Change Your Image
simmers
Reviews
Center Stage (2000)
if you have the heart, you can do it...
"Center Stage" is an amazing movie. It follows the lives of a group of students at the American Ballet Academy over a year, from their audition to get into the school to the final workshop that will determine their future. Much like "A Chorus Line", "Center Stage" goes behind the scenes to give us an insight into a dancer's life, with all its demands, victories and disappointments. In the main roles, Nicholas Hytner cast dancers, portraying the characters' fears, hopes and dreams better than any actor could. Ethan Stiefel is sensational both as a dancer and as an actor. Amanda Schull, Sascha Radetsky, Zoe Saldana and Susan May Pratt give good performances as well. Finally Peter Gallagher and Donna Murphy are perfectly cast respectively as the director of ABA and the ballet teacher.
As the characters soon find out, the life of a dancer is not all rosy: as Jonathan Reeves tells his students at the beginning of the year, they may have been the best of their classes up to then, but at ABA they will have to work harder every day to be one of the 6 chosen ones to become part of the company. Both Jody and Maureen are forced to re-examine what they want to do with their lives at some point and everyone ends up with a different goal than the one they set out to achieve.
The dance sequences are some of the best ever seen on the big screen. Cooper Nielsen's last ballet - choreographed by Susan Stroman - is absolutely fantastic. Any dancer or dance lover will greatly appreciate performances of "Romeo & Juliet", "Stars and Stripes" and "Swan Lake". As a dancer myself, I believe that this is one of the best movies about dance that I've ever seen.
This is an excellent film, at once funny and moving. In the end, it is a movie about passion and how one should listen to one's own heart and not to other people. The message would be that as long as you are passionate about something, you can achieve anything.
Instinct (1999)
Beautiful movie!
I entered the theatre having no real idea what "Instinct" was about, but it seemed like a thriller to me, something similar to "The Silence of the Lambs". However, what I expected to be just another murder mystery turned out to be the powerful story of a man who had finally learnt to live.
Dr. Calder is sent to make an evaluation on Dr. Powell, an anthropologist convicted for murdering 5 men in Rwanda. However, when Dr. Powell relates his experience in the African jungle, he starts teaching Theo Calder a thing or two about "civilisation" and "humanity", thus encouraging Theo not only to learn how to live but also to challenge the rules.
The scenes with the gorillas were so realistic, that I only realised later that they were created artificially. Sometimes, I felt like I was actually watching a documentary.
The acting was superb. Anthony Hopkins was excellent as always and Cuba Gooding Jr. was just perfect as his student/friend. The supporting cast was solid as well, especially the prison inmates.
Despite Theo and Dr. Powell's daughter's confusing relationship and the highly improbable ending, "Instinct" has some beautiful movie moments. Dr. Powell's connection with the gorillas as well as his speech to Theo at the zoo are very touching. The scene at the prison where the inmates tear apart their cards, challenging the guards' authority also reminded me of the famous "O Captain, My Captain" scene in "Dead Poets' Society".
All I can say, is that "Instinct" is a rare film. One that does not need tons of action and explosions to be enjoyable but simply talks about something we can all connect too: life!