn.com]
by Phil Mann
It’s pretty unusual for a documentary to take over the main screen at the Tropic. Michael Moore’s provocative films manage it, and the only other documentarian to make that claim is Davis Guggenheim, the filmmaker behind Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.
Now Guggenheim is back with a film of his own, WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”, and it’s attracting even more attention than the last one. The subject this time is public education, not only what’s wrong with it, but what might be done to make it right. It’s hard to think of anything more timely, because education reform may be the only subject that might bridge the yawning right-left divide in American politics. That is to say, the only thing where there’s some hope of public policy progress over these next two years of divided government.
So come see the movie, and pay attention, folks. The Monroe County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Joseph Burke will introduce the 7:00pm screening on Friday, and he hopes to generate discussion. “Waiting for Superman” focuses on the charter school movement, showing with case studies how 222 some of the least hopeful students can be groomed to excel. And he exhibits a strong bias in favor of “good teachers” and against the tenure system that tends to entrench teachers with little regard for quality.
Like any good film, documentary or otherwise, the power of the narrative comes from the story the filmmaker wants to tell. Guggenheim clearly has a message. Like it or not, it’s worth listening to.
NOWHERE BOY, isn’t a documentary, but it’s the next thing to one, a true-to-life biopic, based on a memoir written by John Lennon’s half-sister. The subject is the youth of the iconic Beatle, and how he came from a nowhere Liverpool to the top of the world. Lennon was raised by an aunt (played by Kristin Scott-Thomas) and uncle until his teen years, when his previously absent party-girl mother returned to the scene. She gave him a guitar, and …. the rest is history. It’s “an elegantly rendered surprise…. a classic British family melodrama,” says Salon.com.
For those of you who want something less real, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, the second in Steig Lawsson’s Millennium Trilogy about the adventures of computer whiz and feminist hero Lisbeth Salander comes back to the screen. The theater is also rerunning the original THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. See them both and get ready for the final film, THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, coming next week. The wonderful Noomi Rapace continues in the title role, as does Michael Nyqvist as her male foil.
As a special treat for Millennium Trilogy fans, the Tropic will be running a one-hour portrait of Lawsson. As most of you know, he was a crusading journalist who poured his soul into the trilogy, only to die at 50, before it was published. This special extra will be free, to Tropic members only. A great reason to join and begin saving $4 on every movie , every day, all year long.
Special Events include the Bolshoi Ballet performance of THE FLAMES OF PARIS (one performance only on Tuesday), and a Red Cross Veteran’s Day Celebration on Thursday, with coffee and donuts and a free screening of the movie RUSSKIES.
[from Key West, the newspaper - www.kwtn.com]
Nowehere Boy (Brockway)
Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway
Nowhere Boy
Sam Taylor-Wood seems to have a connection with John Lennon. As a fine art photographer, she appropriated the famous Leibovitz Lennon / Yoko Ono cover in Rolling Stone magazine. During filming of "Nowhere Boy", the new biopic of young John Lennon, it is reported that Taylor-Wood thought of pulling out of the project, but as she went to her car, the Lennon song "Starting Over" abruptly played on the radio. Wood saw it as a sign.
From the start,"Nowhere Boy" has a vivid nostalgic feeling. John the Kid is late for class and his running frenzy is re-created in a direct imitation of the chaotic camerawork in "A Hard Day's Night. There is an immediate thrill that you get from seeing newcomer Aaron Johnson as a teenage Lennon. The physical resemblance is startling. And the cinematography detailing the first beats of what would become The Beatles has an oddly curious Steven Spielberg echo. The film can be seen as an innocent and unpretentious "Back to The Future" for rock and roll.
As John rides his wobbly bicycle down crooked brick lanes we catch a glimpse of a leafy green sign. Aha! There's Strawberry Fields! Through the windows of the quaint looking motorcars and cottages one can almost hear the opening trumpets of "Penny Lane". With his oversize round glasses, school uniform and smirking grin, Lennon appears as a kind of Harry Potter imagined by Elvis Presley as he is plagued by dreams of his absent mother in a shocking red dress. After repeated haunting visions of an ocean and fighting parents, John plays hooky from his stern Aunt Mimi (Kristen Scott Thomas) and seeks his scofflaw mom.
His mother, Julia, (Anne-Marie Duff) is bohemian with a playful sensuality in contrast to the strict schoolmarmish aunt. Indeed Lennon's mother is also a bit incestuous with him: she lies on top of the boy provocatively as they sit together on the sofa. The tension is clear. Young John takes guitar lessons from his wild Mum, but his aunt will have none of it. She proceeds to tell Kid Lennon that his mom was a unstable floozy that deliberately abandoned him and was institutionalized. John becomes an Angry Young Man--a kind of rockabilly hybrid of John Osborne and Buddy Holly. He is moody and mercurial, shuffled in affection from aunt to mother. Even the spirit of James Dean is present. When he walks through the streets of Liverpool we suddenly see that all the guys are styled after "Rebel Without a Cause". John transforms into a flippant and sarcastic almost-adult.
A teenage Paul comes on the scene in a white suit with a pink carnation in his lapel, looking like a Pinnochio Dandy. Righto! Despite his odd appearance among the toughs, Paul emerges as the most practical. As he says, "It's all just music." The film does not pull punches despite its nostalgic tone. In one scene John gets into a fistfight with Paul during his mother's funeral. They both return with bloody mouths, savagely soiling their
preppy attire. In that moment, the youngsters could be easily mistaken for "Clockwork Orange" thugs rather than the feel-good British rockers that they became.
Before John goes off to Hamburg to find fame, there are closeups of John smoking while smoke pours from his nose and mouth under a bright blue sky perhaps foretelling of his later hookah smoking in India, his
playful Surrealism and his periodic withdrawal from public life.
There are other interesting details: early Lennon drawings are shown: quirky beasts, that inspire Yellow Submarinean thoughts. And when John first learns the guitar, the film is sped up in a more obvious homage
to "A Clockwork Orange".
From anger and hurt feelings, from remorse and revolution in music, shot with style and substance, this film narrates the somewhere path from wounded kid to world music icon.
Nowhere Boy
Sam Taylor-Wood seems to have a connection with John Lennon. As a fine art photographer, she appropriated the famous Leibovitz Lennon / Yoko Ono cover in Rolling Stone magazine. During filming of "Nowhere Boy", the new biopic of young John Lennon, it is reported that Taylor-Wood thought of pulling out of the project, but as she went to her car, the Lennon song "Starting Over" abruptly played on the radio. Wood saw it as a sign.
From the start,"Nowhere Boy" has a vivid nostalgic feeling. John the Kid is late for class and his running frenzy is re-created in a direct imitation of the chaotic camerawork in "A Hard Day's Night. There is an immediate thrill that you get from seeing newcomer Aaron Johnson as a teenage Lennon. The physical resemblance is startling. And the cinematography detailing the first beats of what would become The Beatles has an oddly curious Steven Spielberg echo. The film can be seen as an innocent and unpretentious "Back to The Future" for rock and roll.
As John rides his wobbly bicycle down crooked brick lanes we catch a glimpse of a leafy green sign. Aha! There's Strawberry Fields! Through the windows of the quaint looking motorcars and cottages one can almost hear the opening trumpets of "Penny Lane". With his oversize round glasses, school uniform and smirking grin, Lennon appears as a kind of Harry Potter imagined by Elvis Presley as he is plagued by dreams of his absent mother in a shocking red dress. After repeated haunting visions of an ocean and fighting parents, John plays hooky from his stern Aunt Mimi (Kristen Scott Thomas) and seeks his scofflaw mom.
His mother, Julia, (Anne-Marie Duff) is bohemian with a playful sensuality in contrast to the strict schoolmarmish aunt. Indeed Lennon's mother is also a bit incestuous with him: she lies on top of the boy provocatively as they sit together on the sofa. The tension is clear. Young John takes guitar lessons from his wild Mum, but his aunt will have none of it. She proceeds to tell Kid Lennon that his mom was a unstable floozy that deliberately abandoned him and was institutionalized. John becomes an Angry Young Man--a kind of rockabilly hybrid of John Osborne and Buddy Holly. He is moody and mercurial, shuffled in affection from aunt to mother. Even the spirit of James Dean is present. When he walks through the streets of Liverpool we suddenly see that all the guys are styled after "Rebel Without a Cause". John transforms into a flippant and sarcastic almost-adult.
A teenage Paul comes on the scene in a white suit with a pink carnation in his lapel, looking like a Pinnochio Dandy. Righto! Despite his odd appearance among the toughs, Paul emerges as the most practical. As he says, "It's all just music." The film does not pull punches despite its nostalgic tone. In one scene John gets into a fistfight with Paul during his mother's funeral. They both return with bloody mouths, savagely soiling their
preppy attire. In that moment, the youngsters could be easily mistaken for "Clockwork Orange" thugs rather than the feel-good British rockers that they became.
Before John goes off to Hamburg to find fame, there are closeups of John smoking while smoke pours from his nose and mouth under a bright blue sky perhaps foretelling of his later hookah smoking in India, his
playful Surrealism and his periodic withdrawal from public life.
There are other interesting details: early Lennon drawings are shown: quirky beasts, that inspire Yellow Submarinean thoughts. And when John first learns the guitar, the film is sped up in a more obvious homage
to "A Clockwork Orange".
From anger and hurt feelings, from remorse and revolution in music, shot with style and substance, this film narrates the somewhere path from wounded kid to world music icon.
Waiting for "Superman" (Brockway)
Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway Waiting for 'Superman' Initially, one of the most provocative things about "Waiting for 'Superman'" is its poster: a gray sky. A heap of rubble. Twisted metal. A war zone. And, in the center, a child sitting at her desk raises her hand.
Education is in a war-crisis within the inner city neighborhoods of our country.
Such is the reality illuminated in this documentary by Davis Guggenheim director of "An Inconvenient Truth" and like the climate change issue, public education is often pushed aside in the poorest areas, stunted by the formality of unions and contracts that allow bad teachers to go on teaching badly once tenure is granted.
But there is hope. Enter Geoffrey Canada, a man who once cried for the lack of a saving Superman. Canada, a good humored and tireless personality,carries himself rather like a Superman in human form: kind and driven with a single minded purpose, he is able to bring more practical educators together in a single bound.
The documentary focuses on Canada's story and his concept of highly concentrated schooling to a point, but it is also about the fast food way that we view education and the menace of unions that are more insidious than any plan by Lex Luthor. And politicians, as well meaning as they might be, not governing where the money goes or even where it is, once it gets in the clutches of a wayward school board. We see five kids in the film and they all possess such a buoyant down to earth quality. These effervescent traits are contrasted against the apathy and in-fighting of school board or (bored) adults. It does indeed seem that---Wait! Look up in the sky!---these kids can turn things around perched on Canada's cape.
Together with Canada's wisecracking, the kids emerge as one of the most heartfelt and compelling aspects of this topical documentary.
The Social Network (Brockway)
The Social Network
Review by Ian Brockway
David Fincher is known for his dark films. In "Seven" he set Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt up against a serial killer of biblically inspired malevolence. In "The Panic Room" Jodie Foster is driven to hysteria. Fincher is an auteur, a connoisseur of dark moods.
In "The Social Network", Fincher would seem to depart from haunting content as he takes on the true story of the Facebook web phenomenon, but not so. The film, although more subtle than the director's earlier work is as eerie and disturbing as any urban fright or killer flick. The film stars Jessie Eisenberg as Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.
At the film's opening, Zuckerberg is exchanging a bit of hostile deadpan banter with his girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara). Zuckerberg is staccato, selfish and impersonal with an off-putting aloof sensitivity. He speaks in a chirp, a bit like the Internet that he stares at each day. Suffice to say that Erica breaks up with
Zuckerberg.
The cinematography is fittingly dimmed as in any Fincher film, but here the scenes are crisply shaded like a gray screensaver on a laptop. Even the Harvard buildings are icy and brown like transitors on a flat circuit board. The musical score by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails tells of something sinister afoot.
Zuckerberg goes to his dorm and writes nasty things on the net about his girlfriend's breast size. He wants pictures of girls that he is not close to and doesn't know. He is monotone, pale, laconic and sarcastic by turns. Zuckerberg is digitally sociopathic. Facebook, the website phenomenon was started out of petty revenge from a bruised ego.
Together with his best friend (Andrew Garfield) he creates a program to rate the "hotness" of girls. Needless to say, the addictive program catches on and he is approached by two twin jocks who want to expand the program. The twins resemble androids in their blonde sculpted looks.
We know right from the start that Zuckerberg, with his spaced out blunt manner will get the better of them. He agrees and then develops his own site. The most compelling thing about "The Social Network" is the odd
impersonal quality of the Zuckerberg character. In one of the best scenes, he spurns his best friend with all the nonchalance of Andy Warhol while the remainder of the drama unfolds with a Shakespearean intensity.
In the 60s and the 80's, young artistic verve was put into Pop Art. Now in the Millenium, it is all about the cult of the laptop web machine as a social tool and status symbol. What matters is how many people know you and talk about you. The Internet is a new kingmaker.
It can either exalt a young person or throw him or her into a cruel storm of ridicule that would make Oscar Wilde cringe. An early Facebook profile is as biting as Dorian Gray. But if you are popular, you can recreate scenes from "Jackass", jumping from your roof with a zipline. And like Dorian Gray, you can live forever: The Net never ages.
At the conclusion, Zuckerberg is a lost soul. He is left alone in a cold law office, repeatedly mouse-clicking his ex-girlfriend's picture. The monotone clicking is the only sound audible. Zuckerberg can no longer relate or even Create. Alas, as a kind of Shakespeare story in cyberspace, one has the feeling that the friendless
Zuckerberg is betrayed by his last and only friend--his own website.
Et Tu, Facebook?
Review by Ian Brockway
David Fincher is known for his dark films. In "Seven" he set Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt up against a serial killer of biblically inspired malevolence. In "The Panic Room" Jodie Foster is driven to hysteria. Fincher is an auteur, a connoisseur of dark moods.
In "The Social Network", Fincher would seem to depart from haunting content as he takes on the true story of the Facebook web phenomenon, but not so. The film, although more subtle than the director's earlier work is as eerie and disturbing as any urban fright or killer flick. The film stars Jessie Eisenberg as Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.
At the film's opening, Zuckerberg is exchanging a bit of hostile deadpan banter with his girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara). Zuckerberg is staccato, selfish and impersonal with an off-putting aloof sensitivity. He speaks in a chirp, a bit like the Internet that he stares at each day. Suffice to say that Erica breaks up with
Zuckerberg.
The cinematography is fittingly dimmed as in any Fincher film, but here the scenes are crisply shaded like a gray screensaver on a laptop. Even the Harvard buildings are icy and brown like transitors on a flat circuit board. The musical score by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails tells of something sinister afoot.
Zuckerberg goes to his dorm and writes nasty things on the net about his girlfriend's breast size. He wants pictures of girls that he is not close to and doesn't know. He is monotone, pale, laconic and sarcastic by turns. Zuckerberg is digitally sociopathic. Facebook, the website phenomenon was started out of petty revenge from a bruised ego.
Together with his best friend (Andrew Garfield) he creates a program to rate the "hotness" of girls. Needless to say, the addictive program catches on and he is approached by two twin jocks who want to expand the program. The twins resemble androids in their blonde sculpted looks.
We know right from the start that Zuckerberg, with his spaced out blunt manner will get the better of them. He agrees and then develops his own site. The most compelling thing about "The Social Network" is the odd
impersonal quality of the Zuckerberg character. In one of the best scenes, he spurns his best friend with all the nonchalance of Andy Warhol while the remainder of the drama unfolds with a Shakespearean intensity.
In the 60s and the 80's, young artistic verve was put into Pop Art. Now in the Millenium, it is all about the cult of the laptop web machine as a social tool and status symbol. What matters is how many people know you and talk about you. The Internet is a new kingmaker.
It can either exalt a young person or throw him or her into a cruel storm of ridicule that would make Oscar Wilde cringe. An early Facebook profile is as biting as Dorian Gray. But if you are popular, you can recreate scenes from "Jackass", jumping from your roof with a zipline. And like Dorian Gray, you can live forever: The Net never ages.
At the conclusion, Zuckerberg is a lost soul. He is left alone in a cold law office, repeatedly mouse-clicking his ex-girlfriend's picture. The monotone clicking is the only sound audible. Zuckerberg can no longer relate or even Create. Alas, as a kind of Shakespeare story in cyberspace, one has the feeling that the friendless
Zuckerberg is betrayed by his last and only friend--his own website.
Et Tu, Facebook?
Waiting for "Superman" (Rhoades)
“Waiting for Superman” – The Wait Is Over
By Shirrel Rhoades
Given Key West’s issues with school superintendents, hotly contested races for the school board, and concerns for the education of our children, the new documentary “Waiting for Superman” has been eagerly awaited to make its appearance here in the Florida Keys.
Months ago former school superintendent John Padget was emailing me asking when this “exciting new film” might come to local screens. He added, “This is a very powerful film. Michelle Rhee, leader of D.C. schools, is a star in the show. She supported the mayor who appointed her, and he lost the election. Education and politics are joined at the hip. Stay tuned.”
Tropic Cinema’s George Cooper responded, “It’s on our short list, of course. But you’ll be interested to know that I saw a huge queue of inner-city youth lined up for a preview here in New York. I wondered whether they knew what they were in for.”
And now the time has arrived, with “Waiting for Superman” currently playing at the Tropic Cinema. It opens Friday night, with Monroe County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Joseph Burke on hand to introduce the film to an audience of local school administrators and teachers.
The film has received both praise and criticism as it traces the failure of public education, focusing on several students as they go through the school system.
The Wall Street Journal opined, “A stunning liberal expose of a system that consigns American children who most need a decent education to our most destructive public schools.” Forbes added, “I urge you all to drop everything and go see the documentary.”
On the other hand, Salon.com blogged, “There’s much in this movie that is downright baffling." A group of New York City teachers derided the film as “complete nonsense.” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, gave it a thumbs down, calling it “inaccurate, inconsistent and incomplete – and misses what could have been a unique opportunity to portray the full and accurate story of our public schools.”
“Waiting for Superman” won the Audience Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
Director Davis Geggenheim and producer Lesley Chilcott are perhaps best known for their documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” based on Al Gore’s view of Global Warming.
In “Waiting for Superman,” Guggenheim focuses on five school kids, ages 5 to 13. Four are of color and live in big cities – New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. One is white and lives in California’s Silicon Valley. What they have in common is trying to get out of public schools and enroll in charter schools.
“We had about twenty when we started,” says Guggenheim, “but after a day of shooting it became six or seven. A lot of it is just ability of the kids to talk about what they’re going through. Some kids are really great but they can’t and then you get a kid like Anthony who’s an open book. Same with Daisy.”
Guggenheim has identified 2,000 high schools nationwide that fail to graduate a startlingly high percentage of students – what he terms “dropout factories.” He cites the so-called Dance of the Lemons, the process of shifting bad teachers from school to school.
The film offers high marks for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee, and charter schools, but has less praise for unions.
Guggenheim says, “There’s a taboo of criticizing teachers and criticizing unions because everyone holds teachers up to this high level – we know they’re the solution. But we really have been in denial about doing the hard work of really thinking about how do you develop teachers; how do you manage them; how do you assess them. And we’re just starting to do it. All of this debate is proving that we’re starting to do it.”
That’s the true accomplishment of “Waiting for Superman.” No matter what your political position, the film is helping stimulate a discussion on educational issues.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
By Shirrel Rhoades
Given Key West’s issues with school superintendents, hotly contested races for the school board, and concerns for the education of our children, the new documentary “Waiting for Superman” has been eagerly awaited to make its appearance here in the Florida Keys.
Months ago former school superintendent John Padget was emailing me asking when this “exciting new film” might come to local screens. He added, “This is a very powerful film. Michelle Rhee, leader of D.C. schools, is a star in the show. She supported the mayor who appointed her, and he lost the election. Education and politics are joined at the hip. Stay tuned.”
Tropic Cinema’s George Cooper responded, “It’s on our short list, of course. But you’ll be interested to know that I saw a huge queue of inner-city youth lined up for a preview here in New York. I wondered whether they knew what they were in for.”
And now the time has arrived, with “Waiting for Superman” currently playing at the Tropic Cinema. It opens Friday night, with Monroe County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Joseph Burke on hand to introduce the film to an audience of local school administrators and teachers.
The film has received both praise and criticism as it traces the failure of public education, focusing on several students as they go through the school system.
The Wall Street Journal opined, “A stunning liberal expose of a system that consigns American children who most need a decent education to our most destructive public schools.” Forbes added, “I urge you all to drop everything and go see the documentary.”
On the other hand, Salon.com blogged, “There’s much in this movie that is downright baffling." A group of New York City teachers derided the film as “complete nonsense.” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, gave it a thumbs down, calling it “inaccurate, inconsistent and incomplete – and misses what could have been a unique opportunity to portray the full and accurate story of our public schools.”
“Waiting for Superman” won the Audience Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
Director Davis Geggenheim and producer Lesley Chilcott are perhaps best known for their documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” based on Al Gore’s view of Global Warming.
In “Waiting for Superman,” Guggenheim focuses on five school kids, ages 5 to 13. Four are of color and live in big cities – New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. One is white and lives in California’s Silicon Valley. What they have in common is trying to get out of public schools and enroll in charter schools.
“We had about twenty when we started,” says Guggenheim, “but after a day of shooting it became six or seven. A lot of it is just ability of the kids to talk about what they’re going through. Some kids are really great but they can’t and then you get a kid like Anthony who’s an open book. Same with Daisy.”
Guggenheim has identified 2,000 high schools nationwide that fail to graduate a startlingly high percentage of students – what he terms “dropout factories.” He cites the so-called Dance of the Lemons, the process of shifting bad teachers from school to school.
The film offers high marks for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee, and charter schools, but has less praise for unions.
Guggenheim says, “There’s a taboo of criticizing teachers and criticizing unions because everyone holds teachers up to this high level – we know they’re the solution. But we really have been in denial about doing the hard work of really thinking about how do you develop teachers; how do you manage them; how do you assess them. And we’re just starting to do it. All of this debate is proving that we’re starting to do it.”
That’s the true accomplishment of “Waiting for Superman.” No matter what your political position, the film is helping stimulate a discussion on educational issues.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (Brockway)
Mesrine: Public Enemy #1
Review by Ian Brokway
"Mesrine: Public Enemy #1" begins where part one left off as Jacques Mesrine, (Vincent Cassel) a French Dillinger, is brought in for questioning. They proceed to bring him to trial. Mesrine manages to ask for leave to go to the bathroom and allow him. Mistake number one. He has a gun in the toilet seat. At the trial he is impudent. Suddenly he takes the gun and voilà! the judge is a hostage.
Vincent Cassel plays Mesrine in a brutish deadpan fashion. When he sees a woman slink by in a red dress, he can be like Robert Mitchum, strong and silent. Then several times he escapes from deadly car chases stark prison cells like a homicidal Harrison Ford ala Indiana Jones. The action, as in the previous film, does not disapoint and the car chases have a kind of apprehensive ballet. We never know the moment of Mesrine's exact demise. All we know is that it has something to do with an ominous blue-tarped truck, as Mesrine plays the Scarface about town with his new wife (Ludivine Sagnier) and a toy poodle. We know he's up to something. Mesrine is the Houdini of Homicide. He treats most things, both animals and people, in a laconic deadpan fashion. He says he's part of the Red Brigade, a militant revolution. But all he cares about is the press and what the tv says of him. He is more thug than suave heartthrob.
What makes "Mesrine" compelling is its Pop Art cinematography and its way of highlighting the ordinary into a hyper-realistic dream of crime and existential confinement. In prison once again, Mesrine writes his memoirs and one gets the sense they are deadpan and matter of fact. We watch Mesrine like a curious creature, despite his bleu collar roots.
How is he going to get away now? Mesrine was known as "the man of a hundred faces" and his face actually does change from one escape to the next. Life to Mesrine was perhaps not the francs, but the thrill of getting them, the undermining of authority. The penal system, as depicted in this film is equally cruel.
When he is finally done in under a hail of bullets, Mesrine is strikingly similar to a bloody and crucified Jesus. The hyper-focus on the face and his gored forehead seems to directly echo Mad-Mel's Passion Play. Mesrine with his seeking of celebrity was a criminal icon, he sought bloody fame with a religiousity approaching amoral
sainthood; it's all he spoke about.
What can one expect from a warped mind in Catholic school? Like the frequent use of slanted camerawork in the film, Mesrine was all about subverting horizontal authority thru violence And the last bloody image may be an admonition by the director that he will sadly be venerated by some for it.
Review by Ian Brokway
"Mesrine: Public Enemy #1" begins where part one left off as Jacques Mesrine, (Vincent Cassel) a French Dillinger, is brought in for questioning. They proceed to bring him to trial. Mesrine manages to ask for leave to go to the bathroom and allow him. Mistake number one. He has a gun in the toilet seat. At the trial he is impudent. Suddenly he takes the gun and voilà! the judge is a hostage.
Vincent Cassel plays Mesrine in a brutish deadpan fashion. When he sees a woman slink by in a red dress, he can be like Robert Mitchum, strong and silent. Then several times he escapes from deadly car chases stark prison cells like a homicidal Harrison Ford ala Indiana Jones. The action, as in the previous film, does not disapoint and the car chases have a kind of apprehensive ballet. We never know the moment of Mesrine's exact demise. All we know is that it has something to do with an ominous blue-tarped truck, as Mesrine plays the Scarface about town with his new wife (Ludivine Sagnier) and a toy poodle. We know he's up to something. Mesrine is the Houdini of Homicide. He treats most things, both animals and people, in a laconic deadpan fashion. He says he's part of the Red Brigade, a militant revolution. But all he cares about is the press and what the tv says of him. He is more thug than suave heartthrob.
What makes "Mesrine" compelling is its Pop Art cinematography and its way of highlighting the ordinary into a hyper-realistic dream of crime and existential confinement. In prison once again, Mesrine writes his memoirs and one gets the sense they are deadpan and matter of fact. We watch Mesrine like a curious creature, despite his bleu collar roots.
How is he going to get away now? Mesrine was known as "the man of a hundred faces" and his face actually does change from one escape to the next. Life to Mesrine was perhaps not the francs, but the thrill of getting them, the undermining of authority. The penal system, as depicted in this film is equally cruel.
When he is finally done in under a hail of bullets, Mesrine is strikingly similar to a bloody and crucified Jesus. The hyper-focus on the face and his gored forehead seems to directly echo Mad-Mel's Passion Play. Mesrine with his seeking of celebrity was a criminal icon, he sought bloody fame with a religiousity approaching amoral
sainthood; it's all he spoke about.
What can one expect from a warped mind in Catholic school? Like the frequent use of slanted camerawork in the film, Mesrine was all about subverting horizontal authority thru violence And the last bloody image may be an admonition by the director that he will sadly be venerated by some for it.
Millennium Trilogy (Rhoades)
“Girl With Dragon Tattoo” Is Back as Prelude
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
Opening next week is the third film in the so-called Millennium Trilogy, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” And as a prelude to that long-awaited conclusion to the series based on the late Steig Larsson’s thrillers, the Tropic Cinema is currently reprising the first two movies, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.”
In case you haven’t seen them or read the books or you still live in a cave in Siberia, these two Swedish films are a way to get up to speed for next week’s “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” (We will review it in next Sunday’s Solares Hill … the screener DVD is playing on my TV as I write this.)
To reprise: These three films, like the books they’re based on, tell the adventures of an unlikely crime-fighting duo, a world-weary journalist named Mikael Blomkvist (played by Michael Nyqvist) and a social misfit computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander (played by Noomi Rapace).
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” best of the three, was directed by Niels Arden Oplev. It introduces Mikael and Lisbeth as they uncover a serial killer. “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” like the third film, was directed by Daniel Alfredson. Here we learn more of Lisbeth’s history and how a division of the Swedish secret service conspired against her to protect her evil Russian father Alexander Zalachenko, now a crime lord.
Do the double feature this week, then enjoy the conclusion next week. Almost like those good old days when there were movie serials.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
Opening next week is the third film in the so-called Millennium Trilogy, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” And as a prelude to that long-awaited conclusion to the series based on the late Steig Larsson’s thrillers, the Tropic Cinema is currently reprising the first two movies, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.”
In case you haven’t seen them or read the books or you still live in a cave in Siberia, these two Swedish films are a way to get up to speed for next week’s “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” (We will review it in next Sunday’s Solares Hill … the screener DVD is playing on my TV as I write this.)
To reprise: These three films, like the books they’re based on, tell the adventures of an unlikely crime-fighting duo, a world-weary journalist named Mikael Blomkvist (played by Michael Nyqvist) and a social misfit computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander (played by Noomi Rapace).
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” best of the three, was directed by Niels Arden Oplev. It introduces Mikael and Lisbeth as they uncover a serial killer. “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” like the third film, was directed by Daniel Alfredson. Here we learn more of Lisbeth’s history and how a division of the Swedish secret service conspired against her to protect her evil Russian father Alexander Zalachenko, now a crime lord.
Do the double feature this week, then enjoy the conclusion next week. Almost like those good old days when there were movie serials.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Nowhere Boy (Rhoades)
“Nowhere Boy” Goes Somewhere
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
I remember the night John Lennon died. I was sitting in a club in New York City a few blocks from where he was shot. The music stopped in the club for the news flash. I was almost kicked out when I muttered, “Guess this means there won’t be a Beatles reunion.”
No disrespect meant, I was a big fan of the Beatles.
John Lennon was considered the brainy Beatle, despite his lack of education. He wrote memorable songs, penned charming books, drew fanciful line drawings. His loss shocked us all, the guy who had admonished us to “Give Peace a Chance.”
The story of John Lennon’s youth is recounted in “Nowhere Boy,” the biopic that’s playing at the Tropic Cinema.
The film’s title, of course, is a play on the Beatles song, “Nowhere Man.”
John (played by Aaron Johnson) was restless teenager, running wild in the streets of Liverpool, England. The film tells us about those days and the two women in his life – Mimi (Kristen Scott-Thomas), the aunt who raised him from age 5, and Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), his mum who gave him up.
John is drawn to the music from America, blues and rock ’n roll. Songs like Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue” and Elvis’ “Shake, Rattle & Roll.” He meets up with young Paul McCartney (Thomas Brody Sangster), a kid who shares his musical tastes.
John starts a group called The Qauarrymen. McCartney joined it in ’57 and brought in 14-year-old George Harrison over Lennon’s objections. They performed at parties, school dances, cinemas, and amateur skiffle contests before morphing into The Beatles.
McCartney acknowledges that Lennon was always considered the leader: “We all looked up to John. He was older ... the quickest wit and the smartest”
McCartney’s dad said Lennon often got Paul “into a lot of trouble.” This is that story, as well as a tribute to their musical journey.
“Nowhere Boy” is the directorial debut of Sam Taylor-Wood, better known as a conceptual artist and photographer.
The film is based on the biography “Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon,” written by Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird. However, the film’s credits do not reference this, merely acknowledging the screenplay by Matt Greenhaigh.
Honestly, the movie’s soundtrack is worth the price of a ticket. Music by Jerry Lee Lewis, Big Mama Thornton, Lloyd Price, Eddie Bond and the Stompers, Little Richard, Frankie Vaughan, Chuck Berry, and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. If I can’t have a Beatle reunion, I’ll settle for the music that encouraged them to become the world’s greatest rock ’n rollers.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
I remember the night John Lennon died. I was sitting in a club in New York City a few blocks from where he was shot. The music stopped in the club for the news flash. I was almost kicked out when I muttered, “Guess this means there won’t be a Beatles reunion.”
No disrespect meant, I was a big fan of the Beatles.
John Lennon was considered the brainy Beatle, despite his lack of education. He wrote memorable songs, penned charming books, drew fanciful line drawings. His loss shocked us all, the guy who had admonished us to “Give Peace a Chance.”
The story of John Lennon’s youth is recounted in “Nowhere Boy,” the biopic that’s playing at the Tropic Cinema.
The film’s title, of course, is a play on the Beatles song, “Nowhere Man.”
John (played by Aaron Johnson) was restless teenager, running wild in the streets of Liverpool, England. The film tells us about those days and the two women in his life – Mimi (Kristen Scott-Thomas), the aunt who raised him from age 5, and Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), his mum who gave him up.
John is drawn to the music from America, blues and rock ’n roll. Songs like Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue” and Elvis’ “Shake, Rattle & Roll.” He meets up with young Paul McCartney (Thomas Brody Sangster), a kid who shares his musical tastes.
John starts a group called The Qauarrymen. McCartney joined it in ’57 and brought in 14-year-old George Harrison over Lennon’s objections. They performed at parties, school dances, cinemas, and amateur skiffle contests before morphing into The Beatles.
McCartney acknowledges that Lennon was always considered the leader: “We all looked up to John. He was older ... the quickest wit and the smartest”
McCartney’s dad said Lennon often got Paul “into a lot of trouble.” This is that story, as well as a tribute to their musical journey.
“Nowhere Boy” is the directorial debut of Sam Taylor-Wood, better known as a conceptual artist and photographer.
The film is based on the biography “Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon,” written by Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird. However, the film’s credits do not reference this, merely acknowledging the screenplay by Matt Greenhaigh.
Honestly, the movie’s soundtrack is worth the price of a ticket. Music by Jerry Lee Lewis, Big Mama Thornton, Lloyd Price, Eddie Bond and the Stompers, Little Richard, Frankie Vaughan, Chuck Berry, and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. If I can’t have a Beatle reunion, I’ll settle for the music that encouraged them to become the world’s greatest rock ’n rollers.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
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