I though that it was hard, if not impossible, to watch, and not because of the horrors it depicts but by the way they were depicted. Imagine what Costa Gavras could have done with this true horror story. What I object to is the idea the need to denounce, which I subscribe to, is enough. What about showing it to us with the power of powerful cinema. I feel that the eagerness of the filmmaker, maybe even the justifiable anger, didn't allow him to see it clearly from a cinematic point of view. Or, if this was a cinematic point of view, I mean, a choice, then, I didn't like it at all. I was more disturbed by the way the movie was shot than by the movie itself. Well intentioned I'm sure, but, unfortunately, that's not nearly enough.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Quinceañera
(2006)
Echo Park and Jesse Garcia
1 May 2007
A slice of life from a very recognizable other planet. The Echo Park section of Los Angeles. It could be so many other places and at the same time it couldn't be anywhere else. New life and death co-mingling in almost perfect harmony. Love coming out of the most unexpected quarters, heroic gestures, prejudice and solitude. There is much to commend in this tiny tale with major implications. Two directors with a compassionate look and real affection. For me, personally, meant the introduction to a major talent: Jesse Garcia. He plays a character that seems to walk a permanent tight rope and yet he is so completely himself that you can't take your eyes of the guy because you know for certain he is going to surprise you in the best possible way. Excellent.
Mission: Impossible III
(2006)
See how Tom runs
4 February 2007
Messy, loud, ridiculous and all the other things that the devoted fans of the genre expect. At least that's what I imagine. Personally, I find it an indigested soufflé full of heavy duty ingredients that don't seem to melt all that way together. Fortysomething super star Tom Crusie - one of my favorites from the 80's and 90's - runs like the wind from Shanghai to the Vatican (the one in Caserta not the one in Rome)I didn't know what the rabbit foot was and, quite simply, I didn't care. In fact I didn't care about any of it. It took a me little while to realize that the wife in jeopardy wasn't Katie Holmes and I was kind of embarrassed for Philip Seymour Hoffman and Billy Crudup. To think that with all the power at Cruise/Wagner's feet, they could be making the most extraordinary movies. Commercial movies too, but how disappointing to find out that their ambitions are so basic and pedestrian. MI3 as an action flick I guess it's okay but, just okay, shouldn't be acceptable and for what I gather, it wasn't. Come on Tom, you can afford to take risks, can't you? So what are you waiting for? I know you could still dazzled us. "Born On The 4th Of July" "Color Of Money" and "Rain Man" were not that long ago.
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