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Cuckoo For Cuba Puffs There's something of a Cuban invasion going on in this country lately. Wim Wenders' Buena Vista Social Club serves up some Cuban jazz, Ricky Martin shows us how to live "La Vida Loca," and coming this fall, Kevin Costner stars in the Missile Crisis drama, 13 Days (which, by title alone, suggests that it will be twice as long as John Frankenheimer's Missile Crisis drama Seven Days In May). If you're looking to add a little more Cuba to your diet, consider these suggestions: Michael Lalatozov's I Am Cuba When you look at the video box and see the bold "Martin Scorsese & Francis Ford Coppola presents" decree, you take it as a good sign until you remember Scorsese also presented us with the "I'm-dating-Illeana-Douglas" vanity project, Search & Destroy, while Coppola brought us the TV miniseries, The Odyssey. Ouch. Fortunately, I Am Cuba lives up to its pedigree. Essentially a Cuban Triumph Of The Will, with its Pro-Castro vignettes, I Am Cuba is recommended to anyone who has drooled over the moving camera school of cinematography. The camera moves with such fluidity, it is easy to see the influence it had on Scorsese's tracking shots as well as the homage Paul Thomas Anderson paid with his underwater-in-a-pool shot in Boogie Nights. The camera flows off roofs, through fields, up buildings, over riots, through swamps, and down streets with an ethereal quality captured by Wim Wenders (again) in Wings Of Desire (and desperately missing from the sub-par "inspired by" City Of Angels). File under ILL CINEMA. Other suggestions: For those of you who prefer the library to the video store: James Ellroy's American Tabloid, Elmore Leonard's Cuba Libre (optioned by the Coen Brothers), and of course, The Godfather Part II.
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Mightier Than The Sword What makes a good film critic? Some people might say a heightened sense of objectivity. I call those people fools. All you need is a stomachful of bile and a detached sense of self-restraint. Here's how it's done. "Wild Wild West is a far cry from the series and even further from being a good film" - Carl Cortez, EON Magazine (1999) "Rainman is Dustin Hoffman humping one note on a piano for two hours and eleven minutes." - Pauline Kael (1989) "There are some films whose existence makes the world a worse place to live, and this is one of them." - Kenneth Turan's review of 8MM (1998) "Within the first five minutes, Emilio Estevez is dead. At this point, I'm thinking to myself, 'This could be the greatest movie ever made.'" - Mr. Cranky's review of |
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Back in the day, James LeGros was in God's pocket. Near Dark. Drugstore Cowboy, Born on the Fourth of July. In the early 90's, he became the male Parker Posey, popping up in every other indie film. But, after a critically lauded prima donna star turn in Tom DiCillo's Living In Oblivion, he seems to have fallen off the planet. His filmography lists Enemy of the State in his credits, but unless he played Guy Obscured By Pole, I didn't see him. Calling all cars... |
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FEATURES Alone, In a Videostore: Renting at Random Two Roads Diverged... Dad, Can I Have A DVD Player? Have You Heard? One Man's Opinion (And Unrelated Anecdote) Seven Screams I Love About You Films That Came And Went And You Didn't We Watch Bad Movies So You Don't Have To |
DEPARTMENTS Top 5 Movies Lists Obsessive-Compulsive Movie Website Shoutouts, Yet Another List & A Picture of a Monkey Playing Maracas FUN STUFF Stop Me If You've Seen This One Before Movies With Heads In Boxes / |
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