Jun 17, 2011
(rated R) Max (Jamie Foxx) is a happy-go-lucky, almost spiritual type of a taxi driver, who even listens to classical music. Tom Cruise (who is best when he’s bad) is a contract killer who jumps into the back seat of the taxi, yet ends up taking Foxx on the joy ride of his life. And so the night begins. The chemistry and interaction of the two characters really works. So does the taxi. And while Cruise may be a bad-ass, the script is so meticulously executed that at the least expected moments, Cruise shows a humane and sensitive side, but then like every good psycho, Mr. Hyde will kick in on his Dr. Jekyl. This flawless movie is worth every dime of a ticking meter. And Jada Pinkett Smith as a Prosecuting attorney embraces the screen with her cover girl looks and girly girl persona. And this pretty face can also act. Director Michael Mann knows his quality movies and his Oscar driven stars. Think Will Smith “Ali”, Al Pacino “Heat” and Russell Crowe “The Insider.” You’ll soon be adding Cruise for “Collateral” to that list.
Jun 17, 2011
(rated R) Cold Mountain is an epic about the cold realities of survival skills post Civil War. City-educated girl, Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman), finds herself alone on a Carolina farm, when her Reverend father (Donald Sutherland) dies. Suddenly she’s confronted with responsibilities she’s never encountered, as the word “crop” is not in her vocabulary. Inman (Jude Law) is an injured soldier making his way back home to her through more hardship and disasters than anything Clark Gable ever endured in “Gone With The Wind”. Anthony Minghella reunites with Law (“Talented Mr.Ripley”) in a huge Miramax risk that will most likely pay off, since Minghella knows this kind of tough as nails directing. Can you say “The English Patient?” But it’s Ruby (Renee Zellweger) who shows up as a cowhand, Ma Kettle type, to save Kidman’s day and steals the movie with her mustered spunk. Based on the Charles Frazier best-selling novel of the same name, aside from some skilled acting and downbeat depiction of human endurance, the only real problem is that the lead lovebirds Kidman and Law, barely spend any screen time together.
Jun 17, 2011
…is one of those movies that allow us peek into the lives of the very famous before they were, well, very famous. It’s 1893 in a French orphanage where Gabrielle “Coco” (Audrey Tautou) is left by her father to be raised by nuns. Fifteen years later, and since he never came back, Coco, is now a seamstress by day and a singer in a cabaret by night. She meets Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde) who takes her under his wing (and into his bed) but only because she refuses to move out of his mansion in the French countryside with its grand horse stables, overflowing fountains and a fully hired staff. While the movie is close to perfect this is the one part of the story that raises a huge disconnect simply because Balsan adores women with abundant cleavage, fussy feathers, corsets and jewelry. Coco is everything but that. Instead she’s more Charlie Chaplin rolled up in a dainty Audrey Hepburn with inky black eyes, dressing in daddy’s clothes, raiding his closet and snipping his starched shirts and trousers to suit her style. It’s easy to see how her history in orphanage couture of black and white clothing would inspire her simplicity in becoming Coco Chanel, but it’s hard to understand why the female society of its time would accept this radical change. Heck, I can remember wearing colored tights under my mini-skirt, circa 1980, after departing a Manhattan fashion show only to be heckled by small town folks elsewhere. But it’s the love story with Arthur “Boy” Capel (Alessandro Nivola) that takes the movie by storm, sweeping us into the great epic-feeling love story that make this type of movie breathtaking and memorable. (sidenote: So much better than Oscar winner Marion Cotillard in “La Vie En Rose.”)The soundtrack, the countryside, the ocean cliffs, the high society events, and the glam camera work sweep us into complete silence – becoming a mesmerized audience. And there, inside the backdrop of what would become the Chanel empire, you find yourself feeling it’s all so very c’est magnifique! Four tiaras
Jun 17, 2011
(rated R) Directed by Mike Nichols, it’s ironic that the movie is called “Closer” yet the characters keep pushing each other away. In London, where cars drive on the wrong side of the road and tourists often get hit, the story appropriately opens with a stripper named Alice (Natalie Portman) gazing at Dan (Jude Law) across the street, when she gets struck by a car. Dan, by the way, writes obituaries for the paper. But Alice doesn’t die. Instead, the two fall in love until Anna (Julia Roberts) a photographer comes into his life. What isn’t dictated in this movie is time passage that sometimes weaves through a full year or only three months of these characters lives. Instead we are introduced to it through moments like when Anna has since married Larry (Clive Owen) not through a crutch of sub-titles, but through smart dialog, without a word of excess. Law’s character is smooth and believable with a touch of sympathetic – his best cad to date. Robert’s is pure illuminating and engaging – always in control. Portman is fantastic. This is her movie and her moment to shine while Owens shows more exposure emotionally, than any of Portman’s stripping or Robert’s lens work. The movie is tasteful yet abrasive, delivering a kind of verbal intercourse that fulfills yet disturbs.
Jun 17, 2011
releases on November 5th limited: “I never asked if a case was big or small, just right or wrong,” Spitzer narrates in this documentary regarding his thoughts on why he went after corporate bad guys. This is the story of the lies and eventual exposure of the talented New York State Governor brought down by sexual scandal. Which in itself is ironic…You can’t knock/prosecute prostitution and then use it for yourself. Such a waste of a talented man, Spitzer was to be the first Jewish President. He had a gorgeous wife, and three stunning teenage daughters not much younger than the (then) twenty-two year Ashley Dupree who took down his world. He was eight years Attorney General and one year as governor when his wife stood by him at the podium the day he resigned. And nobody expected this promising politician to go down because of three little words: The Emperor’s Club. In his own defense he says “This goes way back to Greek Mythology” and in a way he’s absolutely right. At what point will Americans start overlooking the private life of our public figures. So long as he’s cutting my taxes and cleaning up crime, I don’t care what he does in his off-hours. He wanted to use laws to change the world, change Wall Street and stop environmental pollution. Like everybody else in scandal, he disappeared for a while (although I ran into him at a recent NY book party) until he now resurfaces on CNN, hosting a show that instantly nose-dived in the ratings. The problem with this film is that it doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know except hell-o!…don’t hire hookers if you’re in public office. They’ll never learn. One tiara
