Review
Quills
- Director
- Philip Kaufman
- Year
- 2000
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- a.k.a. Coffee
- Review date
- Wednesday, February 28, 2001
Spoilers ahead.
Take your seats everyone - the history lesson has started. This time Hollywood takes us back to the period of the French Revolution. And while the executioner is by far the busiest man in the country and the heads of his victims are neatly stacked in bloody piles we are introduced to the most decadent bastard of the whole lot – Donatien Alphose Froncois Marquis de Sade played, or rather brought back to life by
Geoffrey Rush.
While most of his fellow noblemen and women have fallen prey to the bloodlust of the Jacobines, the notorious Marquis is locked up in an institution for the insane and thus evades the guillotine - but he also loses his freedom.
Quills focuses on these late years of de Sade and while it might be considered a biopic of sorts, it has my praise mostly for raising the question ‘what is perverted and what is right’ in sense of morals.
But before we descend into the domain of the lustful, the shameful and the hypocrites that are depicted in
Quills, let's take a look at the plot. Although deprived of his physical freedom the Marquis still spreads his decadence through the penny pamphlets which he writes anonymously. He does so with the help of the witty and attractive chambermaid Madeleine (Kate Winslet) and without the knowledge of the institution's overseer, Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix, brilliant yet again). While the naive clergyman believes in tolerance and understanding towards the mentally sick, his superiors have decided that the subversive Marquis has ridiculed them long enough. Napoleon sends the cruel and fanatic Dr. Royer-Collard (wonderful: Michael Caine) to the asylum to “convince” de Sade that it would be better for his (physical) health to stop spreading his pornographic propaganda. However neither the phony doctor nor the open-minded Coulmier can change anything about de Sade’s lewd and often bestial fantasies. At the climax (sic!) of the film Madeleine is killed due to bad luck and de Sade’s influence on the instincts of his fellow inmates and the Marquis is tortured to death by the vicious Dr. Royer-Collard.
Geoffrey Rush plays de Sade with so much black humor and obscene wit that it is impossible to not find the monster attractive (intellectually attractive that is). De Sade is not reduced to a funny little pervert however but we sit and watch in wonder as he shows us that there is nothing in the world that does not have to do with biological reproduction and that morals are a self-inflicted plow – an illusion invented by church fathers and grumpy puritans. Under the skillful direction of Philip Kaufmann Winslet, Phoenix, Caine and Rush interact beautifully to create an excellent movie that credits history and yet is very modern in its mode of thought.
I can only emphasize what de Sade states towards the ending – “how do we know what is pure if we shun what is perverted?”. Surely de Sade showed some of his contemporaries more than they could handle...
So, consider paying the Marquis a visit – I can assure you, the pleasure will be all yours!
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Review
Billy Elliot
- Director
- Stephen Daldry
- Year
- 2000
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- Review date
- Tuesday, February 27, 2001
I should let you know that I love all those English little movies with their unique characters and special warmness that come every year and blow you away. My favorite one would be
The Full Monty, although
Billy Elliot certainly comes in a close second.
At its core, this movie could be resumed as your typical “follow your dreams” nice story. And while it wouldn’t be that far-fetched to say it, it would be unjust to classify it just like that, when it has so much to offer and is so well done. Billy (Jamie Bell) is an 11-year-old boy who loves to dance. Unfortunately, he lives in a poor family with other goals in mind. His father (Gary Lewis) and brother (Jamie Draven) work as miners, but they are now in strike. His mother died when he was younger, and he misses her much more than he is willing to accept. Billy is supposed to take boxing lessons, but soon a dance teacher (Julie Walters) gets interested in him and helps him achieve his real dreams.
Billy Elliot is a much more dramatic movie than what I expected. It’s not that it doesn’t have its comic moments. In fact, there are plenty. But this are far more serious matters. Billy lives in a strange world and somehow he has no intention to change things because he knows his place and wants no trouble. Well, that’s impossible, and there will have to happen a lot more things before he can be accepted. It is only with his friendship to his teacher that he’ll be able to move on. And even that way, he can’t help but see how everyday his family struggles for their cause. There’s a social background here that is maneuvered with the right touch, because it doesn’t become preachy nor annoying. In fact, it serves for one of the best scenes of the movie involving Billy’s father and brother. It is a touchy subject, but somehow, Billy manages to live in his own optimistic world.
As I said at the beginning, this is a very well done production. I guess it’s the combination of it all that makes it so special. Lee Hall has crafted an intelligent script that finds the right balance between everything. Even with the subplots of Billy’s gay best friend or Debbie, the teacher’s sex-obsessed daughter, which I didn’t love, it all is very well crafted and maintains its high quotient of reality. Director Stephen Daldry also does a good job by mixing all these elements together and keeping everything flowing smoothly. Besides, he is pretty good with his actors too.
The real star here is Jamie Bell, this newcomer who will blow you away, not only for his acting chops, but for his excellent dancing skills. We have here a true talent that exudes charisma, is really likable and does a pretty good job. This movie wouldn’t have been the same without him. Julie Walters and Gary Lewis lend strong support as two people who have already seen a lot and try to stay focused besides the circumstances for what they love the most.
Watch out for that wonderful dance sequence between young Bell and Walters. Amazing! And there’s also a really poignant scene involving Billy’s father watching him dance for the first time. Images you won’t forget, just as the look in Billy’s face when he pays a visit to his teacher near the end of the movie. There’s true magic going on here.
"Lads do football, boxing, or wrestling - not friggin' ballet!"
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News
Box Office Results
- Posted by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- News date
- Monday, February 26, 2001
Hannibal (2001) continued to rule at the box office as two brand newcomers had disappointing results this past weekend. It seems as if Kevin Costner has definitley lost the touch, but even worse has Brendan Fraser, whose new movie,
Monkeybone (2001), didn’t even make it into the top ten. The rest of the list stayed the same and had small drops, specially the Oscar nominated ones. Expect
Hannibal (2001) to lose it place next week, as Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt storm theaters in
The Mexican.
Here’s the complete list:
1.
Hannibal (2001), $15.8 million ($128.5 m.t.)
2.
Down to Earth (2001), $11.6 million ($34.6 m.t.)
3.
Recess: School's Out (2001), $7.3 million ($23 m.t.)
4.
3000 Miles to Graceland (2001), $7.13 million ($7.1 m.t.)
5.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), $6.3 million ($81.6 m.t.)
6.
Sweet November (2001), $5.3 million ($17.9 m.t.)
7.
Traffic (2000), $5.1 million ($86.1 m.t.)
8.
Chocolat (2000), $4.7 million ($40 m.t.)
9.
Wedding Planer, The (2001), $4 million (52.2 m.t.)
10.
Cast Away (2000), $3.4 million ($221.1 m.t.)
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Review
Dancer in the Dark
- Director
- Lars von Trier
- Year
- 2000
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- Review date
- Sunday, February 25, 2001
I came to this movie without knowing what to expect. I hated Lars Von Trier’s
Breaking the Waves, but on the other hand this movie had won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. I had also heard that it was of the love-it or hate-it type. The result couldn’t be more satisfying. I’m definitely on the supporting side.
The movie tells the story of Selma (Björk), a poor hard-working Czech immigrant who is becoming blind as each day goes by because of an hereditary illness which her son also suffers. Thus the only thing she wants in her life is to save money so that his son can have an operation that would cure him. She has a best friend, named Kathy (Catherine Deneuve), and there’s Jeff (Peter Stormare), the shy man who doesn’t give up and keeps up courting her despite her unwillingness to have a boyfriend. She also befriends her neighbors (David Morse and Cara Seymour), which are the people who rent her the small place where she lives. The rest of the plot I won’t tell, but catastrophic events happen that will change the course of Selma’s life in unexpected and tragic ways.
The movie has a bunch of peculiarities that make it unique. It is filmed with a handheld camera and follows some of the Dogma rules, which give it a more realistic approach. Lars Von Trier is known for putting her leading ladies in very difficult or unimaginable situations and this is not the exception. Selma is a wonderful woman who is willing to give it all in spite of his son’s happiness. She is a good and nice person. She loves the old Hollywood musicals, although she doesn’t like the last song, so she “cheats” and always gets out of the cinema before the movie is over. This is why when her life becomes really miserable she starts to daydream and puts herself in one of those elaborate musical numbers.
And that is exactly why the movie has been so criticized. Some people think it is not possible to have such happy and cheering moments while the real story is so tragic. I don’t think that way. If Selma didn’t have this surreal moments of happiness her life would become absolutely unbearable. There’s no way she could be that strong if she didn’t see life the way she does. The transitions are certainly cathartic, but in a psychological way I found them believable and I loved them myself. It is a wonderful and strong contrast.
I also loved the way that
The Sound of Music is always present in the movie. I loved the way Jeff kept loving her no matter what. Loved the way Kathy appreciated her friend and always tried to help her. Loved the way this movie resembles
La Vita e Bella as one of the most heartbreaking stories ever told portraying the love of parents for their children. And I loved the performances.
Björk is without question a magnificent actress. It is said that she doesn’t act, she feels. I could arguably say she does both things admirably. I couldn’t picture anyone else in this role. And her character will live forever in my mind as an unforgettable extraordinary women living in an unjust world. It’s surprising to see Deneuve in a role like this. Sincerely, she is too pretty to pass as a poor factory worker, but she does the best in what is a very touching performance. Stormare is a real surprise in an against-type role, as we had come to see him in more darker roles. But he is great here. And David Morse is excellent as the man responsible for the dramatic turns of the movie.
This is indeed a very powerful motion picture. It is unusual, heart-wrenching, and definitely a must-see. With perfectly fit songs in great musical numbers (my two favorite ones involve Selma and Jeff in a train singing “I’ve Seen It All” and the courtroom scene), this is just experimental moviemaking at its best.
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News
BAFTA Awards Winners
- Posted by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- News date
- Sunday, February 25, 2001
We reported the nominees, now come the winners. The people are England just handed out their awards and
Gladiator (2000) came up victorious along other many grea pictures. This is the first time that the ceremony is held before the Oscars in order to have more influence and recognition over that other very important ceremony. So who didn’t came away emty-handed? Check it out:
Best film:
Gladiator (2000)
Best director: Ang Lee,
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Best actor: Jamie Bell,
Billy Elliot (2000)
Best actress: Julia Roberts,
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Best supporting actor: Benicio Del Toro,
Traffic (2000)
Best supporting actress: Julie Walters,
Billy Elliot (2000)
Best film in a language other than English:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Best British film:
Billy Elliot (2000)
Audience award:
Gladiator (2000)
Academy fellowship for lifetime achievement: Albert Finney
Best original screenplay: Cameron Crowe,
Almost Famous (2000)
Best adapted screenplay: Stephen Gaghan,
Traffic (2000)
Most promising British newcomer: Pawel Pawlikowski
Outstanding British contribution to cinema: Mary Selway
Best film music: Tan Dun,
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Best cinematography: John Mathieson,
Gladiator (2000)
Best production design: Arthur Max,
Gladiator (2000)
Best costume design: Tim Yip,
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Best editing: Pietro Scalia,
Gladiator (2000)
Best sound:
Almost Famous (2000)
Best special visual effects:
The Perfect Storm
Best make-up and hair:
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Best short film:
Shadowscan
Best short animation:
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Review
Bring it On
- Director
- Peyton Reed
- Year
- 2000
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- a.k.a. Jacinda
- Review date
- Saturday, February 24, 2001
A movie about cheerleaders? Must be one of those annoying high school flicks. But it can’t be with Kirsten Dunst in the lead role. As she had done great satires like
Drop Dead Gorgeous or
Dick I figured this movie would have some dark humor as well. But instead of making fun of the stereotypical cheerleader the movie takes cheerleading very seriously as a sport and presents the girls and boys (!) as athletes.
When Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) becomes captain of the Toro cheerleading squad the team is sure to win the national championship for the sixth year in a row. Soon enough she finds out that their perfect routines were stolen from the Clovers, a hip-hop squad from East Compton, by the former captain. While Isis (Gabrielle Union), the captain of the Clovers, wants to see her squad finally get the recognition it deserves, Torrance desperately tries to save the reputation of the Toros. The showdown is at the national championships where the best squad will win.
Bring It On is a comedy that delivers great entertainment. The first part of the movie still has some satirical elements. Just like the characters Missy Pantone (
Buffy’s Eliza Dushku) and her punk-rock loving brother Cliff (Jesse Bradford) the viewer soon has to put aside prejudices against cheerleaders to find out that it’s a serious sport. With very likable characters and witty dialogue director Peyton Reed succeeds in creating a light-hearted comedy about how dreams can become true. I really liked the subplot of the love relationship between Torrance and Cliff who come closer without a lot of words.
The chemistry between them works best in the tooth brushing scene and Kirsten Dunst brightens up the screen once again. This movie delivers nothing but a good time. Watch out for the spirit fingers!
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News
Wacky Stuff
- Posted by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- News date
- Friday, February 23, 2001
Wondering if any movie will face up the challenge of dethroning Hannibal from the top spot at the box office? Well, by the look of it, I don’t think so. Check out which are the two new wide releases of the weekend:
3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) – A movie starring Kevin Costner, Kurt Russel, Courtney Cox Arquette, David Arquette and Christian Slater should at least raise your eyebrows a little bit and make you wonder what all these people could do together. The answer would be a heist comedy taking place mainly in an Elvis convention. Weird? Well, it is, and it’s not paying off. The movie is receiving terrible reviews. I can’t really find anything good that I’ve heard about it. Maybe that in some level, it might be entertaining. But the rest of the list, such as acting, directing, story and so on are nothing but unredeemable stuff. Think twice before paying to watch this thing!
Monkeybone (2001) – A very differente type of film, but also a very rare one. This time its Brendan Fraser’s turn as a comic writer to suddenly enter a mixture of worlds he himself had created. By doing this, animation and live action get blended into a story full of impressive visuals and weird sets... not to mention characters. The movie also stars Bridget Fonda and Rose McGowan. But wait, it is also a bad one. Although not as trashed as the later, it is getting really bad notices. It is said to be totally and painfully unfunny, while it is too weird for its own good.
Great! So we’ll have to keep waiting for some other good movies to arrive. Meanwhile, don’t go to the cinema with very high expectations! Until Monday...
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Review
The Maltese Falcon
- Director
- John Huston
- Year
- 1941
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- a.k.a. Vincent
- Review date
- Thursday, February 22, 2001
During a period of 10 years Dashiell Hammett’s novel “The Maltese Falcon” was filmed no less then three times, the last one coming in 1941. In the 60 years that have passed however no one has attempted another adaptation. And why should they? The 1941 version written and directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart is hard if not impossible to improve upon.
The central character is Sam Spade (Bogart), San Francisco private detective. He and his partner Miles Archer are hired by a mysterious woman, supposedly to find her sister, but when his partner winds up dead it soon becomes clear that Spade has become involved in the search for a priceless statuette. Not much later he meets a colorful bunch of people who are all determined to find the black bird before the others.
What is so great about this movie is that, unlike most other detective mysteries, this one can be viewed as many times as possible without losing it’s power, despite the fact that you already know how everything will turn out. In fact it probably grows better with each viewing, at least that’s the way it is with me. The film varies little to nothing from Hammett’s excellent novel (which contains some though not a lot autobiographical facts), even most of the dialogue was copied into the script by Huston, whose first film as a director this was.
Bogart’s central performance is of the highest quality. When you look at Spade closely he is a quite nasty and unlikable man. He has an affair with his partner’s wife, about which he seems to have no regrets and he only tries to find his partner’s killer because it is expected of him, not because he wants to. He even sends the woman he loves to prison. Despite these unattractive characteristics Bogart always manages to keep our sympathy. Other leading men may have wanted to soften Spade’s character, but Bogart and Huston probably realized that that would weaken the film.
Bogart is great, but he is surrounded by a handful of equally good actors. This is perhaps the best cast movie ever. Every role is played by the right person. There is Joel Cairo (the ever great Peter Lorre), Kasper “Fatman” Guttman (Sidney Greenstreet in his debut, at the age of 60!), Bridgid O’Shaughnessy (Mary Astor, probably film noir’s first femme fatale), Wilmer (Elisha Cook Jr.), Effie (Lee Patrick) and an uncredited Walter Huston, the director’s father, as captain Jacoby.
The two earlier versions came in 1931 with Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels and in 1936, filmed under the strange title of
Satan Met a Lady, starring Warren William and none other than Bette Davis. While both are not without their merits neither can hold a candle to this version, despite the fact that they are all pretty similar in story and dialogue (the 1931 version in particular greatly resembles this one) but it goes to show you how important the right casting can be.
This movie truly is “the stuff that dreams are made of”.
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Review
Pinocchio
- Director
- Hamilton Luske
- Ben Sharpsteen
- Year
- 1940
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- Gon Curiel a.k.a. Groucho
- Review date
- Tuesday, February 20, 2001
A lovely movie, made with dedication and love,
Pinocchio is probably the most beautifully animated of all Disney films, and undoubtedly one of the most charming.
Based upon the Carlo Collodi tale,
Pinocchio tells the heart-warming story of a wooden puppet who wants more than anything to become a real boy. His puppeteer, Geppetto, finds happiness at last thanks to this kid, and also wishes that he becomes a real boy. Aided by a fairy who warns him that he won’t get what he wants if he’s a bad boy, the wooden boy gets into quite a trip when looking for a meaning for his life.
Though drastically modified from the original tale, the story is enchanting and even more haunting and poignant. The inclusion of Jiminy Cricket as Pinocchio’s conscience is an incredible asset. As the kid gets to know what life is all about, we do too. All the perils he faces are in fact what we all eventually have to face in our lives, only drawn in a fantastic way. He meets a bunch of colorful characters who represent the different people we all meet once in a while.
A fantastic voyage,
Pinocchio manages to bring joy and horror all in one, taking our hero from one place to another like a mere puppet. Some awfully terrifying scenes are contrasted by joyful songs all around. “When you wish upon a star” is unforgettable. The whole score is uncanny!
My favorite animated film of all time.
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News
Berlin Film Festival Awards
- Posted by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- News date
- Tuesday, February 20, 2001
The Berlinale came to an end with a series of surprising awards and omissions.
Traffic (2000) was predicted to be the front-runner for the Golden Bear, but instead it went to Intimacy, the most controversial movie of the festival for showing its two lead actors converge in very explicit sexual scenes. A matter of tastes, I guess, but here’s the complete list of winners:
Competition Jury Awards:
Golden Bear: “Intimacy'' (France-Italy).
Silver Bears:
Grand Jury Prize: ``Beijing Bicycle'' (Taiwan-France); Jury Prize: ``Italian for Beginners'' (Denmark)
Best Actress: Kerry Fox (``Intimacy'')
Best Actor: Benicio Del Toro (
Traffic (2000), U.S.)
Best Director: Lin Cheng-sheng (``Betelnut Beauty,'' Taiwan-France)
Individual Contribution: director of photography Raul Perez Cubero (``You're the One,'' Spain).
Alfred Bauer Prize: ``The Swamp'' (Argentina).
Blue Angel Award: Patrice Chereau (``Intimacy'').
Piper Heidsieck New Talent Awards: Angelica Lee Sinje (best young actress, ``Betelnut Beauty''); Cui Lin, Li Bin (best young actors, ``Beijing Bicycle'').
Best Shorts: ``Black Soul'' (Canada, Golden Bear), ''Jungle Jazz: Public Enemy #1'' (U.S., Silver Bear).
Main Awards By Other Juries:
Ecumenical Jury Prizes: ``Italian for Beginners'' (Competition, main prize); ``Wit'' (U.S., Competition, special prize); ``Blue End'' (Switzerland, Panorama); ``The New Land'' (Sweden, Forum).
Fipresci (intl. critics assn.) Prizes: ``Italian for Beginners'' (Competition); ``Maelstrom'' (Canada, Panorama); ``It Should Have Been Nice After That'' (Germany, Forum).
Guild of German Art House Cinemas Prize: ``Finding Forrester'' (U.S.).
Berliner Morgenpost Readers' Prize: ``Italian for Beginners.''
CICAE (intl. confederation of arthouse cinemas) Prizes: ``Late Night Shopping'' (U.K., Panorama); ``Love/Juice'' (Japan, Forum).
Prix UIP Berlin: ``To See a Boat at Sail'' (Norway, short).
LVT/Manfred Salzgeber Prize: ``Fat Girl'' (France).
New York Film Academy Award: ``The Shooting Gallery'' (Ukraine, short).
Panorama Audience Prize: ``Berlin Is in Germany'' (Germany).
Kinderfilmfest Intl. Jury Prizes: ``Nagisa'' (Japan, grand prize); ``The Sky Is Falling'' (Italy, special mention).
Peace Film Prize: ``Living Afterwards: Words of Women'' (France).
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News
Stanley Kramer dies at 87
- Posted by
- Gon Curiel a.k.a. Groucho
- News date
- Tuesday, February 20, 2001
One of the all-time greatest Hollywood directors, Stanley Kramer, died yesterday of pneumonia at age 87.
Leaving a legacy of a bunch of American classics, Kramer died peacefully as he usually was, despite the somewhat risky messages he usually gave in his movies. Denying to be a “message” director, his taste for controversial matters was undeniable. Hidden or showy, the themes he attacked or defended were always in the plot of his movies. He attacked blacklist, racism and other social illnesses. On the other hand, he defended human assets like honor and good will even in the worst of circumstances.
With movies like
High Noon (1952),
The Caine Mutiny (1954),
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) he gained his undeniable place among the best directors ever. Also producing many of his films, he became respectable and wanted. He worked with many great actors, including Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier and Marlon Brando, whom he helped make a star thanks to
The Wild One (1954).
Kramer usually gave great actors a twist. Most of the people who acted in his films are most remembered in them, or especially noted by the unique performance they gave under his direction.
We will always remember Kramer for his films that will never die.
Rest in peace, Stanley Kramer.
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Box Office Results
- Posted by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- News date
- Monday, February 19, 2001
As expected,
Hannibal (2001) kept packing them in and continued to keep its reign at the box offive. It did around 30 million, which is a normal figure considering the percentage horror movies use to decline from their opening weekend to the next one. Still, it has already 103 million, which is an impressive figure. The three new releases ended up in second, third and fourth places respectively. Chris Rock performed the best, although they all had moderate results.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and
Traffic (2000) saw their grosses increase a lot because of their Oscar nominations. They both were up around 40% to 60% comparing their results to those of last weekend.
Chocolat (2000) also performed ok.
Here’s the complete list:
1.
Hannibal (2001) - $30m., ($103.8m.t.)
2.
Down to Earth (2001) - $17.5m., ($17.5m.t.)
3.
Recess: School's Out (2001) - $10.8m., ($10.8m.t.)
4.
Sweet November (2001) - $10.6m., ($10.6m.t)
5.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - $8.8m., ($71.5m.t.)
6.
Traffic (2000) - $6.5m., ($79m.t.)
7.
Wedding Planer, The (2001) - $5.7m., ($46m.t.)
8.
Cast Away (2000) - $5.0m., ($216.5m.t.)
9.
Chocolat (2000) - $4.8m., ($33.1m.t.)
10.
Saving Silverman (2001) - $4.3m., ($13.6m.t.)
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Review
Almost Famous
- Director
- Cameron Crowe
- Year
- 2000
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- Review date
- Sunday, February 18, 2001
Jerry Maguire is a movie I deeply love. It is one of my all-time favorites, and because of that, I had quite high expectations for this one. The fact is, I was not disappointed.
Almost Famous shares the same tone and warmness of the aforementioned movie even if it is telling a very different story, albeit a more personal one.
William Miller (Patrick Fugit) is a 15-year-old boy who wants to write about rock and gets an opportunity to do so for Rolling Stones magazine. He then joins a rock band called “Stillwater” while on their tour. That’s how he comes to befriend the members of the band, including Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) and Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee). But wait, there’s also Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), the muse, the adorable groupie who follows the band and whom everyone likes. This is practically the main storyline, but there is a lot more going on in this movie.
It works in some many levels that the more I think of it the more I can’t believe how Crowe could pull it off so magnificently. There’s the coming of age aspect. William is a guy who lives with his overprotective mother (Frances McDormand) and who hasn’t seen much of the world. He knows rock n’ roll, but he doesn’t know what’s behind it all. He goes through a path where not only does he discover himself and his own true self, but also the reality of a world he is in love with. The movie shows us this world of sex and drugs in which these bands used to live in the 70’s. It was a superficial life, but they had no choice and they liked it.
The picture also reflects the rollercoaster life of rock bands and how because this people live together sometimes it can get messy, although other times they can get closer to each other. It is business after all, but for this guys, it is all supposed to be about the music. The way we conceive ourselves as being cool or uncool, and how we should think of being better persons. And then there is Penny, and the way William gradually falls in love with her and rejects the way she is treated. The problem is, she is fine with it, and a lot of confusion ensues as feelings get on their way. So what am I saying? This is a multi-layered story speaking to every generation, but also trying to give an autobiographical look of the early years of the movie’s creator: Cameron Crowe. Maybe this is why the movie feels like so close to us. Every line, every scene, all of it is perfectly crafted and pays a lot of attention to detail.
The performances of this movie are one of its strongest assets. Fugit, in his feature debut, is perfect as William. Kate Hudson is luminous, magical, in a star-making performance which will make you fall in love with her. Billy Crudup is excellent and highly charismatic as the leader of the band. And Frances McDormand steals every scene she’s in, making them some of the best of the movie. They’re funny but poignant at the same time. These were my favorite four performances from a string of other great ones, such as from Phillip Seymour Hoffman or Jason Lee.
There are so many great scenes that I can’t choose one as my favorite. There’s the airplane scene; the episode where William tells Penny the awful truth about a touchy subject; the scene where these two are together and he has a confession to make; all of the scenes involving William’s mother, specially the one with Russell over the phone; or the scene where everyone gets in a better mood by the means of singing Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” together and leaving their problems aside. The musical selection is right on target and the brilliant script by Crowe himself helps to make of this an undisputed triumph. A truly inspired labor of love.
“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool”
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News
Sweet holiday weekend
- Posted by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- News date
- Friday, February 16, 2001
Well, having Pesident’s Day on Monday, this weekend should see another blast at the box office for
Hannibal (2001). But who’ll be the competition. Well, some mild releases, so check out:
Sweet November (2001) – The reteaming of Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron in the romantic story of a guy who lives by his work and falls in love with a misterious girl with some hidden secrets. The movie is not being given a chance by critics. That’s a pity, but they are not liking it a lot. Because of being a remake, it is also being compared to the original, which seemed to be much better. It is said to be boring and not so good.
Down to Earth (2001) - Another remake, this time of Warren Beatty’s
Heaven Can Wait with Chris Rock in the lead. The movie is said to be really bad. Chris Rock in the lead can’t overcome a dull and unfunny script which doesn’t work at all.
Recess: School’s Out – Another cartoon going to the big screen under the Disney level, although it doesn’t contain the magic of its original productions. Only for the kids.
So as you see, there aren’t really good movies arriving today, but sometimes we should check out for ourselves and decide what’s good and what isn’t. Just have fun in doing so!
Until Monday...
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Review
The Silence of the Lambs
- Director
- Jonathan Demme
- Year
- 1991
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- Review date
- Wednesday, February 14, 2001
There’s not one single bad thing that I can think of to say about this movie. It has been heralded as being one of the strongest Best Picture winners in history and it has the rare title of being one of three pictures which won the five principle Oscars. Nothing interferes with what I see with my own eyes, and, by the look of this movie, I’m ready to say that it is one of my favorite thrillers of all time.
Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), an FBI student, has been appointed with a new mission: she must try to communicate with a very dangerous assassin called Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), in order to get information about another serial killer (Ted Levine) who’s out on the loose and killing women.
One could say this is a plot of your common average suspense story, where there are scary and revelatory moments, but nothing more. What you never expect is the way the movie ends up being surprisingly intelligent, unbearably tense and brilliantly acted. In other words: a true work of art. All the pieces fit perfectly in this movie. The dialogue is so good that you may find yourself clapping every time someone says something. The interaction between Clarice and Hannibal is so intense and so carefully played that it makes up for the best moments of the movie.
This is a girl with a past. This is a girl who has suffered. This is a girl with a reason to be standing there at that specific moment. He is one of the most frightfully intelligent people on Earth. He is extremely dangerous and yet completely irresistible. He plays games, he knows what he is doing. And he is not stopping. Destiny has brought this two souls together for external reasons. At the core of their relationship, they find themselves attracted as fascinating individuals. At the top, they’re the assassin and the cop who must make sure he talks. One way or another, things start to get messy, and believe me, it is truly scary.
Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins both won Oscars for their roles, and there’s a reason for it. They’re both excellent. Foster manages to be a highly credible heroine while inhabiting a very complex role. But it is Hopkins who will always be remembered because of his chilling portrayal of a man with such a dark side. Just a look at his eyes and you might feel intimidated. Hopkins becomes Hannibal, and there’s no one like him that could deliver all those sarcastic and over-the-top lines in such an elegant and understated way. There are a lot of supporting players like Ted Devine or Scott Glenn, who all get a piece of the pie and bring their necessary presence to the story.
Jonathan Demme has truly created here something unique, and his inspired direction is one of the reasons it works so well. This movie has a lot of gross and violence, but there’s nothing like seeing it play like this. This is storytelling mixed with suspense at its best. I’d say it is one hell of a movie.
“I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti”
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Article
Berlin Film Festival 2001 - A Diary - Part 1
- Posted by
- a.k.a. Coffee
- Article date
- Wednesday, February 14, 2001
Click here to see Coffee and Jacinda's Berlin Photoalbum!
Day 1 - Friday
16.19
Jacinda and myself arrived at approximately 13.30 at Berlin Zoological Gardens Train Station (one of three large train stations in the capital of Germany). As we file out of the train we get an impression of the dimension of life in such a big city as Berlin - everything is crawling with people, needless to say most of them are tourists just like us. We catch a bus to Adenauer Platz where we have to get the key for the apartment where we‘re going to stay from a nice old lady. The lady is not home when we arrive so we have to wait in the lobby of a large office building for her to come home. It’s cold and rainy and we’re pretty miserable. When the lady finally comes home from shopping she gives us the key and we’re off to the warm solitude of the apartment where we’re going to stay during the next four days. We have to walk for quite a while -with luggage and all- until we finally find the apartment. We settle down for a little while and then decide to call the woman we know at Sony (a friend’s friend) and ask her if she managed to get us some tickets for
Traffic (2000) which is showing twice this evening. When I finally find a phone booth it’s bad news. We were already assuming that she hadn’t managed to buy the tickets for us since she didn’t call Jacinda back the day before but what she has to say when I reach her is worse.
She had tickets for us.
But she sold them.
Yup. She didn’t have the time to call us at work on Thursday and when she couldn’t reach us at the office where both Jacinda and myself work twice a week on Friday afternoon she sold the cards. Of course we’re both pretty mad about this since practically we managed to get cards for a great movie against all odds and now we’re here in Berlin and we can’t see it. This is the situation where I finally SWEAR that I will buy myself a cellphone (very common and not too expensive here in Germany). Actually Jacinda and myself have been the last people on earth without a mobile phone up to now - but that’s going to change. If we’d had one Mrs. Sony could have reached us at any time even while we were on the train.
After this serious setback I’ve tried to convince Jacinda that we should try to buy some tickets for
Traffic (2000) at the box-office which opens half an hour before the show starts. However she’s just too tired to do anything at all so I decide to give both of us a break. After all we’ve made it haven’t we? We’re here in Berlin and before us lies a weekend of movies, fun and excitement (maybe we’ll see Anthony Hopkins!)... for now we’ll have to be content with the traffic that’s on the street (traffic jams mostly) and look ahead to the other movies showing at the "Berlinale"...
--
Day 3 - Sunday
0.25
Darn. I missed day number two didn’t I? Well, Jacinda and I were so busy that just now I found the time to sit down with my laptop and write this. Although practically this is day three of our Berlin Film Festival trip I’ll stick to days one and two for now (since day three is still a nights peaceful sleep away).So.. where was I?
Right - let’s go way back to the beginning. Although Friday evening seems light-years away to me it has been just about thirty hours since Jacinda and myself decided to leave our cozy flat and explore the freezing cold metropolitan jungle of Berlin.
Actually I’d already reckoned that Jacinda wouldn’t give the box-office a shot for
Traffic (2000) and after she’d taken a nap for about two hours we were both a little unsure about what next steps we should take. We took the subway to Potsdamer Platz where (among other things) the Berlinale Palace is located. When we left the subway station we faced three gigantic buildings consisting completely of glass and steel and as we passed through the narrow pathway between these huge structures we felt like we’d arrived in Babylon. We only took a short glimpse at the Berlinale Palace itself and at the Sony Center containing the awesome Imax Theatre which has the shape of a gigantic globe. Instead we headed straight to the Arkaden, a shopping mall located about five foot minutes away from the Berlinale Palace. When we got there we already saw the long queue of maybe twenty or twenty-five people that were waiting to buy tickets for one of the festival’s shows. Jacinda found a plan pinned to the wall of the ticket counter and when she’d taken a look at it our dismay and frustration reached it’s peak.
Sold out.
Everything.
As I said we had already buried our hopes that we would get to see
Traffic (2000) but practically all of the other pictures that we wanted to see were sold out as well!
The list was long and every red cross of text-marker on a title in the festival guide felt like we’d lost a close personal friend (well - not quite but it was frustrating I tell ya!).
Quills (2000),
Chocolat (2000),
Hannibal (2001),
Malèna. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
Gone. All gone.
The only movie that we did get tickets for was
The Tailor of Panama by John Boorman and to be quite honest with you that was not exactly our first choice.
We sat down on a bench near the ticket counter and discussed our options. Actually I tried to discuss our options while Jacinda insisted that we didn’t have any. It wasn’t like I wasn’t pretty much down myself but I simply didn’t want to budge now that we had pushed so hard. It didn’t seem fair to me that we should get the chance to be here at this great and thrilling event, this fiesta for all movie enthusiasts and not get to see a single film that we’d come here for. Still I didn’t have the slightest idea what to do.
Then we got lucky. What happened actually did not have any influence on our situation per sé but it raised our spirits. As Jacinda was staring through the crowds passing by she saw two friends from university strolling by. It was a strange coincidence since Berlin is pretty far away from where we live and when about 400.000 people come to a film festival you don’t usually meet folks that you happen to know there.
But we did meet them and their enthusiasm motivated us. They had arrived on the same day and already they had seen four movies (although mainly short films I think). They attacked the ticket machine which was the only means to still buy any tickets after the ticket office had closed and bought about half a dozen tickets. They were seeing everything from Argentinean documentaries to Slovak drama and they were just warming up. Of course it was no problem for them to get any tickets because none of the films they wanted to see was umm... too popular. However they were infected by some kind of cinematic virus and although their taste was completely different from ours Jacinda and myself suddenly didn’t feel like giving up anymore.
We wished the two good luck (they were in a hurry because they had another two movies on their schedule and were running late) and we split up. We explored the upper section of the Arkaden a little and Jacinda saw a ticket office for theatre and classical music. When she asked if we should try our luck there I thought that we didn’t stand a chance since everything had been sold out at the festival ticket office.
We tried anyway.
And yet again, we were lucky.
We told the old lady at the counter that we wanted tickets for
Quills (2000) or
Hannibal (2001) (those being our premium choice) on any day. She shifted through a list on her computer screen and suddenly said "There are ticket for
Quills on Sunday at 15.00. Do you want those?" I remember that I really gasped and then I said "Y-y-es... yes, we definitely want those!". We snatched out tickets and continued for a while to wonder how we’d managed to get tickets for a show that according to the festival ticket counter was sold out. After a while however we decided that it wasn’t really of any importance how we got into the movie - all that mattered was that we did get into it.
Now that we had
Quills (2000) we were starving for more and so we agreed to go the whole way, to go for
Traffic (2000). Before we set out for the Royal Palast Theater on the Kurfürstendamm we stopped at a steakhouse across the street from the Arkaden and while stuffing ourselves with the meat of happy cattle from South America (no mad cow disease there I hope) we discussed our next steps. It was actually quite simple. We would go to the theater, make ourselves comfortable in front of the ticket office and wait there until it opened to sell the last available tickets for the show. Of course there wouldn’t be much to sell with an award magnet like
Traffic (2000). Only a few tickets from the press people that didn’t show up and open ticket slots for people with a full festival ticket. If someone buys such a ticket for the entire duration of the festival he or she can - theoretically - go and see every single movie that shows. Thus the folks that organize the Berlinale have to wait until about 15 minutes before a show starts. If at this point someone who has a ticket for the entire festival doesn’t show up they can sell those thickets to the huddled masses howling and crying in front of the box-office. If you’ve ever been to a film festival anywhere on the globe you know the triumphant look on the faces of all the guys and girls marching into the theater with cards in their hands while you and about a hundred other people are scrambling for the leftovers. You can lose all your self-esteem in such a moment.
Anyway I’m trailing off. We ate and then we took the sub to Kudamm (as the locals call it). The Royal Palast didn’t look too impressive from the outside. Nestled between shops and restaurants of Berlin’s most popular shopping mile it pretty much looked like any other theater I know. We stepped inside quickly and checked out watches while measuring the queue. It was about 22.30.
We had one hour until the last show of
Traffic (2000) would start - with or without us.
There were exactly seven people in front of us and after only about ten minutes there were at least a dozen standing in line behind us. The other folks waiting seemed to know as much (or rather:
as little as we did). There was a sign in the window of the box-office saying something like "
Traffic 23.30 sold out, extra tickets available at 23.15". Of course nobody knew just how many tickets there would be so we just waited and prayed. We didn’t really have a chance to get bored because after a while we saw how fantastic our timing had been. At 23.00 there were about 40 people waiting along with us and when the box-office finally opened at about 23.15 there must have been around 70 people pushing into the pretty small foyer of the theater or waiting outside in the cold. The queue had taken on the shape of an appendix. Actually the German term for queue - "Schlange" which means snake suited the whole situation even better.
I guess it was the fatigue but we missed one chance we had then.
Some guys suddenly appeared out of nowhere and before anyone really grasped what was going on he yelled "Anyone want a free ticket?". Like I said we were probably just too tired but after about ten more minutes of waiting on and standing on our tiptoes we finally had our tickets.
Lucky.
And well planned too.
We got to see
Traffic (2000) and we even got great seats for the show. Of course the theater was packed and when the lights went out a few people that had entered the theater room too late had to remain standing at the sides because they couldn’t find a seat in the dark. Of course now it would be time to tell you about
Traffic (2000) - after all that we (and you since you’re reading this) have gone through to see it. But that’s the stuff that reviews are made of and since Jacinda and myself have reviewed every one of the four movies total we got to see in Berlin there’s really no reason why you should read on here.
That’s right. Go and read the
Traffic (2000) review. Come back then and tell me what you think of it.
Alright. When the lights came on again after the show Jacinda and I were both ready to call it a day (and night). It was about 2.00 and we were both tired as hell after a day of chaos, despair and great, great cinema.
We got lucky and caught a bus right after leaving the Royal Palast. At 3.00 we finally lay in our makeshift bed (a mattress on the floor next to the couch that we didn’t manage to convert into a double bed) we mumbled each other to sleep with remarks on Benicio Del Toro’s great performance and the huge impact of the film on the drugs-and-society-issue.
Saturday
We got up late feeling a little dizzy after we had raced around Berlin the last night with nothing in our heads but tickets and missed opportunities to get them. Now that we’d seen
Traffic (2000) and had
Quills (2000) (Sunday) and
The Tailor of Panama (Monday) secured there was really no reason to be modest anymore. First though we had to get something to eat so we found a nice cafe close to our flat and sat down for some coffee, boiled eggs, bread, cheese and so forth. While I was staring into my coffee trying to convince my body that it was not okay to go right back to sleep again Jacinda was already planning again. She liked
Maléna which was showing tonight at 21.00 and while I was more attracted to seeing one of those independent movies that our two movie-trotting pals (see above) had recommended I didn’t mind giving the Italian flick a chance.
The rest of the day melted away quickly. After finished our extensive brunch at about 13.00 we headed for Kudamm to shop a little. The winter sales had just reached their climax and most of the shops had signs in their windows stressing the fact that prices were reduced up to 70%. Sadly we didn’t find any of the shops open at first because they had closed early due to a power failure. Just in case you have never been to Berlin - it’s not a city where power failures happen a lot (imagine something like that happening in Paris or New York. Ouch.).
Then we left the shops and strolled along a little. The Kudamm wasn’t good for anything else besides shopping as far as we could see and when the shops closed we didn’t stick around.
After finally finding some open shops and buying some nice things we decided that it was time for our cultural benefit.
.. part two soon to come.
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Review
Malèna
- Director
- Giuseppe Tornatore
- Year
- 2000
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- a.k.a. Jacinda
- Review date
- Tuesday, February 13, 2001
This movie couldn’t have been more of a surprise, a positive surprise that is. The story of
Malèna didn’t attract me in the first place but when I heard it was part of the movies in competition at the
Berlinale I figured it had to be pretty good, but I never imagined it to be that special.
Set in World War II in a small village in Sicily the adolescent boy Renato (Giuseppe Sulfaro) falls for the beautiful Malèna (Monica Belluci) causing his sexual awakening as well as confusion of feelings. Every day, Malèna walks through the main street of the village well aware of her beauty but also reserved. While the men merely see her as a sex object their wives envy Malèna’s beauty and soon start gossiping about her being a bitch. When Malèna becomes a widow the time has come for people to take advantage of her miserable situation. Renato gets obsessed with Malèna and finds himself truly in love with her. Through his eyes the viewer gets to see her dignity as a human being.
Although
Malèna feels very light-hearted at first the bitter ending gives it true depth. The movie provides you with a lot of laughs and comic relief mainly caused by Renato’s father and the scenes connected to the boy‘s “sexual desires.” But there are also quiet moments that show Malèna’s despair and humiliation. The acting of the two main characters couldn’t be better. Monica Belluci is mysterious and her transformation to a broken woman is brilliantly portrayed. The daring role of the protagonist Renato is perfectly played by Giuseppe Sulfaro who shows us how painful the process of growing up can be. Although the relationship between Renato and Malèna seems to be one-sided, it evolves to a very special and close connection in the end.
Tornatore gave us a moving picture that combines the beauties and cruelties of the world.
Italian cinema has much to offer and
Malèna is definitely something to remember!
I’m sure you will fall in love with Malèna, too!
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News
Oscar Nominations Comments
- Posted by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- News date
- Tuesday, February 13, 2001
Hey there! What an exciting day! Finally, the end of all speculation and of months of buzz and gossip has come. We now have the complete list of nominees. It’s kind of sad, but at the same time it’s more exciting, since the real battle starts today and culminates on the ceremony on March 25th. There were shocks, there were surprises, there were the usual suspects, and I’m here to give you my opinion about it all.
Overall this is the year in recent times where I’ve been the most pleased about the nominations. I really think it does reflect what was the best of the year, and there’s a good mix of superproductions and independent fare to please everyone. A wide variety that is.
And about my predictions, well, I got 26 out of 30 correct, which means I did pretty well. I’m glad I didn’t make a fool of myself!
So let’s go and check some of the categories to analyze what happened:
Best Picture
I don't like to admit it because every single movie with Johnny Depp deserves my complete respect, but I hated to see
Chocolat (2000) get a nod here. Not that I hate the movie as it is, but I get the feeling that its nomination came more from the fact that Miramax marketed it to the extreme than because it actually deserved to be included.
Almost Famous (2000),
Billy Elliot (2000) or
Cast Away (2000) were much worthy movies.
Chocolat (2000) is this year’s
The Green Mile. But as for the rest of the list, I couldn’t be more pleased!!! These movies really represent the best of the year.
Gladiator (2000) getting the most nominations wasn’t a surprise, but is indeed gratifying.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon marking a record for most nominations for a foreign-language picture is also something to note. A great selection of movies this is.
Best Director
So Soderbergh did it. He got two nominations, something that hadn’t happened in more than 60 years, when Michael Curtiz also achieved this rarity. Some say it could hurt his chances of winning, but I’m pretty confident that he will get the Oscar for
Traffic (2000). Stephen Daldry is a surprise here, since his movie didn’t make it into the main category. Sorry for Hallström.
Best Actor
Probably the most controversial category this year, since Michael Douglas and Jamie Bell were both left out. That’s a shame, but the equally deserving Ed Harris and Javier Bardem are justly being recognized. Let’s see how this race shapes up. Loved to see Hanks and Crowe nab nominations.
Best Actress
Practically stayed as everyone thought it would. The one to beat is Julia, but I loved seeing Ellen Burstyn, Laura Linney and Joan Allen getting a nod. They are all absolutely great actresses.
Best Supporting Actor
Jeff Bridges pulled it off, and I’m glad. The rest of the list are the usual suspects, all truly deserving actors.
Best Supporting Actress
I loved seeing Kate Hudson getting a nomination being so young, but she brings true magic to the screen. Marcia Gay Harden is considered the dark horse, but I kinnda saw it coming. I’m sorry Kate Winslet didn’t do it, but she’ll certainly have a lot more chances in her career.
Best Original Screenplay
Can’t believe
Gladiator (2000) is here, but I’m really happy about it. This are all very good movies, in part because of their wonderful scripts.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Wow, this is a very strong category. Everyone could win, but I guess Stephen Gaghan has the biggest chance.
Best Cinematography
Gladiator (2000) and
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in a head to head battle. The incursion of
Malena here is really interesting. Guess I’ll have to give it a look!
Best Sound Editing
Weird! There’s only two nominees here. Why is that, I don’t know...
Best Song
I was soooooo happy to see the song from
Meet the Parents (2000) mentioned. It is truly wonderful and had been overlooked till now. I’m sticking with Bob Dylan thou. And although I really like Sting, I don’t think his song here is that good. Björk has undoubtfully created something special here, and I just had no clue that
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon even had a song. I’ve got to hear it soon!
Best Music
The usual suspects once again: John Williams, Rachel Portman, Hanz Zimmer adn Ennio Morricone. All wonderful wonderful composers in the top of their forms. Tan Dun is the only newcomer to Oscar. I recommend you listen carefully to all this scores. I personally recommend every single one of them. They’re really something!
Best Foreign Film
This battle is already won, but it’s important to note that there are other great foreign movies to notice as well. The strongest competition comes from Mexico’s
Love's a Bitch (2000), which I’ve heard is an excellent motion picture. Guess we’ll have to watch them all.
Anyway, it’s interesting to note that this year there ain’t any black actors nominated, although the other actual hot trend is really present: latinos. Benicio del Toro, Javier Bardem and a Mexican movie are all competing the same year. What could that mean?
So I just got to say that you should keep in touch here at CS because we’ll keep you informed with the latest news on what happens in Hollywood, damn Hollywood!
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Academy Awards Nominations 2000
- Posted by
- Gon Curiel a.k.a. Groucho
- News date
- Tuesday, February 13, 2001
Early in the morning, as I was dreaming a very nice dream, my alarm rang and I woke up to see the Oscar nominations of this year. What a moment of the year, huh??? One expected by many people. I was so excited!!! Too early in the morning but who cares!! The earlier the better. As usual, my dear ol' bud Morris is busy as hell preparing his comments on the nominations. I talked to him about a half hour ago and believe me, he's got a lot to say. Meanwhile, here are the nominations. Enjoy:
Best Picture
Chocolat
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Erin Brockovich
Gladiator
Traffic
Best Director
Stephen Daldry -
Billy Elliot
Ang Lee -
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Steven Soderbergh -
Erin Brockovich
Ridley Scott -
Gladiator
Steven Soderbergh -
Traffic
Best Actor
Javier Bardem -
Before Night Falls
Russell Crowe -
Gladiator
Tom Hanks -
Cast Away
Ed Harris -
Pollock
Geoffrey Rush -
Quills
Best Actress
Joan Allen -
Contender, The
Juliette Binoche -
Chocolat
Ellen Burstyn -
Requiem for a Dream
Laura Linney -
You Can Count on Me
Julia Roberts -
Erin Brockovich
Best Supporting Actor
Jeff Bridges -
Contender, The
Willem Dafoe -
Shadow of the Vampire
Benicio Del Toro -
Traffic
Albert Finney -
Erin Brockovich
Joaquin Phoenix -
Gladiator
Best Supporting Actress
Judi Dench -
Chocolat
Marcia Gay Harden -
Pollock
Kate Hudson -
Almost Famous
Frances McDormand -
Almost Famous
Julie Walters -
Billy Elliot
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Almost Famous - Cameron Crowe
Billy Elliot - Lee Hall
Erin Brockovich - Susannah Grant
Gladiator - David H. Franzoni and John Logan and William Nicholson
You Can Count on Me - Ken Lonnergan
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Chocolat - Robert Nelson Jacobs
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Hui-Ling Wang and James Schamus and Kuo Jung Tsai
O Brother Where Art Thou? - Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Traffic - Stephen Gaghan
Wonder Boys - Steven Kloves
Best Cinematography
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Peter Pau
Gladiator - John Mathieson
Malèna - Lajos Koltai
O Brother Where Art Thou? - Roger Deakins
The Patriot - Caleb Deschanel
Best Art Direction - Set Decoration
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Tim Yip
How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Michael Corenblith, Merideth Boswell
Gladiator - Arthur Max, Crispian Sallis
Quills - Martin Childs, Jill Quertier
Vatel - Jean Rabasse, Françoise Benoît-Fresco
Best Costume Design
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Tim Yip
How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Rita Ryack
Gladiator - Janty Yates
102 Dalmatians - Anthony Powell
Quills - Jacqueline West
Best Sound
Cast Away - Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis Sands, William B. Kaplan
Gladiator - Scott Millan, Bob Beemer, Ken Weston
The Patriot - Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Lee Orloff
The Perfect Storm - John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David Campbell, Keith A. Wester
U-571 - Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker, Rick Kline, Ivan Sharrock
Best Editing
Almost Famous - Joe Hutshing, Saar Klein
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Tim Squyres
Gladiator - Pietro Scalia
Traffic - Stephen Mirrione
Wonder Boys - Dede Allen
Best Sound Editing
Space Cowboys - Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman
U-571 - Jon Johnson
Best Effects - Visual Effects
Gladiator - John Nelson, Neil Corbould, Tim Burke, Rob Harvey
Hollow Man - Scott E. Anderson, Craig Hayes, Scott Stokdyk, Stan Parks
The Perfect Storm - Stefen Fangmeier, Habib Zargarpour, John Frazier, Walt Conti
Best Makeup
Cell, The - Michèle Burke, Edouard F. Henriques
How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Rick Baker, Gail Rowell-Ryan
Shadow of the Vampire - Ann Buchanan, Amber Sibley
Best Music - Song
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Music by Jorge Calandrelli and Tan Dun, Lyrics by James Schamus - "A Love Before Time"
Dancer in the dark - Music by Björk, Lyrics Lars von Trier and Sjón Sigurdsson - "I've Seen It All"
Emperor’s New Groove, The - Music by Sting and David Hartley, Lyrics by Sting - "My Funny Friend and Me"
Meet the Parents - Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman - "A Fool In Love"
Wonder Boys - Music and Lyrics by Bob Dylan - "Things Have Changed"
Best Music - Original Score
Chocolat - Rachel Portman
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Tan Dun
Gladiator - Hans Zimmer
Malèna - Ennio Morricone
The Patriot - John Williams
Best Short Film - Animated
Father and Daughter - Michael Dudok de Wit
The Periwig-Maker - Steffen Schäffler, Annette Schäffler
Rejected - Don Hertzfeldt
Best Short Film - Live Action
By Courier - Peter Riegert, Ericka Frederick
One Day Crossing - Joan Stein, Christina Lazaridi
Quiero Ser (I want to Be...) - Florian Gallenberger
Seraglio - Gail Lerner, Colin Campbell
Uma Historia de Futebol - Paulo Machline
Best Documentary - Short
Big Mama - Tracy Seretean
Curtain Call - Chuck Braverman, Steve Kalafer
Dolphins - Greg MacGillivray, Alec Lorimore
The Man on Lincoln's Nose - Daniel Raim
On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom - Eric Simonson, Leelai Demoz
Best Documentary - Feature
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport - Mark Jonathan Harris, Deborah Oppenheimer
Legacy - Tod S. Lending
Long Night's Journey Into Day - Frances Reid, Deborah Hoffmann
Scottsboro: An American Tragedy - Barak Goodman, Daniel Anker
Sound and Fury - Josh Aronson, Roger Weisberg
Best Foreign Language Film
Love’s a Bitch (Amores Perros) - Alejandro González Iñárritu (Mexico)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo hu zang long) - Ang Lee (Taiwan)
Musíme si pomáhat - Jan Hrebejk (Czech Republic)
Iedereen beroemd! - Dominique Deruddere (Belgium)
Goût des autres, Le - Agnès Jaoui (France)
There you go. Expect Morris' comments pretty soon, and the usual debate among CriticSociety's members later!
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Review
Hannibal
- Director
- Ridley Scott
- Year
- 2001
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- a.k.a. Coffee
- Review date
- Monday, February 12, 2001
Hello
Frank – I beg to differ. I have read your review of
Hannibal (2001) with great interest and I’ve come to the conclusion that we must have seen two entirely different films! Or could it be that you’ve been influenced by other (more positive) reviews? Who knows...... ;-)
It is not easy to write anything nice about this movie. In fact it’s not easy for me to write this review but I feel obliged to do so anyway for reasons that I’ll explain in the course of this little ramble. Personally it’s always been my firm belief that you shouldn’t write anything about a movie with the objective of just finding all the issues that bug you. Luckily I don’t have the power to “destroy” a movie with a review (after all I’m not Roger Ebert!) so my criticism of
Hannibal is free of any bias (at least I hope so!) and as you’ll see I have found reasons (though very few) why this picture is not a complete waste of time.
Okay here’s the plot (as usual I’m a spoiler so don’t read on if you want to be surprised):
Hannibal is based on the novel “Hannibal” by Thomas Harris. The novel is part three of Harris’ psycho-trilogy which began with “Red Dragon”. The shocking novel about the hunt for a psychotic serial killer was very successfully brought to the big screen (
Manhunter) in 1986 as was it’s sequel,
Silence of the Lambs, The (1991).
Hannibal is the gory successor to
Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) and as the title suggests it focuses on the story of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the only one of Harris’ creations that is present in all three novels (and movies).
The gourmet Doctor (Anthony Hopkins) has escaped as a result to the previous events and lives in Florence, Italy. He is however hunted both by the FBI and his only living victim, Mason Verger (Gary Oldman, hardly recognizable under thick layers of ghastly makeup) who wants revenge for the self-mutilation he has gone through as a result of Dr. Lecter’s influence. The monstrous Verger (whose portrayal is quite close to his description in the novel) uses the FBI as his personal tool to accomplish revenge and locate Hannibal by bribing the justice department official Paul Krendler (Ray Liotta). Corrupt Krendler makes life miserable for FBI agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore) who is determined to find Lecter and bring him to justice while Verger wants to make Hannibal the Cannibal a meal for his pets...
Ridely Scott is in my opinion a director who has a great sense of visual storytelling. And this is exactly the problem that makes
Hannibal a bad movie – and a farce.
When I first saw Dr. Lecter in
Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) he gave me the shivers. A small man with dark eyes and a piercing voice. A creature that fascinated the viewer through its mixture of sophistication and monstrosity, a specter that had taken on human form but that was entirely inhumane inside.
Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) was dark, scary and shocking because most of the violence did not take place on the screen but in the heads of the audience. In
Hannibal the character of Dr. Lecter is turned inside out and what we get to see is not shocking but mediocre and in some cases ridiculous. This Hannibal Lecter says things like “Okie-Dokie” and explains his actions by saying that he only kills people which he deems impolite.
This Hannibal Lecter has taken the small step from horror to hero and in the end you can’t help but assume that he is the good guy in this movie.
Why does Ridley Scott fail where Michael Mann and John Demme succeeded?
As I said before, Mr. Scott is very skilled at creating a framework of images, he is a master of seen, heard and felt horror but he is not capable of giving us this subtle psychological scare that fuelled
Manhunter (1986) and
Silence of the Lambs, The (1991). Although both Hopkins and Moore try hard they cannot breathe and feel their characters and while they (and along with them the audience) wander through 131 minutes of lose imagery with no real connection the horror that we anticipated dissolves into sheer boredom.
Sure, there are scenes that are interesting.
Gary Oldman does well as Mason Verger and Giancarlo Giannini convinces in the role of the Italian detective Pazzi, but neither this nor the occasional suspense can make up for the collapse of the plot, the total lack of direction in
Hannibal.
So it’s Ridley Scott’s fault you might think? Only in part.
I read the novel when it first came out and although it wasn’t a bad read some of the problems we witness now on the big screen are already recognizable in the book. The horror of “Hannibal” lay in what we didn’t see – it was the sheer terrible weight of our own imagination that brought us nightmares. Now Harris comes up with a biography for things thought unthinkable and on the final pages of the novel he decides to simply drown all of our second-thoughts with gallons of blood and gore. Thus the novel makes it impossible for cast and director to evade failure without having rebuild the plot from scratch.
Although the ending has been changed in the movie it doesn’t really make a difference. In the original version Clarice Starling mutates into the bride of Frankestein - Clarice the Cannibal so to speak – while in the film Dr. Lecter parts from his right hand (literally) and spares Starling out of romantic affection.
Both versions cause a serious headache and leave us with the impression that cannibalism is cool and evil psychopaths are the heroes of the new millenium. I don’t see a moral problem there – as long as we’re talking about a comedy and not about a supposed psychological shocker.
Mr. Scott has murdered and gutted my Hannibal. Not everyone will have to share this experience with me. If you haven’t seen
Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) and you prefer brains
in a picture to brains
behind a picture you might actually like this absurd gorefest. Then again, perhaps you wont.
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News
Razzie Nominations
- Posted by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- News date
- Monday, February 12, 2001
Just one day before the Academy Award nominations are announced, the candidates for the much feared Golden Rasperry Awards are here! This awards go for the worst of the year the was, and as expected,
Battlefield Earth took the most nominations, with 8. The rest of the nominees are the ususal suspects with a few new names. Check it out:
WORST PICTURE
Battlefield Earth (2000)
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)
THE FLINTSTONES IN VIVA ROCK VEGAS
Little Nicky (2000)
THE NEXT BEST THING
WORST ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio (
THE BEACH)
Adam Sandler (
Little Nicky (2000))
Sylvester Stallone (
Get Carter (2000))
Ah-nold Schwarzenegger (
THE 6th DAY)
John Travolta (
Battlefield Earth (2000) and
Lucky Numbers (2000))
WORST ACTRESS
Kim Basinger (
BLESS THE CHILD and
I DREAMED OF AFRICA)
Melanie Griffith (
CECIL B. DEMENTED)
Madonna (
THE NEXT BEST THING)
Bette Midler (
ISN'T SHE GREAT)
Demi Moore (
PASSION OF MIND)
WORST SCREEN COUPLE
Any 2 Actors (
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000))
Richard Gere & Winona Ryder (
AUTUMN IN NEW YORK)
Madonna & either Rupert Everett or Benjamin Bratt (
THE NEXT BEST THING)
Ah-nold (As the real Adam Gibson) & Ah-nold (As the clone of Adam Gibson) (
THE 6th DAY)
John Travolta and Anyone Sharing the Screen with Him (
Battlefield Earth (2000))
WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette (
Little Nicky (2000))
Joan Collins (
FLINTSTONES IN VIVA ROCK VEGAS)
Thandie Newton (
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000))
Kelly Preston (
Battlefield Earth (2000))
Rene Russo (
THE ADVENTURES OF ROCKY & BULLWINKLE)
WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Stephen Baldwin (
THE FLINTSTONES IN VIVA ROCK VEGAS)
Barry Pepper (
Battlefield Earth (2000))
Keanu Reeves (
THE WATCHER)
Ah-nold Schwarzenegger (As the clone of Adam Gibson) (
THE 6th DAY)
Forest Whitaker (
Battlefield Earth (2000))
WORST REMAKE OR SEQUEL
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
THE FLINTSTONES IN VIVA ROCK VEGAS
Get Carter (2000)
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
WORST DIRECTOR
Joe Berlinger (
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000))
Steven Brill (
Little Nicky (2000))
Roger Christian (
Battlefield Earth (2000))
Brian DePalma (
MISSION TO MARS)
John Schlesinger (
THE NEXT BEST THING)
WORST SCREENPLAY
Battlefield Earth (2000)
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Little Nicky (2000)
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Box Office Results
- Posted by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- News date
- Monday, February 12, 2001
It was a memorable weekend in more ways than one, as
Hannibal (2001) easily chewed up the competition and broke a zillion of records on its way. With an exceptionally good 58 million,
Hannibal (2001) has now become the third highest grossing film on its first weekend in history. It also established records for the biggest opening of an R-rated picture and for a non-holiday weekend. The list goes on forever, but what matters is the way our favorite serial killer continued to charm audiences with such strenght. The other wide release this weekend was
Saving Silverman (2001), which ended in third place with an ok 7.4 million.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, by the way, became the highest grossing foreign picture in the US ever, surpassing Italy’s
La Vita e Bella. As for the rest of the list, there were only small declines as a whole. Expect things to get interesting as next weekend falls in a holiday and Oscar nominations are finally announced.
Here’s the complete list:
1.
Hannibal (2001) - $58m., $58m.t.
2.
Wedding Planer, The (2001) - $7.8m., $38m.t.
3.
Saving Silverman (2001) - $7.4m., $7.4m.t.
4.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - $5.1m., $60.3m.t.
5.
Cast Away (2000) - $5.0m., $209.8m.t.
6.
Save The Last Dance (2001) - $4.8m., $74.5m.t.
7.
Traffic (2000) - $4.4m., $70.9m.t.
8.
Valentine (2001) - $3.8m., $15.9m.t.
9.
Chocolat (2000) - $3.1m., $26.6m.t.
10.
O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) - $3.0m., $20.9m.t.
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Review
Wall Street
- Director
- Oliver Stone
- Year
- 1987
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- Gon Curiel a.k.a. Groucho
- Review date
- Sunday, February 11, 2001
“Greed is good.” That is the message that Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) and the whole story behind
Wall Street try to give to us. That is, of course, during the whole progress of the movie, which usually succumbs when dealing with morals and ethics. We are always, however, capable of distinguishing good from evil. Gekko may be a very attractive villain, because so are his millions of dollars, but the people’s rights are above all that. Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), a small-time broker, knows that, but he’s absorbed by a world of unlimited richness. How will he get out of this superfluous life that he likes so much?
An amazing denounce of insider work and criminal labor among the brokers of Wall Street during the first half of the 80s,
Wall Street works even better if seen as a fight of wills and morals between two characters: the young hotshot who would do anything to get to the top, and the charismatic millionaire who stops at nothing for more power.
Douglas is excellent as Gekko. He’s as much terrifying as he is inspiring. The script helps him a lot, granting him with the best lines. But of course, only a great actor could speak them so well. Sheen is good too as his apprentice, whose development during the story is so easy to swallow, you wouldn’t notice he’s already a shark if it wasn’t because he suddenly begins to change his mind. The casting of Martin Sheen as his father couldn’t be better. The real-life father and son do a great job here.
Terence Stamp is remarkable as Gekko’s main rival.
A great film, only flawed by predictability and plainness one moment or another. Great direction by Stone, who also co-scripted.
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Review
The Cider House Rules
- Director
- Lasse Hallström
- Year
- 1999
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- Review date
- Saturday, February 10, 2001
Before I start commenting on this movie, I just want to let you know that I am totally against abortion. There you go, I said it. I always knew this movie treated this subject in quite a balanced way, but I didn't know what to expect at the end. So actually, the result is disappointing. The fact that the story tends to favor it really pissed me off. Just a matter of opinions. So why is it that I liked the movie as a whole? Well, in cases like this, I don't really like to let my anger interfere with the entire experience. I see the characters as human beings with their own way of thinking and I just try to let go. If they are believable, then its ok. If the story is good, that's fine with me. And let me tell you something, this movie paid off.
It tells the emotional and touching story of Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire) an orphan who has always lived under the care of Dr.Larch (Michael Caine) in an orphanage where people go for different reasons: whether they want an abortion, they want to leave a child, or, more sporadically, they want to pick up one. So one day a couple arrives there (Paul Rudd and Charlize Theron) and Homer sees the opportunity to leave the place and go away to meet the world. This way he ends up working as an apple picker and befriends Mr. Rose (Delroy Lindo) and his daughter (Erikah Badu).
The story is quite simple. In fact, the entire movie is simplicity at its most. Lasse Halstrom directs it with a very subtle touch. Even when the movie is dealing with such heavy matters as abortion, incest or a tragic love triangle, it doesn't seem to make a scandal out of it. In fact, it just keeps flowing and telling a story. The way in which Homer grows up from the beginning of the movie to the end is a pleasure to watch. He starts being very innocent and naive. The world in which he used to live suddenly starts seeming like a magical place compared to what he has to face later. So it is by different circumstances that his eyes start to open and he realizes what life can be like.
Tobey Maguire, as Homer, is excellent. He manages to give his character a lot of credibility. We truly believe all of what he goes through and the change is palpable. Charlize Theron, Delroy Lindo and Erykah Badu are equally good. But it is Michael Caine that leaves the strongest impression. His Dr. Larch makes it clear that no human being can be perfect. He is a loving human being. He is tough, but he just wants the best for everyone. He is also interesting. He has a background, you see, that might not be as nice as you might expect. Caine gives his character the necessary strength, the much needed compassion. He is just outstanding.
All of this is remarkably performed with the help of a great script, a really really good score by Rachel Portman and a beautiful photography. The scene when Homer returns home is just priceless. Controversial? Yes.... Hard to swallow? Yes.... A remarkable movie? Definitely.
“Goodnight, you princes of Maine, you kings of New England”
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Review
The Tailor of Panama
- Director
- John Boorman
- Year
- 2001
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- a.k.a. Coffee
- Review date
- Friday, February 09, 2001
The Tailor of Panama was the fourth and final picture that
Jacinda and I saw at the
Berlin Film Festival. After some very extraordinary material such as
Traffic (2000) and
Quills (2000), we were both looking forward to some easy entertainment. And although there were loads of entertainment and some great (and twisted) humor the movie blends comical and tragic situations very skillfully.
But let me start at the beginning. The first character that’s introduced to the viewer is Andy Osnard, an agent of the British secret service MI-6. He is punished for having an affair with the mistress of an English politician by being sent to Panama - obviously not the first spot on earth for advanced espionage work. Osnard (played by Pierce Brosnan) has no choice however and he is determined to make his stay in Panama as profitable and as pleasurable as possible.
In Panama he meets the gentlemanly tailor Harry Pendel (
Geoffrey Rush) whom he quickly recognizes as an imposter. Osnard threatens to uncover the lies with which Pendel attempts to disguise his criminal past and offers the tailor a deal - information for cash. At first Pendel hesitates but then he agrees to the pact as he is in dept and needs money badly. Now the dilemma of the fake tailor and the central source of amusement for the rest of the movie is revealed - since Pendel doesn't have any info regarding a political conspiracy that the cynical British agent could be interested in he simply makes one up. And no matter how far-fetched or outrageous his data is, Osnard's superiors are willing to believe it all.
I bet you're as skeptical as I was about the casting of Pierce Brosnan as the MI-6 agent. Hmm... Don't we know that from somewhere? But before you make the wrong assumptions - this Brosnan is not Bond. Actually he's more of a caricature of 007: corrupt, greedy, arrogant and very, very sexist.
And while the tailor spins his unlikely tale mostly to mend his finances Andy Osnard is so ambitious that he will sell his dimwitted boss a conspiracy leading to a global crisis that only exists in theory. Both Brosnan and Rush play their characters with a wink of the eye and Jamie Lee Curtis makes a funny appearance as Geoffrey Rush's somewhat dominant wife.
The Tailor of Panama is at first sight a black comedy about the incompetence and stupidity of international intelligence agencies. At a closer look it is also a film on lies and pretences in general and about how all of us sometimes prefer lies and illusions to the sad truth because the truth is often disappointing.
The hilarious plot and the brilliant actors make up for the fact that sometimes the dialogues are a little over the top and for the film's tendency to mix too much genuine tragedy with too little comedy.
All together I recommend
The Tailor of Panama to anyone who likes political parody with a good dose of anti-American sarcasm. What's cool in Bond is a joke here - check it out!
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The antihero is back
- Posted by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- News date
- Friday, February 09, 2001
That is exactly what this weekend is offering. As
Hannibal (2001) arrives to theaters, the box office is preparing itself for what may be the biggest February opening ever. The movie is not being treated very nicely by critics. Even without comparing it to its predecessor,
Hannibal (2001) seems to be a much more complicated movie. It is stylistically rich, but has a very intricate story that is putting off many reviewers. But what is the most talked about subject of it all is the high quoutient of violence and gore the movie contains. The final ten minutes of the movie are said to be unwatchable even for the people who liked this kind of stuff. It’s that shocking! But anyway, even if it isn’t getting great reviews, the movie is said to be very entertaining and with strong performances.
Hannibal (2001) is back people. I guess no one will want to miss it.
Far on the other side is a new movie called
Saving Silverman (2001). It is being thrown to pieces by critics in every way. Not funny, not original and dreadful as a whole. It stars Jason Biggs, Steve Zahn, Jack Black and Amanda Peet.
So anyway, see you on Monday!
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Review
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
- Director
- Ang Lee
- Year
- 2000
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- Gon Curiel a.k.a. Groucho
- Review date
- Thursday, February 08, 2001
It’s hard for me to even try to describe the feelings that I experimented while watching
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The deep emotions it provoked in me are beyond any explanation. However, I will make my best. If Ang Lee was capable of bringing to us a movie far beyond any expectation, I must be at least capable of describing my thoughts about it.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a unique movie. One of those very few movies that have no comparison to any other, because they are one-of-a-kind. It is a tale of Chinese legends and ancient customs and martial arts, told in a beautiful, absorbing way, mixing action with adventure, fantasy, visual effects and even comedy, in a continuous sense of humor that every character has.
The main story is about a young girl (Ziyi Zhang) who causes some trouble and captivates the attention of more than a couple of people surrounding her. Among them, we find two legendary warriors (Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh) who have a very personal fight to win before they can be happy. As we get to meet the three of them better, we’re completely absorbed by their stories, and their pasts. Especially Zhang’s character, who’s lived more experiences than we can imagine. The whole sequence of how she met her lover (Chen Chang) is a “movie inside the movie,” and makes you wonder if anything is missing to this astounding film. The storytelling is supreme, and so are the cinematography and set decoration.
The fight scenes, of course, are remarkable. They are special and inimitable. The camerawork, editing and choreography involved have no comparison to anything you can think of. They’ve got the intensity and power that other few movies brought to us before, which mixed with the pureness of ancient martial arts, gives us an unprecedented result.
I had a feeling that only one or two movies inspired in me before. Not only did I feel that I was watching something unique, but at moments I couldn’t believe my eyes. The images on the screen were more beautiful than anything I could’ve ever imagined. The whole concept created a cult inside of me. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to be a part of ancient China, I wanted to be trained in Wuhan.
I wanted to fly.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an unlimited film of universal proportions.
Its story talks about people in a culture and people beyond it. It analyzes the psychology of people in extreme situations of all kinds, and how their perspective changes in different situations, and how a whole life can be wasted with the wrong objectives while it is actually so easy to find an answer before it’s too late. It specifically details the conflict of a misunderstood teenager and all the sides of it. It doesn’t give quick answers, and for some things, it doesn’t offer any answers at all. That’s the enigmatic status it has. That’s what will set a link between you and the film forever.
A film to enjoy, a film to live in. One of my all-time favorites.
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News
Writers Guild Awards Nominations
- Posted by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- News date
- Wednesday, February 07, 2001
The Writers Guild of America Association might be under the radar right now because of the talks being held to avoid a possible strike, but they have other things in their schedule, including announcing its list of nominees for their highly prestigious award, which always shows what we might expect next Tuesday when Oscar nominations are unveiled.
So who made the list?
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Cameron Crowe,
Almost Famous (2000)
Christopher Guest & Eugene Levy,
Best In Show
Lee Hall,
Billy Elliot (2000)
Susannah Grant,
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Kenneth Lonergan,
You Can Count On Me
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Robert Nelson Jacobs,
Chocolat (2000)
Wang Hui-Ling, James Schamus and Tsai Kuo Jung,
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
D.V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink, John Cusack and Scott Rosenberg,
High Fidelity
Steven Gaghan,
Traffic (2000)
Steve Kloves,
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Review
Manhunter
- Director
- Michael Mann
- Year
- 1986
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- a.k.a. Vincent
- Review date
- Tuesday, February 06, 2001
The character of Hannibal Lecter has come a long way in 15 years and just three movies. He recently was the star in his own movie, appropriately titled
Hannibal (2001). He had a significant, but still supporting role in 1991’s
Silence of the Lambs, The. Few people know however that this was not the first movie for cinema’s favorite human flesh eater. He made his debut in 1986, in this film by Miami Vice’s creator Michael Mann.
Based on Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon,
Manhunter is perhaps the best of the three movies, but also the least known. It lacks the budget and star power of its two follow-ups, but uses its limitations to the utmost effect.
A serial killer named “The Tooth-Fairy” (for reasons which will become clear once you watch the film) is on the loose and the FBI can’t get anywhere in their investigation. In a last attempt they try to re-recruit retired agent Will Graham (William Petersen), once the best agent in the Bureau, but he decided to quit because his methods had some serious effects on his psyche.
What he always tried to do was enter the mind of the criminal he was after and think like him. This always worked well, but as said it was also fairly unhealthy for Graham. He had made up his mind to retire, but is then persuaded to take this case by his former colleague Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina).
The serial killer here is not Dr. Lecter, he is in jail because of Graham. Lecter, however, plays an important role in the movie because it were his actions that inspired the Tooth-Fairy. So Graham now has to consult his former enemy to try and bring an end to this killing-spree.
As I said it is a very engrossing movie. The premise of a cop entering a criminal’s mind looks far fetched and seems quite funny at first but along the way you totally come to accept this method. The movie is quite light on gore which is somewhat surprising. The subject matter could easily have caused the movie to turn into a exploitation movie (which is reportedly what happened to
Hannibal (2001), though I haven’t seen that movie when writing this review). The performance by Petersen is very impressive and makes you wonder why we haven’t seen more of him.
The role of Lecter is palyed here by English actor Brian Cox. He plays him less showy than Anthony Hopkins did, though he is no less scary. The script gives him nothing more than a cameo appearance but he always sticks in the mind.
The only well known actor in the cast in Joan Allen, though she wasn’t well known at the time. She plays the Tooth-Fairy’s last victim, a blind girl who falls in love with him. His attempt to murder forms the climax of the film and is set to the music of Iron Butterfly’s classic, epic 70’s song, In a Gadda-da-Vida. This climax has more than a little in common with the finale of
Silence of the Lambs, The (1991). I wouldn’t say that Jonathan Demme ripped off Michael Mann (Thomas Harris is the one who wrote the books after all), but the similarities are striking.
The style of the film has a lot in common with Michael Mann’s decade-defining TV-series, although the locations are a little less exotic. Mann is not a very prolific director, I think he only made six films in a career spanning twenty years, but when he makes a film he devotes a lot of care to them and this results in some fine films like
Heat (1995) and most recently the excellent
The Insider (1999)
I know there are a lot of people who won’t think that this one is better than
Silence of the Lambs, The (1991). I am not saying that
Silence is a bad film, in fact it is a very good one, but it could easily win the “Dances With Wolves”-Award for most over praised movie of the year.
So please try and find a copy of this film to watch, it really is worth your while. And if you do try and get a letter-boxed version, because my video-copy was a panned-and-scanned version and it looked terrible. Let’s hope for a DVD release very soon. It will make this great film even better.
PS:
The reason the film is called
Manhunter and not
Red Dragon is that the producer, Dino de Laurentiis, had made the movie
The Year of the Dragon the previous year. That had been such a terrible flop that as a superstition he wouldn’t allow the word “dragon” to be used in the title.
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News
Box Office Results
- Posted by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- News date
- Monday, February 05, 2001
There were surprising results at the box office this weekend. It seems that no new movie could take
Wedding Planer, The (2001) away from the throne. The Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy still managed to do about 11 million, leaving
Valentine (2001) in second place with 10.1 million.
Cast Away (2000) has already passed the 200 million mark, making it the third 2000 movie to do so.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) enters the top5 for the first time, as its screen count rose. It has already made 54.1 million, so by next week it is expected to become the highest foreign language film in the story of the United States, surpassing
La Vita e Bella.
Traffic (2000) just fell 3%, which is amazingly good. It is now considered a hit. Freddy Prinze Jr. didn’t do so well, as his new pic ended up in seventh place with 5 million. Are audiences getting tired of him? Finally,
Chocolat (2000) enters the top10 for the first time, with 3.7 million, which add up to its 21.8 million cume. Expect all movies to drop significantly next week, as Hannibal arrives at theaters.
1.
Wedding Planer, The (2001), $11 m., $28.1m.t.
2.
Valentine (2001), $10.1 m., $10.1 m.t.
3.
Cast Away (2000), $7.4 m., $202.9 m.t.
4.
Save The Last Dance (2001), $7.4 m., $68.7 m.t.
5.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) $7.3 m., $54.1 m.t.
6.
Traffic (2000), $6.2 m., $64.8 m.t.
7.
Head Over Heels (2001), $5.0 m., $5.0 m.t.
8.
Finding Forrester (2000), $4.4 m., $41.5 m.t.
9.
Snatch (2000), $4.1 m., $21.8 m.t.
10
Chocolat (2000), $3.7 m., $21.8 m.t.
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Review
Traffic
- Director
- Steven Soderbergh
- Year
- 2000
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- a.k.a. Jacinda
- Review date
- Saturday, February 03, 2001
Yes. Finally I had the chance to attend a screening of
Traffic at this year’s Berlin film festival and I was more than eager to do so. Being a fan of Soderbergh’s works
Traffic was the main reason for me to attend the festival but all 4 screenings were sold out by the time I arrived in Berlin. After having done every possible thing to get a ticket I managed to buy one after one hour of waiting at the box-office. I can’t tell how excited I was to get the chance to watch one of the best movies I've seen in ages.
It is almost impossible to explain how brilliantly
Traffic combines several different perspectives in one amazing plot. Soderbergh shows the world of drugs from all sides in episodes devoted to his main characters. The movie starts with sequences in Mexico where a police officer (Benicio Del Toro) shows how to survive in a corrupt system bought by drug dealers. In the US there’s judge Wakefield (Michael Douglas) who wants to make a change in the world when he is assigned to fight the war on drugs. He doesn’t know about his own daughter’s (Erike Christensen) drug addiction yet. Moreover two cops (Don Cheadle, Luis Guzmán) arrest a drug dealer (Miguel Ferrer) that is going to testify against one of Mexico’s druglords. Helena Ayala (Catherine Zeta-Jones), pregnant wife of a rich businessman, finds out about her husband pushing drugs when he gets arrested by the FBI. At some point or the other these people’s fates come together and in the end
Traffic is a brave kaleidoscope of the real world.
Soderbergh’s movie involves some visually stunning ideas. The warm yellow colors used in the scenes in Mexico in contrast to the cold blue of the governmental part in the US make a great difference. Soderbergh’s hand-held cameras and the fact that he chose to have Mexicans speak Spanish makes the movie feel authentic. At times it even feels close to a documentary.
Every single cast member of
Traffic is brilliant but Benicio Del Toro definitely gives the best performance. I was amazed to see that he won a dozen important awards but I wonder why he was named supporting actor as he has as much screen time as Douglas. Del Toro is terrific as a cop who knows how to please the right people at the right occasions. He seems to know exactly what to do to make the system work but in the end he has to face the fact that he can’t make a difference. Michael Douglas‘ character evolves from a judge driven by idealism to a broken man who tries to save his family but has to face his defeat. Catherine Zeta-Jones‘ character, at first innocent, turns into a ruthless businesswoman. There are also great cameos by
Salma Hayek, Benjamin Bratt and Albert Finney.
I could go on talking for hours about the perfect way of creating the characters, the perfect way of portraying them and the perfect way of combining all of them in one plot. Steven Gaghan deserves all recognition there is for the screenplay. But let’s not forget about the statement the movie gives. I have never seen a movie dealing with the drug issue that is as honest as
Traffic. Without compromises the movie tells how the system works. It doesn’t give excuses as it is so common in Hollywood.
Traffic is imaginative, engaging, thrilling, brilliant, true to the facts and a movie that can’t be compared to anything else on this subject matter. See it and love it!
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Review
Rain Man
- Director
- Barry Levinson
- Year
- 1988
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- Gon Curiel a.k.a. Groucho
- Review date
- Friday, February 02, 2001
There are some movies once in a while that vividly capture the essence of a relationship between any two members of a family: their resemblance, their differences and their love and hatred for each other.
For me, there is one movie that details the relationship of two brothers like no other ever did. That film is
Rain Man.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying other movies about brothers or sisters haven’t captured the essence of their relationships all right. I’m just saying
Rain Man is above all those because it is about the brothers getting to know each other and personally changing both of their personalities because of their relationship with one another.
Hotshot, selfish youngster Charlie Babbit (Tom Cruise) is told that his father has died, and goes to the funeral, expecting to get all the money from his father’s fortune. However, the bad relationship between father and son finally ended in tragedy, as Charlie is left nothing but a car and some rose bushes. Dedicated to find out who his father left all his money to, he discovers that he has an older brother who’s autistic, and who's been in an institution for years. Angry as hell, Charlie takes away Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), expecting to get some money in exchange. However, his determination gradually changes as he gets to know his fascinating brother better, and to understand what life is really about.
Dustin Hoffman is better than ever. Cruise is excellent too and a perfect match for Hoffman. They even look like brothers, it’s astounding.
The screenplay by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass is directed perfectly by Levinson and scored appropriately by Hans Zimmer. Both men disguised the story as a road trip movie with unlimited results. Every scene is outstanding and touching in its own way.
This movie is a must. Yeah, definitely a must. Definitely.
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Pre-Hannibal Weekend
- Posted by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- News date
- Friday, February 02, 2001
Hi there! A lot of buzz going on right now about
Hannibal, but we have to wait still another week to see it. Argh! In the meantime, we are being offered somewhat average movies to see this weekend, so let’s get right on to business...
Head Over Heels (2001). Starring Freddy Prinze Jr. and Monica Potter, the movie is kind of a romantic juvenile thriller which is being stabbed by critics all the way. It is said to have a very bad script and a total lack of entertainment. I get the feeling they’re right.
Valentine. Another movie to add to the teen/slasher flicks, this time starring David Boreanaz and Denisse Richards. It isn’t being screened for critics (always a bad sign), so you’ll have to judge for yourselves .It sounds fun thou: bad guy after two beautiful girls for revenge. Who knows?
Left Behind. A movie no one is taking about, funded by the Christian Church that will try to follow the moderate success of
The Omega Code. Terrible is the word most often used to describe it from critics, so you should know that it’s pretty bad and has no recognizable faces. Oomph!
Anyway, if you don’t feel for any of these movie, why not try to check out
Before Night Falls (2000), which is expanding wider and has one of the best performances of the year, given by Spanish actor Javier Bardem.
So until Monday.... have fun!
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Review
Meet the Parents
- Director
- Jay Roach
- Year
- 2000
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- Review date
- Thursday, February 01, 2001
Quite a few slate of very funny movies arrived this year, becoming box office successes which translated into wide audience appeal. For me, it was
Meet the Parents that worked the best. The movie has a simple premise, but one that actually hits a core because of its credibility and the way we sometimes fear to face such a tense situation as meeting our girlfriend’s parents.
This time its Greg’s (Ben Stiller) turn to come and visit the parents (Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner) of his beloved Pam (Teri Polo). As he tries, maybe a little too hard, to be nice, he ends up telling small lies that later translate into big problems, just as he faces various funny situations provoked by pure bad luck.
I have to say that the first 30 minutes of the movie I laughed so hard that I was afraid I would explode. Well, maybe I’m exaggerating, but you should really watch out for that first dinner scene where a simple prayer starts what is a memorable laugh feast. That whole sequence is a gem.
This movie is poignant in the way it deals with a one-joke premise and takes it as far as it could go. This is not a preachy movie (although there’s a bit of teaching at the end about honesty), but instead it is a movie that tries to entertain and make us laugh. Well, it succeeds, and I’m thankful for that.
A lot of the jokes come from the fact that Greg’s last name is Focker. I laughed every time, since it is always appropriately put, and the reactions are priceless. There are also great satiric moments like the ones in the airport at the end. And the final interrogation scene is quite something as well.
Ben Stiller once again proves himself a man of great talent for comic timing, while Robert De Niro couldn’t be better. In fact, I think he is much funnier here than he was in
Analyze This, which comes as a great surprise. You should see his faces, the way he says his dialogue. And I also liked the way he played his character. Instead of going with the over-the-top caricature impression, he plays Jack as a caring, loving father who just happens to be overprotective and very tough on his sons-in-law. Polo and Danner couldn’t be better as well.
With great music by Randy Newman, an intelligent script and a very well accomplished direction by Jay Roach, this movie delivers in a great way. It is funny, touching, and even funnier!
“I have nipples Greg. Would you milk me?”
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Morris wrote at 6/22/2002:
Groucho wrote at 6/22/2002:
Your review is as delicious as the film. Great!