akeelah and the bee

as someone who I have dragged to too many movies recently told me, "when you see a lot of movies, you start to know which ones are good." well, this one is the real deal. describing the plot won't do it justice, just know that laurence fishburne (who also produced the film) is understated and great, angela bassett is gorgeous as always, 13 year old keke palmer is fantastic as a little girl secretly obsessed with words, and when I left the theatre, I did not see a dry eye in the house - and it wasn't even sad. one thing though - the spelling bee movies (this one and bee season have created a genre) would have us believe that kids regularly desire to throw spelling bees for the good of others. can this possibly be true?

american dreamz

unfortunately, this movie is incredibly offensive and ridiculous. full of stereotypes and totally over-the-top schtick, it still managed to appeal to a majority of the audience at the emeryville AMC. in the midst of a lot of cringe-worthy stuff, Mandy Moore stood out as a previously overweight, smarter-than-she-looks aspiring star from ohio, and Hugh Grant does a decent job of playing his stock role of the british cad. I was both intrigued and slightly sickened by Willem Dafoe as a presidential advisor with a paunch - he is just so much better than this. also, what's up with all the anti-semitism in movies these days? must be a resurgence of hate across the board...

lucky number slevin

despite bad reviews, this movie is a tricky little thriller with enough witticism and star power to keep you entertained for its duration. there is too much violence and stereotyping (Sir Ben Kingsley's gangster rabbi is a particularly offensive character), but that comes with the territory. Lucy Liu plays an unbelievably cute coroner and Morgan Freeman raises the quality of the film just by being in it. there's no point in trying to tell you what it's about, but if you like stories of mistaken identity, slick assassins, and fabulous wallpaper, this is one for you.

secuestro express

secuestro (kidnapping) express was another recommendation from our tour guide in Venezeula. written and directed by a young Venezuelan from Caracas, it is the highest grossing film in Venezuelan film history, with good reason. kidnapping is a huge problem in Caracas right now and this movie envisions what it might be like for the kidnappees. the film is violent but it also lets you off easy right at the moments when you feel like you might not be able to stand seeing anything too horrible. there are tons of twists in this one, and it leaves you with a sense of complete insecurity. there are beautiful shots of Caracas, with lots of familiar landmarks. Mia Maestro (Nadia from Alias) stars as a do-gooder rich kid who can't believe she's been targeted, despite her fancy car and clothes. definitely worth seeing but prepare for unease.

G

when I first started watching G, I thought it was going to be great - romance and intrigue in the Hamptons after a hip hop star moves into the neighborhood and tries to rekindle a 10 year old romance with the woman who left him in college and now lives next door with a philandering millionaire (Blair Underwood). unfortunately the movie deteriorated kind of quickly; it's hard to muster up empathy for a bunch of cheaters. Sonja Sohn, best known for Slam, stood out as someone real in the midst of all the shiny people. this is a "modern version" of The Great Gatsby - probably best to stick with the classic.

brick

in this movie, Joseph Gordon-Levitt sets out to inflitrate the cool-kids drug ring at his high school to find out why his ex-girlfriend was murdered. the investigation leads him to a cast of interesting characters that include 'the pin,' Lukas Haas with highly protuberant ears and a brown wall-to-wall carpeted den that serves as his drug lair, the pin's mom, who cheerfully serves up cookies and apple juice to drug-dealing kids at all hours of the night and a host of aberrant youths who have all slept with his girlfriend. the theatre gave out a glossary of terms with the movie ticket that wasn't too helpful due to the lack of lighting during the show, but it did highlight the film's quirkiness. despite some moments of anxiety about exactly how indie this film would turn out to be, everything gets wrapped up neatly in the final scene. Gordon-Levitt was better in Mysterious Skin, but there are enough smiles and surprises to make this one worth watching.

the sentinel

this is one of those presidential thrillers where you are engaged the whole time and when the movie's over you turn to yourself and say:"that movie made no sense." there were typical plot points, (someone's being framed, or are they?), stock characters, and neat resolutions to the central conflicts without any pesky explanations. in other words, I liked it.

11:14

this movie was recommended to me by our tour guide in venezuela, a man who often frequents the cinema. judging from his enthusiasm, I would say that Caracas doesn't always get the cream of the crop of American indies. I would also guess that Greg Marcks, the writer and director of this film, has been screwed over by a two-timin' woman some time in his past. the movie takes place over just a few minutes on a fateful night in a small town. the highlights are Hilary Swank looking exceedingly plain in braces, a severed penis and a brief appearance by Jason Segel, of whom I am recently very fond.

the notorious bettie page

bettie page was hot. but could she possibly have been as stupid as Mary Harron makes her out to be in this movie? most of the film inexplicably takes place in black and white, except for the scenes in miami, where Page poses for Bunny Yeager and picks up random men on the beach. ostensibly highly religious, Page 'grapples' with whether jesus would consider bondage photos sinful and is completely oblivious to the lust she inspires. the sexual abuse of her past is summed up in a raised eyebrow from her father and Page's insistence on getting into a car with a bunch of strangers who unsurprisingly drive her out of town to rape her. it would have been nice to come away from this film with the impression that Page had some agency in her legendary career. instead, she comes off as a dim-witted child. on the brighter side, it's always a pleasure to see Lili Taylor.

sucker free city

San Francisco. SFC. Sucker Free City. this is a spike lee joint that never showed in the theatres because it was meant to be a Showtime series. this two hour pilot is all that remains of the plan. as a film, it's a little uneven. the story focuses on Hunter's Point, SF's abandoned navy yard that now boasts a mostly African American population and excessive amounts of toxic waste. a white family pushed out of the Mission district by the yuppie dot-com invasion moves to the HP, stirring up the status quo. the film also follows a Chinese mafia lackey in Chinatown who garners little sympathy or interest in his misguided grabs for the boss' money and daughter. everyone in the film is hustling to make a few more dollars. the saddest part of the story is that when little children get shot up, it's hard to care. it might have been a good show and it wasn't a terrible way to pass two hours but I recommend it to spike lee aficionados only.

soul of justice

there is nothing more inspiring to an aspiring attorney than the life and times of a man who, as a federal judge, has transformed lives. this too-short documentary on Thelton Henderson provides a snapshot of selected moments of his life and career, notably: joining the justice department to work the civil rights movement in the south (his qualification for the job was that he was a black man who would graduate from law school) and the indomitable generosity that compelled him to resign his position after lending Martin Luther King his car; single-handedly altering the racial composition of Stanford Law School; creating dolphin-safe tuna; incurring the wrath of the GOP for his support of affirmative action and insisting on, then personally overseeing, a more humane California prison system. star-studded with academics and activists, the film has a special appeal to fans of Alias due to Carl Lumbly's powerful narration.

setting free the bear

with An Unfinished Life, Lasse Hallstrom turns full circle back to his animal-metaphor masterpiece, My Life as A Dog. Swedish director Hallstrom has made some great and some not-as-great films, including What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Something to Talk About, The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, The Shipping News and last year's under-rated Casanova. An Unfinished Life warms up nicely into a character study of a father and daughter-in-law who live lives of relentless self-loathing. Robert Redford is pretty decent as a mumbling, mean old man - he reminded me of my grandfather, who only found it in his heart to be nice to me, his oldest grandchild. Jennifer Lopez reprises her abused woman role from Enough but without becoming truly kick-ass and Morgan Freeman plays the usual wise man. This movie is surprisingly engaging, especially if you like bears.

bad girls from valley high

the alternate title for this movie, A Fate Totally Worse than Death, is far more appropriate. I watched this one because of a new obsession with Monica Keena, who was great in Undeclared but undeniably captivating in one of her first roles, the indie classic Ripe. what can I say about this high-school set movie about three classist girls who are visited by mysterious ailments on the anniversary of their murder of a fellow student? I believe that's all you need to know, and I just saved you a rental.

tsotsi

considering the sheer magnitude of films made in countries other than the US, it's a safe bet that the ones that get nominated for and win the Oscar for best foreign film are going to leave 99% of American movies in the dust. Tsotsi, this year's Oscar winner, is no exception. what I didn't expect is that this film would be so profoundly unsettling. the movie centres around a thoroughly bad criminal, known as 'thug' (Tsotsi), who inadvertently gains possession of a baby. his interactions with the infant remind him of his own tormented childhood and lead him to small acts of kindness or, at least, lesser acts of cruelty. the Johannesberg township setting provides a glimpse into poverty and survival unimaginable in the US, heightening the stakes and dramatic feel of the film. Tsotsi is definitely an anti-hero, but his baby face draws sympathy for his plight, despite his seemingly irredeemable disposition. also, the actors were superb, particularly the beleagered father of the infant, the woman whose breast milk Tsotsi highjacks and the baby, who is unbelievably cute.

friends with money

it was quite a relief watching Steven Soderburgh's Bubble tonight after sitting through Friends With Money this afternoon. Bubble's starkness and simplicity of characters and plot provided a sharp contrast to Nicole Holofcener's third, and least appealing, cinematic effort. Walking and Talking was highly amusing; Lovely and Amazing had some excruciatingly real moments; Friends With Money was entirely unrealistic, fairly pointless and, at times, laughable. Holofcener takes some of the best women actors out there and curses them with ridiculous characters. Frances McDormand plays a successful clothes designer married to a rampant metrosexual. her climactic mental breakdown consists of yelling at people who cut in line ahead of her in Old Navy and refusing to wash her hair. are these things so wrong? Catherine Keener is uncharacteristically whiny and confused, drawing zero sympathy for her mismatched marriage to self-absorbed Jason Isaacs. Joan Cusack plays a vacuous millionaire who finds bliss in a marriage based on prolific sex, excessive consumption and a complete void of meaningful communication. Jennifer Aniston, out of her league in the company of these women, plays a maid with less than zero self-esteem in a performance that makes you want to reach out to the screen and slap her.
on the other hand, Bubble, with its slow pace and cast of unknowns, compellingly explores the depths of boredom that derive from dead-end factory jobs in an impoverished town.
the theme these movies had in common: maids who violate their employer's privacy - one by using a vibrator, the other by indulging in a bubble bath. I'll let you guess which one was which.

ATL

this movie, written by Antwone Fisher, starring crunk rapper T.I., Outkast's Big Boi and a host of talented unknowns, is near-perfect entertainment. there's nothing really new here - the story follows four kids about to graduate from high school and has a lot of familiar elements - a romance that crosses class lines, a young kid who turns to drug dealing as a way out of relentless poverty, a couple of cases of mistaken identity. the movie finds a perfect balance between harsh reality and humor. highlights: the character named Brooklyn who calls everybody 'son,' a slammin' soundtrack, and Cascades, the roller rink where the kids hang out on Sunday nights. ATL teases you into thinking it's going to turn into Roll Bounce but only gives you enough skating to make you wish for a sequel.

thank you for smoking

during the hour that went by since I came home from this movie, I have forgotten most of it. it was undoubtedly pleasant, about half as enjoyable as watching the previews for it, which were fantastic and included most of the good lines and the story line, such as there was one. the premise was cute and so was the movie, but all of these actors have done the same thing before only better: Cameron Bright gave me the chills in Running Scared and that awful movie, Birth; Aaron Eckhardt will never surpass his work in In the Company of Men, no matter how many times he is cast as an asshole (despite a very notable attempt in Nurse Betty); Katie Holmes has had so many better roles (Go, Abandon, Wonder Boys). it's great to see a bunch of familiar faces and reminisce about other movies. highlights of this one: Rob Lowe in a Japanese kimono at 4am; Adam Brody as Seth Cohen on crack. you will leave this movie craving a cigarette and a slice of apple pie topped with American cheese, even if you are an unpatriotic, non-smoking vegan.

inside man

I expected A LOT from this movie, and I was only a little disappointed. it had many of the signature spike lee elements: racial epithets, a one-dimensional female love interest, a shot of the main character standing still while everything rushes past him, and witty dialogue. it also had fabulous focus work by the one and only Aurelia Winborn, camera assistant extraordinaire. the movie kept me guessing: is it really a bank robbery or not? were the hostages accomplices or not? are the good guys the bad guys or vice versa? there is some play with morality but it mostly comes down to the truth, spoken from the mouths of babe(s) (the one child in the film): everybody gotsta to get paid. highlights: a stuffy white bank manager having Golddigger as his ring tone; Denzel asking a Sikh man complaining about post-9/11 harassment "but can you get a cab?" one thing though: can someone please explain to me why they dug the whole into the toilet plumbing? thanks.