Archive for the ‘ Film ’ Category

Upcoming movies

  • May 5th, 2010
  • Posted in Film

Here’s the newest dish on newish movies, now being previewed in select theatres on the mainland. Here are the dishiest. *The Killer Inside Me* (out June l8) Always controversial and edgy, helmer Michael Winterbottom has crafted an exceedingly frank, graphic and violent movie, condemned by (some) critics. vehemently. Given the director’s track record, it’s probably a [ READ MORE ]

Pure Gossip

  • April 30th, 2010
  • Posted in Film

Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, from K. Hart Hemmings’ novel, is shooting, it would seem, on O’ahu. Already complaints from apparently omniscient nay-sayers are surfacing along the lines of, to paraphrase, not faithful to the book, not fair to Hawai’i. Guess what? The novel was not fair to Hawai’i; Ms. Hemmings satirized part of the island strata, [ READ MORE ]

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 ]

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