Archive for the ‘ Film ’ Category

Why Lost is such a real achievement in film

  • February 19th, 2010
  • Posted in Film

Your movie-blogger just spent a delightful several hours looking at the fifth season of “Lost”, now out on DVD. Now in its sixth and final season, the epic sci-fi adventure, with a now-stellar cast, terrific production values, actual character-arcs, clever plot turns, good acting, and first-rate on-location special effects (overseen by local boy Archie Ahuna, now [ READ MORE ]

Why Sandra Bullock will win the Oscar for best actress on March 7—an analysis

  • February 18th, 2010
  • Posted in Film

The Blind Side, a surprise hit at, as of this writing, has grossed more than $240 million, and earned an Oscar nom for its star, 45 year old Sandra Bullock, whose first-rate performance as a Christian mother whose family takes in an African-American football player, surprised some. Bullock’s acting chops for dramatic stuff was strongly [ READ MORE ]

Gambling ain’t sexy

  • January 18th, 2010
  • Posted in Film

“There is in Hollywood, as in all cultures in which gambling is the central activity, a lowered sexual-energy, an inability to devote more than token attention to the preoccupations of the society outside.” –Joan Didion [ READ MORE ]

Hurt Locker on DVD

  • January 18th, 2010
  • Posted in Film

Hurt Locker, our choice of Best Movie of 2009 (in a tie with Up In the Air), comes out on DVD the this week. Just watch this superior suspenser pile up the awards in the upcoming awards season. Jeremy Renner with Jimmy Kimmel (Parts 1 and 2) Hulu.com has the opening sequence [http://www.hulu.com/watch/81586/movie-trailers-the-hurt-locker---opening-sequence] posted (R-rated, for account [ READ MORE ]

Broken Embraces

  • January 15th, 2010
  • Posted in Film

Almodovar’s new film—Broken Embraces, starring Penelope Cruz—opened here last week, and it’s intriguing and (perhaps) complicated, in the film-within-a-film way that post-modernist Spanish directors seem to prefer. Almodovar is never wildly popular in Hawaii, but his smallish following is tenacious and loyal. They’ll be rewarded with another study of passion and compromised love at which this [ READ MORE ]

Boys to men

  • January 15th, 2010
  • Posted in Film

“Find out the movies a man saw between ten and fifteen, which ones he liked, disliked, and you would have a pretty good idea of what sort of mind and temperament he has.” –Gore Vidal Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal Feud on the Dick Cavett Show Gore Vidal about his life on and off the page (you’ll [ READ MORE ]

Coming to the Big Pineapple

  • January 6th, 2010
  • Posted in Film

Through my alleged Hollywood agent, who’s seen everything (member of the writers’ guild) the following upcoming movies, not yet in the Big Bromeliad (pineapple), are worth seeing. The Last Station – Helen Mirren and Chris Plummer in the last days of Tolstoy. Greenburg – new Indie by Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale), this one a [ READ MORE ]

Don’t miss…

  • January 5th, 2010
  • Posted in Film

Two wonderful stop-action movies this last year: Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox When it surfaces on DVD, give Moon a try. Sci-fi with the underrated Sam Rockwell. It actually is sci-fi, not a western set in outer space. Also see Jane Campion’s Bright Star. It sank without a trace at the box-office, but shouldn’t have. Also, we cautiously [ READ MORE ]

Pssst, Jason

  • January 4th, 2010
  • Posted in Film

News keeps surfacing that Jason Scott Lee wants to direct. Might we suggest a re-make of Man Facing Southeast (l986) (review with spoilers, trailer) starring Lee and maybe his buddy Daniel Dae Kim? Just a (humble-esque) suggestion. [ READ MORE ]

Ageism & the movies

  • January 4th, 2010
  • Posted in Film

The news that Clint Eastwood will direct part of his new supernatural-themed movie on Maui in January brings this question: why don’t many older directors, like Eastwood, get to direct films? Answer: It’s costly. Eastwood passed a rigorous physical exam, but, usually, older directors have to have a substitute director, paid, on set to take over [ READ MORE ]

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