District 9, a film set for release this summer, looks very promising. Produced by Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame) this movie upends the classic space invader film and presents an alien race that is as fragile and capable of being victimized as we are. It also layers the film with ideas about [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘film’
January 3, 2009
new visions of India
I’ve come across two (relatively) new stories in recent months that have definitively redefined the way I view India. Like many westerners I used to have a vision of the country that was steeped in the romantic imagery brought to us by English colonialism. I was similar in a lot of ways to the characters [...]
December 12, 2008
Let the Right One In
I saw this movie a few nights ago and it was excellent. It’s a Swedish vampire movie about a loner adolescent boy that befriends a young vampire. It’s a vampire movie in the traditional sense, with the requisite blood-sucking, fangs, nightime feeding, etc. – but don’t take that at first read. It’s a more complex [...]
November 6, 2008
JCVD
This movie got a lot of hype from Cannes. And if Sly can do it, why not Jean-Claude Van Damme? I’m really excited to see him get a chance to transcend the public perception of him. He is not just rib jabs and roundhouses. He’s more than a killing machine. He’s a human. And he [...]
September 3, 2008
They Live
They Live is a horror/comedy film from 1988 directed by John Carpenter (Halloween, Halloween II, Big Trouble Little China, Escape from L.A.) about a homeless laborer who discovers the hidden truth about our world by donning a pair of special sunglasses. The laborer is a man named Nada, played by Roddy Piper – yes, “Rowdy” [...]
August 15, 2008
The Late Great Planet Earth
I just watched The Late Great Planet Earth. And wow, interesting! It was in the documentary section of my neighborhood video store. I picked it up as a fluke – a 1979 movie about end time bible prophecy as it related to, then, current events… and narrated by Orson Welles! They must have had it [...]
August 11, 2008
July in August
When I was in New Orleans last week, in the Bywater, I picked up the book, No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July. The title happened to match what I was feeling at that exact moment about the city and that neighborhood, in particular. I’ve subsequently “googled,” the book and found the [...]
July 20, 2008
super-human
I just watched the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. First, let me say that it was AMAZING. I won’t spoil anything here but I will say that it was probably the best comic book adaptation that I have ever seen. I’ve always appreciated the tear-down-your-heroes, human-realism style comic stories. (Those in the know call [...]
July 5, 2008
Blindness
Saw this today and got really excited. Its the trailer for Blindness, coming out this Fall. Well, not the actual trailer I saw. This one is shorter and less engaging but I still have lots of hope for the film. It has a fantastic cast and a great Brazilian director (Fernando Meirelles; City of God, [...]
