Posted on Nov 10, 2011 under Drama |
“Music of the Heart”, based on the true story of tireless East Harlem violin teacher Roberta Guaspari, who teaches violin lessons and makes strange bedfellows of two-time Academy Award Winner Meryl Streep (“One True Thing”) and horrormeister Wes Craven (“Scream”). These two diverse talents masterfully bring to life the inspirational story that was first told in the Oscar-nominated documentary “Small Wonders” in 1995. And though the film covers familiar ground in the ‘teacher does good’ genre and offers few real surprises, Streep’s Oscar-worthy performance and Craven’s assured direction make this the feel-good movie of the year.
Any child can learn to play the violin.
The story opens in 1980, where Roberta Guaspari (Streep) finds herself heartbroken and alone with her two sons in tow after her husband runs off with her best friend. Needing a job, Roberta packs her kids into a beat-up Honda Civic and heads to East Harlem in the hopes of teaching the violin. Despite a lack of formal teaching experience on her resume, Roberta convinces Janet Williams (Angela Bassett of “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”), the brassy principal of an alternative public school, to hire her as a substitute teacher in the school’s music program. With no money in the school’s budget to buy instruments, Roberta offers to supply them from her own personal collection of fifty child-sized violins that she has collected over the years.
I think I know these students… they’re attention span doesn’t go past ‘do-re-mi’. Maybe on a good day I can get them to ‘fa’.
Roberta soon learns that she has her work cut out for her. Faced with trying to teach undisciplined students a difficult instrument, the indifference and disdain of the other teachers, resistance from parents who don’t approve of her aggressive methods, and trouble with her sons on the home front, she comes close to packing it in on numerous occasions. Fortunately, Roberta finds a number of allies that give her the strength to continue on, including an old friend from high school (Aidan Quinn of “Practical Magic”) and a fellow teacher (singer Gloria Estefan in her acting debut) who sees the good that Roberta is accomplishing.
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Posted on Nov 10, 2011 under Drama |
It’s a rare film work together to achieve competence with conflicting feelings undeniable, sad without ever addressing issues seem to take real advantage and, above all, show joy and sadness, beauty and poverty merged without losing sight of the essence that is worth a pained smile, a tear of the unwanted.
A film that sees the beauty in anything, sees hope in human decadence, shows characters with values hard, but learning to see them, to challenge the tradition in the name of happiness, to seek the essence of human beings and find people who can completing each other in the midst of a world constantly placed in conflict, are armed, ideas, or spirit, towards a greater good: the harmony of the same. With a unique simplicity, with the perfect touch of humor and a contagious vibe, Fiddler on the Roof is serious messages, blunt, without losing the beauty of its narrative and its lines. The conclusion comes early: a masterpiece.
The opening minutes are already clean. The presentation theme and humble Jewish community, with its traditions and customs, is brilliantly constructed. There are 10 minutes in the script that familiarizes us with the characters we know, shows the unique humor of a humble family man, exposes cultural characteristics of the people portrayed and historically contextualizes the viewer. Minutes indisputable. The first universal message is brought about by long values. Not only with Cubs rooftop, regard to the cultural tradition and the season, but the values of human beings, people who are in the midst of so much poverty can overflow happiness. And they are executed, since the start time of the film 180 minutes long, the beautiful and unforgettable songs “Matchmaker,” in which the three eldest daughters of Tevye (Topol) dream of the men in their lives, and “If I Were The Rich Man, “when the very head of the family wanders into thoughts of how his life would be if it were more fortunate.
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Not another teen movie, it is business pure and simple.
The business world is ruthless, is a premise that again be ratified in the history of the creation of Facebook, the social network in the world. The slogan adopted by the film sums in large part to what she faces the audience: “You do not get 500 million friends to win over some stories without enemies.” The film recreates in a solemn tone that anyone could have expected, all the intrigues that preceded the birth of this giant, which incidentally, left at the top of the list to a new multi-millionaire.
A shy and somewhat cocky boy, according to some journalists who have interviewed, only 26 years, is the creator of this network, which has a dark history that still there are many especualación, for the same operator did not want to say a word matter and has let his enemies, before members or fellow students, take out their anger by giving the press material for publication.
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Posted on Nov 05, 2010 under Drama |
One of the most important Latino directors of the decade, Sebastian Cordero, released in Colombia on Friday his latest film, Rabia, an adaptation made by himself from a successful novel of the Argentine Sergio Bizzio, a prolific writer, filmmaker and musician whose story entitled “Cynicism” was the basis of the annotated debut XXY, his wife, the filmmaker Lucia Puenzo.
Rabia is a psychological drama which tells of an impossible love, claustrophobic and ironically so close. Jose Maria is a Mexican immigrant seeking a better life in Spain, where he works as a laborer. For his part, Rose is a delicate and sweet Colombian working as domestic maids in a family home.
Similar experiences have had these two characters are united in a deep and sincere love despite being so different, Ceramic Tiles. Rosa has learned to accept with resignation that is in a country that does not belong, while Jose Maria repressed all that atmosphere of xenophobia that surrounds them and turn into a being full of resentment, jealousy and dangerously compulsive disorder.
Love and hate, come together when Jose Maria vent all that it contains with the foreman who works for killing him. The choice of this character is hiding in the attic of the big house where his girlfriend. The perfect hideaway for his crime solving with immediacy, but at the passing of the hours, days, months, you become a being immersed in the anonymity that hears, sees but is not entitled to “vote.” An immigrant more submerged in a developed country who might care little or nothing.
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Posted on Oct 22, 2010 under Drama |
“Rachel Getting Married” Movie Review
Kym (Anne Hathaway) expects his father, Paul (Bill Irwin), outside of rehab. Again the scene repeats itself, since it is not the first time that the girl goes through the same cycle of loss-treatment-back home. Only this time something special is happening in the family home: Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt), her older sister Kym is getting married. The participation of Kym seems crucial at this point at the same time it shows very conflictive, awakening old feelings of rejection and conflict among family members, including the girls’ mother, Abby (Debra Winger).
I admire Mr. Jonathan Demme. He is one of those guys who make movies in Hollywood that was popularized as the “authorial cinema.” Demme was responsible for two spectacular movies: The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. But after them, it seems that the director did not return to anything so close to perfection. And while Rachel Getting Married is an interesting movie, it shows, once again, “less” in the filmography of director. Demme uses a camera and a somewhat dizzying narrative that seeks realism in a fictional story clearly. I say this because it seems clear that this plot does not happen that way, though it is well constructed and interesting. But in essence it is artificial. Some gear does not fit in the process. The good thing in this story are the performances by Anne Hathaway – deservedly Oscar nominated for her role – and Rosemarie DeWitt.
The producers like to highlight the work of cinematographer Declan Quinn and his team, who were all the time with cameras in the hands capturing what happened to that family and their guests in the days before the Wedding Favors of Rachel. Through the dissemination of material that I learned that some cameras were placed actually in the hands of players like Joseph Gonzales, who was the military cousin of the groom, Jimmy Joe Roche, a cameraman hired to film the wedding (which eventually contributed with images, as others for the film) and two other “wedding guests” who were recording events without us noticing – no more, no less than the great Roger Corman, a mentor of Jonathan Demme, and Charlie Libin . Now that I found amazing….
A film that follows the line of “semi-documentary”, ie fictional productions which is based on the “cinema verité.” In this case, the director put his hand in some adjuncts are cameras that recorded scenes in the movie and then, like cloth-of-fund, invited musician friends to make a spontaneous and original soundtrack. The trial was interesting, although sometimes the improvisation ended up turning the dialogue into something a bit theatrical or hanging. Overall, it’s an interesting story about the difficulties that circulate an addict and his family in search for answers and solutions. Although it has a load of powerful drama, this film is nonetheless a part of hope with a few pinches of sarcasm – especially the character of Anne Hathaway, indeed flawless in this work. Rating: 8.7
