Stories, whether in film or in literature, generally follow an arc. Things happen to a character or characters that we judge and like or dislike according to their personalities and their choices; situations develop, conversations take place, a certain point is reached, and there is a conclusion. In an Asghar Farhadi film (winner of an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for “A Separation,”) ... more >
ARCHIVES
A different take on “The Great Gatsby”
Comparing the new with the old film adaptation
Leonardo Di Caprio and Carey Mulligan
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
Lucky the [few] viewers of Baz Luhrman’s "The Great Gatsby" who come to the film virgin of the book, without even a brush with it in high-school. They can dive into the vulgarity of the jazz age depiction, replete with fireworks, flowing champagne, Charleston and period sound-track (with a dash of Jay-Z for the would-be cute and saucy note, much like the sneakers in Coppola’s “Marie ... more >
A new go at BLUE VALENTINE
Revisiting Cianfrance's debut film
With “The Place Beyond the Pines” arriving in theaters with a bang last month, now may be a good time to remember “Blue Valentine,” Derek Cianfrance’s debut film of 2010 that critics called “astonishing” and audiences confirmed as such. It was and remains so on second viewing, this story of the unraveling of a marriage, for reasons all too familiar yet still unexplainable. What ... more >
STARBUCK
Or, the best news you can get, 533 times over
Patrick Huard and Julie LeBreton
Directed by Ken Scott
Raising two is hard enough but after that you sort of get the hang of it. The next 533 should be almost a breeze. Unless you’re in your early forties and have no idea you’ve sired this crowd and you meet a fraction of those 533 when they’re young adults, way beyond nappies and baby formula. This is what David Wozniak (Patrick Huard) is faced with, a hapless meat delivery man with enough ... more >
Cloud Atlas
When brave souls defy rules, often at a high cost
Tom Hanks and Halle Berry
Directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski
When early in the forties a young Greek director called Elias Kazantzoglou showed up at a major Hollywood studio, the studio head (one imagines him sending cigar smoke the way of the hopeful visitor), advised him on a name change as a first step. “How about Cézanne?” the studio head asked. The director who would go down in film history as Elia Kazan demurred. “There already is a ... more >
No
The revolution will be marketed
Gael Garcia Bernal
Directed by Pablo Larrain
Augusto Pinochet, the benevolent-looking Chilean general who overthrew Allende in 1973—putting an end to a long spell of democracy--and oversaw seventeen years of terror, responsible for thousands dead and tens of thousands arrested, tortured and “disappeared” died in his bed (though under house arrest) in 2006. Wrangling over extradition procedures while he was holed up in London before ... more >
L’Innocente 2.0 (Italian cinema)
A treasure of italian cinema, restored
Pangs of nostalgia are inevitable upon seeing or revisiting “L’innocente,” the 1976 film that would be Luchino Visconti’s last. The sixties and seventies were two of the most remarkable and prolific decades of cinema--Italian cinema the most idiosyncratic of all so that the works of extraordinary directors such as Fellini, Scola, Pasolini, Antonioni or Bertolucci were instantly ... more >
FOLLOW US