vincentw

I got trapped on a bus in Mexico watching this trash. I could shut my eyes but could not shut out the sound. What's wrong with the Lizzie McGuire movie? The awful title, the songs completely unmemorable except for the lousy lyrics, annoying performances by American actors badly feigning foreign accents, a script as predictable and unbelievable as a cure-all medicine label, a star drowning in CUTE. Disney spent a lot of money on this hokum and they deserved to be laughed off the planet. I realize that this film was not made for people in my age bracket, but if 14-year-old kids really liked it, I despair for the aesthetic future of the human race.

What would a film for women look like? Well, one possibility is Maria Novaro's wonderful reversal of all of the expectations of male-oriented films. Playing with a number of genres and turning them on their heads, Novaro gives us the story of Julia, an ordinary late thirty-something woman, who, used to playing a traditionally passive, "feminine" role, takes on the active role of searching for her missing danzon partner in a journey that takes her from gloomy Mexico City to sun-drenched Veracruz. In the process she changes from object of the male gaze to bearer of the gaze. The film boasts a super performance from Maria Rojo as Julia and fine supporting performances by Carmen Salinas, Tito Vasconcelos, and Victor Carpenteiro. It is saturated with fantastic Mexican music, especially songs written by Veracruz' native son, Agustin Lara. And then there is the dancing. The danzon, where a single glance may give the game away, becomes a perfect metaphor for Julia's journey of self-discovery.

Weird isn't it? Miners from the North of England are all the rage in British films, not that all the mines have closed down. Billy Elliot takes us to the same milieu made popular in Brassed Off and The Full Monty; and the problematics of masculinity in a world where men are not working is again addressed. This time we have an 11-year-old who discovers he prefers dancing to boxing, much to the dismay of his father and brother.

The film is cute and boasts a good performance by its star who has the young-old look of a kid who has known poverty. It also has some beautiful industrial landscape shots. Alas, however, like so many recent British films, it suffers from a sloppy, sappy script and a musical score which tugs relentlessly on the heart strings. Given the premise, any of us could have written the script and we might have been able to resist some of the excesses of sentiment.

As austere as any Bresson, this film shows Meszaros' brilliance as a filmmaker. The story is simple, the acting understated and powerful, the black and white photography masterful, the atmosphere strained and grey. Without once mentioning politics, it could not be a more powerful indictment of Communist society.

It is, a sad comment on the state of film distribution in this day and age that the works of Meszaros, the most prolific woman filmmaker of all time, should be so little available. Come on, Amazon, get with it!

Saving Grace is like a return to the Ealing comedies of the '40s and '50s--like, for example, Whiskey Galore updated to marijuana. It is never less than amiable and often very funny indeed, as, for example, when Grace smokes weed for the first time. It is wonderful to see Brenda Blethyn getting the title role. Rescued from a mediocre career by Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies, she is now getting the opportunities to demonstrate her great talent.

Could it possibly be true that John Schlesinger directed this film? It looks like it was made by a beginner, and a not very talented beginner at that. The dialogue is lousy; the plot predictable (and who cares anyway); the acting at best unconvincing (Everett) and at worst dreadful (Madonna). It has some of the worst cinematography I have ever seen. Can anyone tell me why there is a shadow over Madonna's forehead in every shot? What were they trying to hide?

On the face of it, the simple plot of the film would not seem enough to sustain the audience's interest. Darlene, an imposing young woman with an illegitimate child, returns to her home in the outback of the Bahia region of Brazil. There she marries an older man, has his child, then takes up with two other men and has children with them as well, all of them living together on the edge of poverty. The powerful acting, a hauntingly beautiful visual style, a landscape both harsh and lovely all make this a cinematic treasure in which one's attention never flags for a moment. It is a film which continues to resonate weeks after seeing it. I look forward to seeing it again and again.

Marlene Gorris has established herself as one of the world's great directors. This sensitive, visually beautiful film is based on a story by Vladimir Nabokov and captures well that writer's dark irony. John Turturro gives what I consider to be his finest performance (I am usually not a fan of his); and Emily Watson is brilliant as well. Well worth seeing.

Paul Leduc pulls off a huge gamble in this film. He opts not to use any dialogue, although the sound track is rich with ambient sound. Set in Venezuela, the characters are the denizens of a run down bar/brothel. There is no dialogue because the characters--the dispossessed--have no voice in society. A profoundly left-wing film, it does not preach but rather lets the audience come to its own conclusions. Leduc is a too-little-known master.

Akerman here show 50-odd stories, but only picks the most melodramatic moment in each story, moments of meeting, parting, longing, and despair. The film is brilliantly filmed, using a still camera for the most part. There are twenty-three camera movements, all but one simple pans and tilts. The film is funny and intellectually satisfying. Viewers need to give it a chance, for it does not announce its intentions, and those accustomed to the usual narrative will find it difficult to get into the film. It is, however, well worth the effort. A very great film indeed.