“Somewhere” goes nowhere. Supposedly, that’s part of the point, but just because you’re trying to show that the main character is bored doesn’t mean the viewers need to feel the same way to identify with the character.
This movie seems, at first glance, to have a lot going against it. It depends almost exclusively on two actors who are neither the most famous nor the most critically acclaimed.
Despite all the complaining people do about the seemingly exorbitant salaries of successful entertainers (including sports), the truth is, in our grand American democracy (here I’m waving the flag), it’s a strict meritocracy.
Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott. The third in the series of novels that began with Rosie and continued with Crooked Little Heart, I think this is Anne Lamott's most well-written and fully realized novel. She has a perfect ear for the moral and psychological nuances of a teenager coming to adulthood.
Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr Harper. San Francisco. November 2009. 400 pages
reviewed by J. Stephen Rhodes
"Age seventeen, stringy-haired and halter-topped, weighing in the high double digits and unhindered by a high school diploma, I showed up at the Pacific Ocean, ready to seek my fortune with a truck full of extremely stoned surfers.” So begins poet Mary Karr’s tale of her recovery from alcohol addiction and her conversion to faith.
Those of you who can sing along with me the "Yogi Bear" theme song from the late 50s/early 60s cartoons need to know that this “Yogi Bear” is a re-make: new voice actors for all the characters, new type of animation, but, comfortingly, the old familiar story line. (Who said that music memory isn’t powerful?)
"The Fighter” is a real-life story, of “Irish” Micky Ward, the pride of Lowell, Mass., rising to the world welterweight title. But it sure wasn’t an easy road.
OK, first you have to enjoy that whole British royalty thing — regal, isolated, aloof, and treated with such tremendous deference by everyone around you that if you’re not careful you’re likely to start believing in — divine right or something.
Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor are among the elite actors in Hollywood: they’re proven veterans, and between them, they’ve done everything from comedy to drama to musicals.
We first encounter Angelina Jolie through the lenses of the men watching her from a surveillance vehicle, complete with the latest high-tech equipment.
A film based on the wondrous writings of C.S. Lewis is bound to be very satisfying for the believer, because Lewis himself was a Christian apologist, in the classic rhetorical sense, and he very much intended the heavy symbolism of his “Narnia” series to be understood as Christian.
“Burlesque” is not so much a movie as an elongated musical video. It’s like the old-fashioned song-and-dance musicals, except this one boasts stage routines that are a lot more suggestive. It’s rated PG-13 — they were careful not to fall into the trap of actually revealing anything that would give it an “R” rating — but the racy material is definitely not for children.
“Greenberg” is a very depressing film about two very depressed characters. But once you get into it, you find yourself caring about them, anyway, and hoping that somehow, some way, they would find a little happiness — and maybe even through each other.
It’s refreshing to see a lad play a troubled teen who actually is a teenager. Keir Gilchrist, a veteran television actor, plays Craig, who’s so depressed that he checks himself into a psychiatric unit.
“Tangled” is the animated adaptation of the Grimm fairy tale “Rapunzel.” It’s a really strong production, with great singing voices, a credible plot, a big helping of humor, and a romance to root for, besides.
Here, in the long-awaited semi-finale to the enormously successful series of novels made into movies, our trusty trio of neophyte magicians, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) have graduated from Hogwarts School just in time for a resurgence in power of the evil Voldemort.
