Arts
Max at the Movies
Max
at the Movies
Rating
Scale 
- "No need – it's that good!"
- "What the hell – just one!"-
"Oh yeah – that's better!"
- "You'll need 'em!"-
"Wake me up when it's over!" |
by Max Martini
| In
The City (En la Ciudad) Wolfe Video www.wolfevideo.com |
Their
Take:
In The City is a charming
romantic comedy about a group of friends sharing their secrets and passions
in Barcelona. Irene (Monica Lopez) is married to – but sexually
frustrated by – an air-traffic controller who believes more in healthy
finances than a healthy marriage. Bookish Sofia (Maria Pujalte) has fallen
for a French businessman who spices up her life whenever he is in town.
Architect Mario (Eduard Fernandez) suspects his wife is having an affair,
so he meets up for a brief, meaningless fling with Cristina (Leonor Watling).
And Tomas (Alex Brendemuhl) is having an ill-advised affair with one of
his music students, 16-year-old Ana (Miranda Makaroff), who is Mario's
niece. Relationships and friendships get shaken up when Irene runs into
her old college friend Silvia (Aurea Marquez) and finds her own bisexual
nature awakened. In The City is directed by Cese Gay (who also
directed Nico And Dani). Eduard Fernandez won a Best Supporting
Actor trophy at the Spanish Goya Awards for his role as Mario in this
film and Leonor Watling, who played Cristina, won the Cinema Writers'
Circle award for Best Supporting Actress.
Max's Take:
Think of this movie along the lines
of The Big Chill in Spanish but without the death of one of the
members of the group, a lot more sex, and the Motown music soundtrack
(okay, maybe not the best analogy but you get the picture). In The
City is an ensemble story focused on a group of friends living in
Barcelona who all have secrets that they are able (for the most part)
to keep from each other even though they all spend a significant amount
of time together. The movie is superbly directed by Cese Gay who got the
inspiration for the film from a meal he had with some of his own friends.
The film is like a private view of
a group of friends that have a number of emotional experiences in their
lives that they never talk about. All of the performers put in extremely
believable performances but Maria Pujalte's Sofia is one of my favorite
characters in the movie, as she so easily makes up scenarios about her
life (that aren't exactly true) and eventually has to deal with having
one of her untruths becoming reality.
| Our
Fathers A Showtime Original www.sho.com |
Their
Take:
On Saturday, May 21, 2005 Showtime Networks
presented their new original drama, Our Fathers, a sobering look
at the discovery of sexually abusive priests over the last five decades
in the Boston Diocese.
Our Fathers includes a star-studded
cast including Ted Danson (as lawyer Mitchell Garabedian), Christopher
Plummer (as Cardinal Bernard Law), Brian Dennehy (as Father Spagnolia),
Daniel Baldwin (as Angelo DeFranco – one of the many victims), and
Ellen Burstyn (as Mary Ryan, the mother of seven children who were all
abused by Father John J. Geoghan). Directed by Dan Curtis, from the screenplay
by Thomas Michael Donnelly, the film is based on the Newsweek journalist
David France's powerful best selling book Our Fathers: The Secret
Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal.
Max's Take:
I was raised Catholic, and this was
not an easy movie to watch. But I was truly impressed by the Showtime
production. I had followed the real-life story as it unfolded in the media
and found that I learned some things from watching Our Fathers
that I hadn't known. The filmmakers were obviously committed to a story
approach that was both accurate and engaging.
Our Fathers was produced with the
cooperation of several of the victims who insisted their names be used
in the film. The courage and pain of the survivors who came forward to
tell their stories clearly shows through in the production. Gary Bergeron
(played by Thomas Mitchell), Tom Blanchette (played by Hugh Thompson),
Olan Horne (played by Chris Bauer), and Bernie McDaid (played by Aidan
Devine) were all abused by Father Joseph Birmingham. The men visited the
set during production and met the actors who were portraying them in the
film. McDaid said after his visit, "Showtime took the lead, and I
hope this is just the beginning. There needs to be more acknowledgement
of the problem."
E xecutive Producer David Kennedy notes, "I
hope [the film] will impact people, move them, and make them angry."
Take it from Max, it will.
| Brother
To Brother Wolfe Video www.wolfevideo.com www.brothertobrotherthemovie.com |
Winner of the Special Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, as well as four Independent Spirit Award nominations, Brother To Brother is writer-director Rodney Evans' exploration of the link between the present and the past through a unique relationship between Perry (played by Anthony Mackie), a young black artist, and the 1930s Harlem Renaissance poet/painter Bruce Nugent (Roger Robinson).
Perry, who has been kicked out of his family home for being gay, is stuck between the black community and the gay community. Perry searches for a connection in the real world and discovers Nugent, who exposes Perry to the legacy and hardships of pioneering black artists, such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Wallace Thurman, through flashback scenes from his own past.
Max's Take:
This movie is a definite must-see. Anthony Mackie (also in Million Dollar Baby and 8 Mile) does a great job as Perry, but Roger Robinson is amazing as the aging Bruce Nugent. Watching their unique friendship develop and grow throughout the film, as the past and present meet, is truly the stuff of great filmmaking. Rodney Evans obviously has a devotion to and passion for history, as he blends in black and white flashback scenes from Bruce's past. Daniel Sunjata (playing Langston Hughes), Aunjanue Eliss (playing Zora Neale Hurston), Ray Ford (playing Wallace Thurman), and Duane Boutte (playing the young Bruce Nugent) also give strong performances. The DVD edition of the film will contain the unrated director's cut of the film as well as commentary tracks and an in-depth interview with Rodney Evans. An edited version of Brother To Brother is also scheduled to air on PBS in June.
Max is willing to try anything once, does enjoy an occasional martini, but prefers Tab ®!