By ALI NADERZAD - September 30, 2010After Tony Curtis danced with Yvone de Carlo in “Criss Cross” (1948) he received thousands of fan letters asking for a lock of his hair. And that mane was famous; it should’ve had its own stage name. Curtis left us yesterday and with him a sizable piece of the Hollywood myth goes. Success never seemed to be far and everyone took to liking the Studio City golden ... more >
Archives for September 2010
ARCHIVES
Never Let Me Go
From the Kazuo Ishiguro novel. It feels a little like ...
Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield
Directed by Mark Romanek
At first sight, Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go is the Harry Potter film for a modern dystopia. It nails much of what I dislike about Hogwarts Academy, the conformity, the noble-minded authoritarianism, the obedient little drone who achieves heroism through obedience and destiny rather than sacrifice. Created by the novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, the Hailsham students of Never Let Me Go are chosen by ... more >
EXHIBITORS DECLARE WAR! (COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU)
By ALI NADERZAD - September 28, 2010DVD sales are down by no less than 30% since 2004. Studios are readjusting their sights by way of possibly making premium VOD more quickly available (45 days instead of the current 120). How to do so? By way of recent technology that is supposed to make video on demand streams impossible to copy (for a while, at least). What this also means is that the period of ... more >
Make Me Young
Taking a journey through America's anti-ageing world
Lisa Airan and Julia Allison
Directed by Mitch McCabe
To what lengths would you go to recapture youth, or, at least, the appearance of youth? That is the question posed by Mitch McCabe’s film “Make Me Young: Youth Knows No Pain,” which was produced in collaboration with HBO and broadcast last fall. It’s now out on DVD from Cinema Libre Studios, and provides an insider’s view of the fascinating and perverse world of plastic surgery. McCabe’s ... more >
The Town
Welcome to the bank robbery capital of America
Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner and Jon Hamm
Directed by Ben Affleck
I’m sorry not to like The Town—Ben Affleck is such a nice guy and Gone, Baby, Gone was such a promising directorial debut. But then I may not be the right person to review this movie that I’m sure holds enormous appeal for the 18-30 male demographics. I’m not that much into weapons, shootouts—or even into bank robberies unless we’re talking “Dog Day Afternoon.” Indeed, undisputed top billing in ... more >
I’m still here
Documenting a character's transition
Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck
Directed by Casey Affleck
You wonder what Joaquin Phoenix and director/brother-in-law Casey Affleck had in mind when they decided to put together “I’m Still Here.” It’s a documentary yet it’s fake, funny yet tragic, bizarre but also very personal and therapeutic. Like Phoenix wants to go to the dark corners of his mind to play out those mental traps an artist can fall into. In this movie, Phoenix is over-indulgent, needy, ... more >
Buried
When choosing the right carrier pays off
Ryan Reynolds, Robert Paterson and Stephen Tobolowsky
Directed by Rodrigo Cortes
Buried taps into one of the few remaining stories of the Iraq war: civilians who are taken hostage. Just what makes this one particularly rich with suspense is that it entirely takes place within the condensed and claustrophobic space of a wooden box buried in the ground. Ryan Reynolds gives his best performance ever as Paul Conroy, a truck driver for a contracting firm whose convoy was attacked ... more >