Runaway Dream



This is one of the stronger movies I've seen this year. It's simple yet utterly groundbreaking. Never has a movie been made about Dominican ball Players. I've always wondered how Dominicans pave their way to the Majors & how they are discovered in such a small country. Sugar will surely be touted as a 'Sports Movie' but it isn't- it's an immigrant story set in a Baseball environment. Filmmakers Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck made Half Nelson in 2006 - A movie that showed promies but felt amateurish and didn't succeed in its believability. This movie feels more real & more vital in its depiction. It achieves a kind of transendence that is very rare in movies today- in fact the last 20 minutes are as good as any movie ive seen this year (And yes I'm even Including Inglorious Basterds' hilariously bloody 'Death To The Nazi's' climax). Part of the reason this movie is so damn good is its screenplay written by Bolden & Fleck but there's also an amazing performance by newcomer Algenis Perez Soto as the titular character- his performance is so good that he's probably gonna get ignored come Oscar time and that's the best compliment I can ever give an actor.

An Image 09/02/09



Bill The Butcher, surrounded in Martin Scorsese's Gangs Of New York. A flawed but unequivocal masterpiece that had mostly mixed reaction when it came out in 2002. I loved the ambition Scorsese brought to it all but -most of all- I adored Daniel Day Lewis' Incredible performance as The Butcher himself. He's more than likely my favourite actor working today- watch him in Nicholas Hytner's Adaptation of Arthur Miller's incendiary play The Crucible. He defines the word electric.

From Word To Image


I'm sure you've heard the saying 'The book was so much better than the movie' or better yet 'They should have never made it into a movie'. Very common happening, mostly beccause it speaks the truth. Almost every Novel that gets translated into a film is mediocre in comparison to its Litterate counterpart. Why? Well maybe it's because a book has much more time to develop its story & its characters that you get to know them a little better. Watching The Time Traveller's Wife this past weekend I was struck at how uninvolving it was and how mediocre its character development tended to be- and I had heard great things about the novel. Ask any fan of the novel and they will tell you they loved to read it but despised watching it. It's not just character development it's also the fact that some stories are just not meant to be made into film- case in point is Brian DePalma's disastrous Bonfire Of The Vanities or Roger Avary's unwatchable The Rules Of Attraction. Both novels were written in ways that celluloid could not describe, both were stylistically groundreaking and both were fit for the medium of word and not image



It's very simple, no Direcor can recreate what was already great because what the director does is essentially interpret someone else's art- looking at it that way, you can understand why there are so many dissapointing translations on screen these days. Looking back, I cannot for the life of me think of 10 movies that were better than their Novelistic counterparts- Jonathan Demme did it in 1991, turning Thomas Harris' Trashy novel into the classy Silence Of The Lambs, Stanley Kubrick turned Stephen King's straight laced The Shining into his own nightmarish dream, Francis Ford Coppola took Mario Puzo's The Godfather and created the best movie I have ever seen. Kubrick pissed Stephen King off so much with his 'interpretation' of The Shining that a decade later King decided to make his own version vying to remake 'everything differently'. Writers are just so damn hard to please.

Liam Neeson & his gun?



I was pleasantly surprised by Pierre Morel's excitingly brain dead Taken. That's right I liked something that was completely devoid of logic and -in fact- very brain dead. It's a revenge story. Shoot me, Im a sucker for revenge stories done this well and this pulp shiveringly excitable. Liam Neeson's daughter -that's right Liam Neeson- is kidnapped on vacation in France and sold as an underground escort whore. Ok im done writing this review cause there's no point in persuading you guys that Alfred Kinsey himself can actually be an action star. Word of mouth is contagious on this one and is the sole reason I ended up watching it and giving it a shot. Watch it & be the judge of what is surely one of the better action movies of 2009.

'The Cove' & Japanese ignorance



Sometimes you forget just how important art can be. It can transcend all other things and provoke you in unimaginable & curious ways. Of course I'm not talking about Transformers 2- far from it. One of the best movies Ive seen all summer is a documentary about a dolphin slaughterhouse in Japan. Any Hollywood movie can have the biggest budget in the world but try to beat the guerrilla filmmaking thrills of Louie Psihoyos' The Cove- which ends the summer movie season on a glorious & important note. The fact that close to 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered every year at a remote cove near the isolated Taiji waters is appalling, what's even more appalling is the fact that nobody knows about it & just how dangerous it is to our societal welfare. Putting their lives on the line a team of trained rebels -including Richard O'Barry-manage to sneak cameras & mics into the restricted cove to uncover the brutality that happens there every day. Barry -who trained Flipper in the 60's- has regret and anger towards the bloodshed & does his bloodsoaked best to send out a message to the people. All were left with is its climax-a scene of startling brutality that has the power to provoke change & spark out the message. God Speed.

'Wendy & Lucy' -Nothing but Everything-



Ive seen Wendy And Lucy twice now & I am quite convinced there is no movie out there like it. Whether you should take this as a compliment depends entirely on your own taste in general. The plot is simple. Girl loses dog in the middle of nowhere, girl looks for dog. That's it, that's all. It's not just a simple movie it's minimalist stuff reminiscent of the French new wave of the 60's. The girl-Wendy- is played by Michelle Williams & what a performance it is. It's a crying shame nobody is talking about how good she is in this film & only refer to her as the Dawson's Creek girl or Heath Ledger's wife. She doesn't have much dialogue- her performance is almost entirely silent yet she speaks so much with just a gesture or two & she possibly has the best closeups Ive seen in a very long time.

This is one of those instances where I can use the term 'nothing happens but everything happens' because that's it in a nutshell. Many will hate the movie just for the sole reason that nothing happens- well maybe that's the point. Its relevance is quietly affecting- Williams' Wendy is stranded in a middle of nowhere America that cannot help you because they need help themselves. With no economic growth & no future in hand, the America portrayed by director Kelly Reichardt -who did Old Joy- is with no promise, no futility & no optimism. There are scenes of startling beauty in this 80 minute film & Ill be the first to admit that some of it drags. You see, whenever a director experiments or tries to make a highly original piece of work such as this one, there will be faults. No matter, it's quite a feat to have this movie around- especially in the MTV age of fast cutting & what I refer to as ADD type editing. In fact Id love for our school systems to purposely attach students by the chair and make them watch this film- it'd be quite the arduous trip for their warped little minds.

Etc, Etc, Etc



A slow week. Although A.O Scott has a Look at a criminally underrated movie from the 90's called Gattaca- I wouldn't go as far as calling it masterful but it's an often forgotten movie & deserved a much better fate upon its intial release. Starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. The idea that in the future when a baby is born you can automatically tell -by DNA Sample- the baby's fate and future medical breakdown. An interesting concept about destiny and the basis of work.

Another noteworthy -but random- note comes from singer/songwriter Bruce Springsteen that's about to celebrate his 60th birthday in September. Here's a great video I found that's already gotten more than 2 million hits on Youtube- It' called Fire & was filmed at Neil Young's annual Bridge Benefit in 1986.

An Image 8/25/09


Eva Green In Bernardo Bertolluci's The Dreamers. I dig. I love its French snobery & full of itself attitude. It's a movie that's definitely aged quite well- judging by the number of fans it is gaining year by year.

'Inglorious Basterds' Redux

Since its the most talked about movie of the weekend- I want chime in some more on Tarantino's WW2 Bloodfest. First off -after having seen it a second time- the flaws stick out more. The dialogue is stretched out, the narrative is uneven, It's too long & there isn't much substance. This is still an entertaining movie made by a man that can't ever make a dull movie but we had the right to expect much more from Tarantino. His real comeback was -and still is- Kill Bill. I'm sure QT fanboys will go all medieval when they read this. Now on with the show.

Random thoughts..



'If your words are less important than silence, then keep quiet'

How fitting a quote to explain Laurent Cantet's new movie The Class - Winner of the Palme D'or at Cannes in 2008- which portrays the french school system in a realistic and incredibly fascinating way. It's french director Laurent Cantet's 5th film and his best one since 2002's L'Emplois Du Temps. It reminded me of my own high school days- the different people, the troubling differences, the classroom vibe and the amount of knowledge one can learn by just listening. The students are played by real students, the teachers are played by real teachers but even more impressive the atmosphere feels real. In fact it's quite possibly the best teacher/class movie Ive ever seen & has a documentary style feel to it. I was reminded of a french documentary I saw many eons ago called 'Etre et Avoir' which dealt more with primary students but had the same attention to detail as Cantet's film.

Whereas the horrendously graphic House On The Left also has its release. I panned the movie a few months ago and you can check that out in the following Link. It's a timely reminder that finding bad movies is more common than finding good ones. Also out is Greg Motolla's slight but loveable Adventureland (Review), Tony Gilroy's Twisty but flawed Duplicity (Review) & The Indie Comedy Sunshine Cleaning (Review). Another random thought comes from Inglourious Basterds, which finished first at the box office this weekend. Writer Peter Travers has a nice little poll happening at RollingStone.com asking which is your favourite Tarantino character & since I cannot stop posting link after link- here's Christopher Nolan's newest film in Glorious HD, Inception.


Happy Monday ! & For you..



She can create time & space
I describe her warm embrace
Her soft skin that needs no cream, no light
Her lips that hypnotize at sight
Her wide green eyes that shine
Because she's mine, I walk the line

So I wait for her call
'Cause the rain is about to fall
Instead I walk with her to the park
I hold her close, I feel a spark
Through her eyes I could see
As we walk past the cedar tree

How it was all meant to be
How It all meant to me

'Inglourious Basterds'



Quentin Tarantino has never made a dull movie. It's as simple as that. Even his weakest one- Death Proof- has scenes that any director only dreams of achieving in a career of film. Tarantino's newest baby -Inglourious Basterds- has all the traits we've come to expect from the bad boy of American cinema. The numbered chapters, cool as ice dialogue & highly over exaggerated violence. It's also overlong, preachy, cartoonish and over the top. Know what? I don't care, what we see ain't boring and sure as hell will wake you up. This isn't Pulp Fiction- still his best movie- but what is these days? Yea, that's what I thought. Just the fact that the movie features a Nazi Baseball bat Killin' Jew -played by Eli Roth- called 'The Bear Jew' is reason enough to recommend Tarantino's over indulgent talky gore fest. I laughed, I cringed & I listened to it's 153 diabolical minutes- take away half an hour and you got something even more satisfying. 5 Chapters (1 mediocre one) & Tarantino having a hell of a ball. The fact that he actually tries to get away with killing Hitler and hundreds of other Infamous Nazi's is hysterical and I couldn't have laughed harder at its 'Piece de resistance'- which involves cinema's revenge on the Nazi's in a hellfire of explosion and brimstone. The excess is too much and at times you wonder what exactly is the point, this is not as triumphant as Kill Bill or as Brazenly alive as Reservoir Dogs- but it is Tarantino and he's always a welcome figure. Glenn Kenny has an interesting Analysis of the film over at his blog- he states that a standard movie must usually have 30-40 'proper' scenes and that this one only has 16.

Slapped with a European 18



Link. Almost nothing gets an 18 rating in Europe, I figured this one would (and it did). This being the case, a North American release would be highly unlikely anytime soon- which is a shame, considering this one has me intrigued in a very curious & pereverse way.

'District 9' -The story of Jekyll and Hyde-



First things first, I'm not big on Sci-Fi. Sure every once in a while we get a movie that defies the genre and transcends its roots, such Minority Report & Children Of Men but for the most part, I'm indifferent to spaceships, futuristic toys & the sudden urge to run away from things. Which is why I was indifferent to watching District 9- produced by Peter Jackson- which has been getting surprisingly positive feedback from audiences and critics- not to mention its 30 million dollar box office opening this past weekend. Directed by South African newcomer Neil Blomkamp, I was highly impressed by its social relevance and the mirrored reflection it takes on the South African Apartheid & not to mention Acting newcomer Shartlo Copley, exceedingly good as a man infected by an alien transformative virus.

The first half completely floored me, I was wondering 'what the hell is going on here' ? which is always a good thing as far as I'm concerned, meaning a movie has caught you off guard and gotten you intrigued by its concept. What I didn't like was the last third of the film- which changes from the first half's social consciousness of integration into another run of the mill action blockbuster. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad movie- but if only it would have stuck to its original roots and layed down the action a little less. Its first 90 minutes are a solid foundation to build upon with undeniable shades of the world we live in but its last 20 turn into a Transformers type of movie, which -as far as I'm concerned- is never a good thing. This is not a mixed review but call me disappointed.

Attention Chan Woo Park



A 17-year-old Brazilian schoolgirl stunned cops by admitting a serial killing spree that started when she was just 15. She was held on Monday for knifing 30 men to death. She told detectives she wanted to confess before she turned 18 and could be tried as an adult reports Fox News. The girl – who can't be named as she is a minor – said she began targeting men in her home city of Sao Paulo, Brazil "for money, revenge and justice." She bragged to police,: "I don't have enough cour-age to hold a gun — but I can hold a knife." But police are still unclear about what drove her to keep on killing. Sources said one theory is she was hired by gangland bosses as an assassin because she was so innocent-looking. The teenager's sensational confession came after she was arrested over a Sao Paulo street fight.

This taken from The Times Of India and further proof that our society has managed to outdo itself on a daily basis. On a side Note, having Chan Woo Park direct a story based on this would be just awesome. My review of District 9 should be up shortly.

'Pill Poppin eccentric bearded man'



James Gray's heartbreaking Two Lovers is out on DVD. Here's my review, posted a few months back. It's worth watching alone for Joaquin Phoenix's grandiose -supposedly final- screen performance (before he became the titular man of this topic) & the always reliable Gwyneth Paltrow as his subjective muse. It's easily Gray's best and most mature film and one of my favourite movies this year.

Also out is the Mike Tyson documentary which had its premiere at Sundance and got released in April. With any documentary in which the main subject narrates, there are biases and there are missteps but Tyson is worth a look because of curiosity alone and for the way he shrugs off his marriage abuse and rape accusations as if they could never have happened. It also somehow manages to have the viewer sympathize with Iron Mike in his search for a 'what the fuck does my life mean' ideal. A worthy rental & something that gives new meaning to the phrase 'There's always two sides to a story.

Tarantino on Scorsese



In which Quentin Tarantino talks of an interesting mythic rumor concerning Scorsese and the making of his masterful Taxi Driver. I've always heard of this legend but never really knew if it was fact or fiction and I still don't. Taxi Driver is one of those films that grew on me as the years went by, my first impressions of it were very minimal and unimpressive but there's something dark and sadistic about the underworld portrayed by writer Paul Schrader- so much so that many years after having seen it, I think it might be his best film. The finale is also the stuff of legend- in which you are not entirely sure if what you have just seen actually happened or was a dream reality thought out by Deniro's Travis Bickle. The influence is still there- read my review of May's Observe And Report, which has similar themes to Taxi Driver. Talkin about Tarantino, I should have my review of Inglorious Basterds up at some point next week.

Image 8/18/09





Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away is too good to be true. Quite possibly the best animated movie I have ever seen. Think The Wizard Of Oz meets Twin Peaks and you'll understand what kind of trip it is. Miyazaki has always had a way of telling a story in his own, uniquely imaginative way. Here he encompasses all the promise he first brought in his earlier films and knocks all of those out with this one, a story that encompasses the same themes he's worked with since the beginning of his career -friendship, love, dreams- and make his grand opera out of sheer wild lunacy. Chiiro, the film's heroine, is a little girl that gets lost and swept up into a furiously colorful but dark world that has the most creatively imaginable characters you have ever seen in an animated movie. The way Miayazaki uses colors here is extraordinary, especially when you find out that he still animates his films the old school way and with as little special effects machinery as possible. It's a beautiful work of art that rightly gets name checked in any animation student's book. I can guarantee you've never seen anything quite like this one. It's very dreamy- right up my alley- and features scene after scene of Ecstasy and inventiveness. Every director is known for a certain movie or creation. Miyazaki will always be known for Spirited Away.