Sometimes we want instant change, and are willing to settle for its appearance rather than work for a new authority, a new purpose, and a new structure that would make it real. There has been a betrayal of legacy in African-American culture and politics that is rarely discussed, but aspects of it can be seen in writer and director Tanya Hamilton’s film Night Catches Us, starring Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington.
Tag: film
A review of Le Sacre du printemps by Pina Bausch
This last dance is, as well as being thrilling and climactic and incredibly moving, simply an incredible performance. For how do you attain in dance an absolute abandonment (one culminating in the loss of life itself) while retaining always at least a crumb of control? Death may no longer be a taboo; but dying is.
Women and Men Who Deserve More: Think Like A Man, a romantic comedy starring Michael Ealy and Meagan Good, directed by Tim Story
The film Think Like A Man is more entertaining and satisfying than one would expect from its genre or premise—and that is thanks to a group of attractive, intelligent actors, women and men who deserve more opportunity for demanding, thoughtful, well-conceived work.
Difficult, Fun, Illuminating, Lazy Adolescence: The Art of Getting By, a film of New York youth starring Freddie Highmore and Emma Roberts, directed by Gavin Wiesen
Gavin Wiesen’s film The Art of Getting By is an interesting portrait of a unique young man’s coming of age in a cosmopolitan city; a film with a good subject, script, and cast and crew, illustrating the attractions, confusions, and dangers of a smart boy’s life.
Courage, Democracy, Entertainment, and Vengeance: Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe, directed by Ridley Scott
Gladiator is example of an entertaining epic, of a film that has great action and large themes—courage, family, honor, integrity, nation, democracy—that are attractive to a mass audience, and to individuals who want something to think about.
Charming Rogues in a New Kind of Western: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, directed by George Roy Hill
It is a story presented with excellent craft. The film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has a lot of style, in its cinematography, and in its structure; and its landscapes are gorgeous, musical interludes romantic, and it has well-measured pacing. Its use of silent film and black-and-white photographs, tinged sepia, are a nice touch.
Language, Spirit, and Vision: August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, featuring Charles Dutton and Alfre Woodward
The Piano Lesson, as presented by Hallmark, has some staginess still, but what remain impressive are August Wilson’s language, spirit, and vision. Wilson’s language is more natural than poetic, but it is ever flowing—creating character and music and relationship—and summoned are a particular time, 1936, and place, America (Mississippi and Pittsburgh).
Human Truths, Humorous Tasks: Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones in Hope Springs
The film has a leisurely pace with a nice score, interspersed with a huge lot of popular songs of emotion and energy. The songs confirm what is at stake in a relationship, the excitement of that. The film’s languor allows us to know its characters and their relationships and situations.
When Angels Become Demons (Passion and Profession): Zoe Saldana in the international action-thriller film Colombiana, written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, and directed by Olivier Megaton
Zoe Saldana has appeared in comedy, drama, and science fiction, but her role as a tormented, driven young woman in Olivier Megaton’s Colombiana may be her most dynamic, her freest; and it is an irony that her freedom is exemplified by her astute control. While watching a woman go wild and do forbidden things can be an exhilarating fantasy, when her actions involve crimes that injure others, that is hardly a model for imitation.
Yesterday’s Treasures: The Deep Blue Sea and The Bridge on the River Kwai
The British officer who authorized his men in the Burma camp to give their best in building the bridge has begun to lose sight of his ultimate allegiance, and tries to protect the bridge from the bombers. In a contest of nation against nation, man against man, will against will, good men die for riches, rituals and rules, all in the madness of war. Is any ideal or principle worth the sacrifice of the complex, messy plenitude that is human life?