Movies, Drama
This enchanting film dramatizes how the playwright James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937) created with his best known work, Peter Pan. In 1903 Barrie’s latest play is a total failure with audiences and critics alike. To distract himself from his creative problems, Barrie (John Depp) starts playing daily with the four fatherless boys and their widow mother (Kate Winslet) who he met in the park. One of the boys, Peter, is particularly distraught over his father’s death. Barrie encourages him to take up writing to let his imagination find beauty and happiness. The interactions with these four boys give wings to Barrie’s imagination and allow him to write Peter Pan. The script based on a marvelous play; the acting is superb. Particularly moving is the performance of Freddie Highmore who plays Peter. The film inspired me to put Peter Pan on my reading list.Finding Neverland
Movies, Drama
The Aviator received the most Academy Award nominations for the year 2004, with 11 total. This is very difficult to understand because the film is a painfully weak piece of work for Martin Scorcese (director) and John Logan (writer). Both Scorcese in Gangs of New York and Logan in The Last Sumarai have shown that they can do justice to historical material on the big screen. After seeing or reading a good biography we are supposed to understand a person better. LoganThe Aviator
Movies, Documentary
PBS broadcasted today for the first time a documentary on the painter Frida Kahlo If you have not seen the Hollywood motion picture Frida with Selma Hayek in the role of Frida, you will find the documentary very stimulating. But if you have seen Selma HayekThe Life and Times of Frida Kahlo
Movies, Comedy
The typical high school movie has a plot line that goes like this: Students collectively arrive at standards for deciding a status order for the group. Good looks, athleticism, and social skills typically form the standards by which each student is ranked. The high-status people form an in-group with a very strict social social boundary, keeping the majority of lower status students in the out-group. The cool people constantly pick on the nerds and remind the latter that they would like to join the in-group, but will never be allowed to do so. After considerable abuse, the nerds commiserate with one another and form a mutual support group. As the drama unfolds, the cool people turn out to be shallow and not very intelligent. The nerds, by contrast, reveal themselves to be deep, authentic, capable of true friendship, and above all intelligent. These qualities allow them to defeat the cool people at their own game (revenge of the nerds).Napoleon Dynamite
Movies, Comedy
If you are flying to the West Coast this month with United Airlines, you are presented with the Briget Jones sequel. Just like the first film, it is a light romantic comedy. Competent writers were hired to put together a script that delivers the same kind of effects as the first movie. It is not profound in any sense of the word. The film feels over-engineered, except with regard to Bridget’s boyfriend Mark. The writers left him without any trace of character. You forget Bridge Jones II the moment you step out of the plane. If you are looking for a playful light romantic comedy, bring your DVD player on board and watch RenBridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
Movies, Drama
Men on Fire is the most fantastic thriller in years. It pulls off what most films of this genre lack: Emotional depth in the midst of an action-driven plot. Denzel Washington plays John Creasy, a retired CIA operative/contract killer whose conscience has got the better of him and led him to the whiskey bottle. Visiting a former comrade in Mexico, the old friend (Christopher Wallken) ropes him into the job of protecting the young daughter of a Mexican industrialist Samuel Ramires (Marc Anthony) whose American jet-set wife Lisa fears for the life of their daughter after Mexico City is caught in a wave of child-kidnappings. Creasy only reluctantly agrees to serve as the body guard of the nine-year-old Pita (Dakota Fanning) because he is afraid that the body of an alcoholic would be too weak to protect the girl. But Creasy has no idea how difficult Pita will make it for him to continue on the path that he has chosen.Man on Fire
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