Cinema Voyage - Michael Pearson

This blog is PRIMARILY about movies. Some dvd and some that are still in the theater. Also, links are provided on some movies if you decide you want to purchase it. Also, I write and read quite a bit. So, you may, from time to time see a book review here from an up-and-coming author or an interview with one. If you have a book that you have written, please don't hesitate to contact me if you want an unbiased opinion. I would be happy to read and review what you've written. We should value our creative people more.

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Cinema Voyage - June 2010

I Am Love

June 28th 2010 07:07

Tilda Swinton seated as the matriarch of the Recchi family

There is no denying the tremendous beauty of Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love. From the stunning Art Deco home of Tilda Swinton as matriarch to the beautiful outfits she is dressed in, the film’s rich visual style seems close to perfection.

The visual feast that Guadagnino presents us with doesn’t negate or outweigh the emotional resonance of the film’s tale. “Happy? Happy is a word that makes one sad,” remarks Betta (Alba Rohrwacher) in a pensively solemn voice. She is the only daughter to Swinton, who plays Emma, the wife of a powerful Milan industrialist, Tancredi Recchi (Pippo Delbono). Betta is speaking to one of her two brothers, Edo (Flavio Parenti), who co-inherits the family business with his father. The Recchi family is a regal one. Their wealth is matched only by their style and steadfast ability to keep up appearances.

Guadagnino’s focus is naturally on Emma, the stunningly elegant wife and mother who binds the Recchi household. Aided by her immaculate dresses and Art Deco surrounds, Tilda Swinton embodies the stifled role magnificently. She is introduced to a chef and friend of Edo’s, Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini), who has dreams of starting a restaurant with Edo. Escaping the lovelessness of her marriage to Tancredi, she spirals into a dangerous affair with Antonio.

There’s an amazingly poignant and subtle quality to Swinton’s performance. She depicts Emma as both strong and terribly sad. Originally born in Russia, her identity is now almost exclusively defined by her assimilation into the Recchi family. Crucially, we only learn this fact midway through the film. There is, of course, no happy end to the betrayal of her husband.

When the climax hits, there is only a shell of a woman left. Her devastation and sense of awakening is at once made clear through a most affecting, operatic score. The end truly is Guadagnino’s ode to grand Italian cinema. It’s a story and film which, despite being set at the turn of this century, could easily belong to any bygone era.

4.5 STARS

100

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Posted By: Akito Hirata - Category: Drama

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SCREAM 4

June 19th 2010 11:42

Official 'Scream 4' teaser

Poor Neve Campbell. Who’d a thought that she survived to the very end of Wes Craven’s Scream franchise only to be thrust into an entire new trilogy come 2011. That’s right. Get ready to scream (sorry, couldn't resist). Bob Weinstein, head founder of Dimension Films, has not only confirmed a fourth instalment in the iconic slasher series, but has dropped some heavy hints that, if successful, a fifth and sixth Scream will follow.

With its tagline boldly asserting “NEW DECADE. NEW RULES.”, Scream 4 has promise. I only hope that it’s not empty promise. There’s no argument whatsoever about the originality of the original Scream. It cut the stale air and recycled plotting of slashers preceding it in the 80s and 90s. It mixed irony and self-parody with some intensely creepy chills and bloody spills. Its pretty heroine Sidney Prescott (Campbell) was always self-aware of her character’s conventions: “...they’re all the same, some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can’t act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door, it’s insulting.” She both subverted the scream queen convention and fell victim to it.

Much of this self-referential cleverness owed to Kevin Williamson’s tight script, which re-explored and re-invented the genre’s archetypal characteristics. His screenplay for Scream was no one-off either, evidenced by I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Faculty. Thankfully he’s signed on as screenwriter for the duration of this second-round trilogy.

The answer as to who would direct a fourth Scream was always an obvious one. Wes Craven, the man that saw the original and sequels through, takes charge yet again. The wickedly clever director has always had a knowing way with mocking and indulging the stuff of the slasher trash genre. “I am delighted to accept Bob Weinstein's offer to take the reins on a whole new chapter in 'Scream' history. Working with Courteney, David and Neve was a blast ten years ago and I'm sure it will be again. And I can't wait to find the talent that will bring new blood to the screen as well. Kevin is right on his game with the new script - the characters and story crackle with energy and originality - to say nothing of some of the most hair-raising scares I've seen in a script since... well, since the original 'Scream' series. Let me at it."

As for the actors, Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette are back on board, reprising their roles in the original series. There’s a pool of other actors rumoured to accompany the original trio, including Rory Culkin in a similar role to that of Randy Meeks of the first Scream, relative newcomer Nico Tortorella, as well as the rather underwhelmingly rumoured Hilary Duff. Ugh.

Irrespective of the rumoured cast, I cannot stress enough how excited I am for Scream 4. The original series defined a generation of horror buffs that valued Craven and Williamson’s appreciation of their audience’s intelligence. It’ll be a true test to see if Neve Campbell and her friends, both old and new, are as self-parodic and self-aware as they were in the originals. I’m also curious, perhaps above all else, as to how it’ll renew the fiendishly clever story of the original. It’ll take more than Williamson’s use of self-referentiality and his metafictive device of a movie-within-a-movie (Stab). After all, a movie concept can only take so many inward spirals before it disappears right up its own sphincter.

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Posted By: Akito Hirata - Category: Movie Chatter

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City Island

June 1st 2010 17:01

The Rizzo's introduce themselves as cinema's new offbeat family

In the tradition of Little Miss Sunshine, comes Raymond De Felitta’s latest indie offering City Island. In this offbeat comedy, Andy Garcia leads a generally endearing cast as the father of yet another dysfunctional American family.

Set in a sleepy town outside of New York, correctional officer Vince Rizzo (Garcia) leads a relatively normal life with his visiting daughter, flippant son and feisty, Bronx-speaking wife Joyce, acted strongly by television’s The Good Wife’s Julianna Margulies. The family’s comfortable existence is threatened though when Vince happens upon his secret long lost son Tony in prison and unwisely brings him home.

This isn’t the only secret Vince keeps. He’s been leaving his family for what he insists are late night poker games, stirring his wife’s suspicion, when in fact he’s attending an acting class. Here, he hopes to fulfil his dream of becoming the next Marlon Brando, aided by Little Miss Sunshine’s Alan Arkin as his acting coach and an irritating Emily Mortimer (Shutter Island) as his acting partner.

The trickery doesn’t end there. His younger son Vinnie is hiding some hefty passions of his own, besotted with his obese neighbour. Vince’s daughter, who is perhaps somewhat eerily acted by Garcia’s real-life daughter Dominik Garcia-Lorido, has been stripping to pay her way back into college after being suspended with the hope of her parents never finding out.

There is nothing particularly inventive about City Island’s screenplay. It fuses the perverse undercurrent of American Beauty with the sweetness of Little Miss Sunshine. Andy Garcia brings a natural charm to his loveable role as the dim witted but well intentioned father, while Emily Mortimer by contrast gives one of the most unmoving and pathetic performances to hit the screen in a long while.

Ultimately, City Island doesn’t take us anywhere new. Raymond De Felitta has however effectively executed the tired concept of family dramas resolved through soppy confessions and there are some good laughs to be had by the heartfelt performances of the Rizzo family.

3 STARS

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Posted By: Akito Hirata - Category: Comedy

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