Gigantic: Matt Aselton’s debut feature

Wins Top Prize at AFI Dallas

Starring Zooey Deschanel, Paul Dano (Now shooting “The Extra Man” with Katie Holmes, “There Will be Blood”, “Little Miss Sunshine”)
Edward Asner, Jane Alexander & John Goodman
Written and directed by Matt Aselton

An unmarried, (and uninvolved) working class man of twenty something in search of a life's fantasy/mission/goal; to adopt a Chinese baby.

Gigantic is an empty fantasy style film that can proudly boost about its extraordinary acting. But why these great performers decided to take the job remains unclear.

For starters, what does the title signify? That an immediate comprehensible answer does not come to mind even after one lives through the film experience is a serious problem. The second problem is with the "attacker". Is he real, a fantasy, a product of drugs too many, a rip off of one of the brothers? That said.........


John Goodman is so so so funny The Chinese baby at the end of the film is a delight, a wonderful memorable character but what is the film about?

I loved Jane Alexander, how could I not. The only down moment was again the woman, the mother John Goodman's former wife who was so out of it, such a downer. Why is it always the women who miss the boat, who cause the real pain and irreparable problems in film plots.

In my opinion what is wrong with this film is the private references and important personal memories that somehow never rise up to public comprehension.
What is right with this film is the fun in the making that comes across the screen and the acting. The acting and character stretches are well worth seeing.

Opening Today in NYC

LindaZises
WBAI Women Collective

OBLIVION;: FUNNY, YET SAD, AND BEAUTIFUL

El Olvido

Heddy Honigmann, Director:

"All my films are about fighters, people putting up resistance. Against oblivion and loss"

Oblivion is no exception.

Heddy Honigmann's extraordinary ability to capture the essence of her subjects, the layer upon layer of meaning, of progression from one moment to the next, her images that speak volunms to the narrative, spoken frankly, often emotionally, always directly into the camera and into our hearts and our minds creating an impression that lingers. I feel as if I know these people. I am there with the camera talking, listening, learning and laughing. This film has humor. It is not depressing, It is illuminating and that is what makes it so enjoyable, so worthwhile.

By the end of the documentary I am almost convinced that I now know the history of Peru, a brief history, not going all the way back but the history that spans the latter 1900's into 2000; the history of corruption, of insidious poverty side by side, moment by moment of footage.

Oblivion chronicles the life of a people who somehow find a way to survive, to keep going even as their ranks swell into the millions of inhabitants in Lima and the politicians, the men in charge continue to be baboons, murders, the worst of human kind. The use of food as a way to learn the customs, the way of life in Peru is wonderful.

And the children!

Heddy Honigmann brings the children into focus again and again. They are, for the most part, happy with little to nothing of their own. Education is not within their grip and yet, they survive seemingly without anger. They toil with a smile, they beg with a casual acceptance of being ignored. It is almost as if the entire notion of failure escapes them.

This is a film that brings life in Lima Peru into our hearts and minds, a work of distinction that only Heddy Honigmann could do with such aplomb.

http://www.heddy-honigmann.nl/hhonigmann/films/elolvido
Opens April 15th at Film Forum in New York City.

LindaZiawa
wbai women collective

The Class

Esmeralda Ouertani as Sandra and Rachel Regulier as Khoumba in The Class

The Class is the story of a high school teacher working in a tough Paris neighborhood where ethnicities, cultures and attitudes often clash in the classroom as it does in the world beyond the school environment.

What is the job, the chances of success of a well meaning teacher who wants to foster the student's potential to become part of main stream society where they and their families are marginalized?

That is the question posed in this autobiographic film.

It is a quiet film with few special effects or profound and alarming stressful moments as it poses a gentle yet provocative confrontation with our wish to help others despite insurmountable obstacle to this goal.

It isn't clear if the teacher Francois Begeaudeau succeeds or whether the children's resistance to change wins the day, but the struggle is certainly worth the price of admission.

See another side of Paris, the "charming" European city

Now playing at the Cobble Hill theater Brooklyn New York


Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective

SUGAR

Written and Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson)

Plot:
Sugar is a film about a Dominican pitcher from San Pedro De Macorís' struggle to make it into the big American leagues At age 19 he advances to the United States’ minor league system; but when his play on the mound falters, he begins to question the single-mindedness of his life’s ambition

Commentary:
Sports drama, immigrant journey, and coming-of-age story, summed up in a self discovery drama WoW
What more could a child want, what more could a mother struggling to convince her son that maybe being single minded in his thirst for baseball fame and fortune might not be the way to go.

The problem is this film is not truly suitable for children. It isn't robust enough to hold an adults unwavering attention and it's too sophisticated for a child. It is one of those in between films that I want to recommend whole heartedly to my son, but can't.

Sony Pictures Classics will release “Sugar” in April 2009

Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective

LIVE AND BECOME: On DVD

Radu Mihaileanu

Can Love conquer Fear and Hate?

Live and Become is a love story and a history lessen with up to date scenes from Israel, where I have never been. It is based on the story of the people who were airlifted from a Sudanese refugee camp to Israel in 1984 during Operation Moses.

This film is a tour de force that opens the viewers eyes to what it is like to be a nine year old orphan, to be different in color and experience from those we live with, and to feel the weight and pressure of unconditional love in spite of the gulf that defines and divides us.

This is a film for the romantic, for the intellectual, for those who might not know about the Ethiopian migration into Israel where the politicians wanted the immigrants to boost their number of citizens but the Israel people were afraid of the color of their skin, the spread of potential desease from AIDs or worse and the possibility that these foreigners were in fact posing as Jewish people but were not Jewish and never had been.

Beautifully acted, the story unfolds slowly with particular attention to detail and the translation, the subtittles were way above average.

Enormous in scope.
Live and Become covers a multitude of issues that most of us would rather forget but can't.

On DVD


Linda Z(ises)
WBAI Women's Collective
Criticalwomen.Net

WENDY AND LUCY: Intensity without glitter

Kelly Reichardt

Jonathan Raymond (writer)
Kelly Reichardt (writer)

Michelle William Wendy
Will Patton Mechanic

Wendy and Lucy is a coming of age film, an adolescent girl has elected to take a car trip with her dog Lucy up to Alaska where she hopes to find a summer job and reach adulthood en route.

This is an intensely moving film, its emotional worth is achieved through the excellent acting of Wendy, (Michelle Williams), in her most subtle yet striking performance, and with the slow-elongated scenes reflective of the way most working class and bohemian people think and live their lives. There is always a palpable undercurrent, of disaster, an outbreak of over powering destructive force because of the steady course Wendy tries to steer. Her failures are many and yet in the end her achievement is remarkable.

An American 2008 film without glitter, without intensity of action without super this or super that and without the introduction of state of the art animation is a film to cherish, to support and to hope, that the human experience that allows the audience to feel what they want without being told through music or action is a delight. A relic of the past that will hopefully grow stronger, more plentiful next year

Linda Zises
WBAI Women Collective

Forbidden Lie$

Anna Bronowski
"We are never deceived, we deceive ourselves" Goethe.

Story line:
The film's subject is Norma Khouri, a Jordanian woman who has a perfect American accent that could only have been developed in a non English speaking person under the age of seven.
Khouri found fame and fortune in 2001 with the publication of her book Forbidden Love, said to be a biographical story concerning a Muslim coming of age girl and friend of Norma Khouri who was brutally murdered (stabbed to death) by her family for having a relationship with a Christian man.
A few years later journalists started poking holes in the story, leading the public to question the veracity of the story told.
Forbidden Lie$ covers this statement of fact quickly but thoroughly in the beginning of the documentary, and from there we spend most of our time in the company of Norma Khouri as she tries to convince us that her novel is more than fiction. Thankfully she fails.

Reviewer Comments:
Director Anna Broinowski has found a truly fascinating woman to study. She conducts endless interviews with Khouri as she seeks the truth. As in life, the truth is not so easy to find.
Norma claims she fears for her life, worried about violent backlash over the unsavoury portrait her novel paints of Jordanian Muslims. She refuses to return to Jordan and show us the facts. Broinowski is not deterred however, and slowly puts the pieces together in front of us.

The documentary is done with a great deal of good feeling towards Norma Khouri who continues to spin a deceit upon her viewing/reading audience.

But at the core of this very well done, entertaining documentary is a fundamental ethical question, one that might be lost in the moment as we are taken from one journey to another in search of Truth. To entertain has its limits. To feed off of current prejudice to compose a supposedly true story that takes these erroneous and deleterious ideas to an extreme is immoral. To allow ourselves to be taken into the criminal world of a woman who dumps her children on a single woman of limited resources, emotionally and financially. and justifies her lack of honesty by siting former president G.W. Bush as her moral authority, is reprehensible.

To smile at a job well done by Anna Broinowski without the proper perceptive compromises the appeal of her work.
With that in mind, if you want pure entertainment and know what the film is about, then by all means, enjoy the moment.

Linda Z
WBAI Women Collective

Shall We Kiss

Written and Directed by
Emmanuel Mouret

Starring Virginie Ledoyen, Emmanuel Mouret, Julie Gayet, Michaël Cohen, Frédérique Bel, Stefano Accorsi

Just when we thought the slow moving, low action film about love and friendship and the quality of relationships was an event of the past having been covered too often too much, along comes yet another film questioning the nature of love and friendship. It strives to draw a line between the two when in fact the age old understanding that this line is thin and only our restrained actions can ultimately bring to resolution the nature of who we are to one another.

'Shall we Kiss?' is best answered with a conscious decision not with an act compelled solely by an emotional impulse.

The film brings this point home with the use of suburb acting. The augmentation of the dialogue with vivid fine works of art that hang from the walls. Even the wall paper in the last scene, age old in design, becomes so strong an addition to the film that one is forced to look at it and only with effort to look away to the actors as they perform their parts exquisitely well.

But why this film at this time?

I never thought the Internet would bring us so far afield of how to relate, that "hooking up" would become the norm and voyeurism the way of life for the very young through adolescence and beyond. But here we are on the precipice of never having to leave our personal abodes to be fully entertained, to never having to say our names or going through all those uncomfortable introductions We are on the brink of being so segmented in our daily interactions, so false in our ability to convey our essence that this film 'Shall We Kiss?' poses a question that survived for centuries and is now as never before threatened with extinction.

Yes, We Shall Kiss. We should know each other's names and the smell of our bodies and what each other thinks or doesn't. What else is there in life if not this friendship and love for one another. It might not be the ultimate meaning of life, but it certainly is an important ingredient in that search.

I recommend we get back to basics. 'Shall We Kiss?' is a good beginning to an always questionable end.

Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective

Enlighten UP

Kate Churchill

Starring: Nick Rosen

Director: Kate Churchill

Director: Kate Churchill
Story: Khari Streeter, Jonathon Hexner, Kate Churchill
Producer: Kate Churchill
Composer: Krishna Venkatesh
Studio: Balcony Releasing

APRIL 6: Release Date NEW YORK CITY:

Enlighten Up is 82 minutes of yoga reflective of those who "have a practice' and those who are entering the world of sport because of injury, aging or just because it is the thing to do.

There is no question that Yoga is spreading like wildfire. It is difficult to find a "small" class where individual attention is afforded without extra fees.

Yoga is good for every one except..... This documentary isn't about the emergence of a hero. It is about the process of becoming a Yogi. No pain has been spared the subject of this process nor the audience who bares witness to all the pitfalls visited on this neophyte Yoga guinea pig.

But with all that said, what remains is an ever gowning awareness that Yoga, if you can do it, is a special discipline. This documentary is designed for those who are weak at heart and body as well as those who are committed to the art.

We have only one body, one mind The practice of Yoga aims to preserve and enhance both.

To see how it is done, or avoided at all costs.
Enlighten Up is the Way!

A low keyed documentary done wih minimum professional input and a lot of unconditional love.

Now playing at the IFC Midtown, Manhattan


Linda Zises
WBAI Women Collective

SHERMAN'S WAY

Craig Saavedra Director
written by Tom Nance

Star actors include but not limited to;

JAMES LE GROS
(“The Last Winter” “Drugstore Cowboy”)
ENRICO COLANTONI
(“Just Shoot Me” “Galaxy Quest”)
MICHAEL SHULMAN
(“Can of Worms” “Little Man Tate”)
BROOKE NEVIN
(“The Comebacks” “Infestation”)


Another male bonding film, son in search of father/ father in search of son with a center character of note being the Car. Done with a light touch, an enjoyable juxtaposition of different types of male figures, those who strive to achieve, live by the clock and synchronized common sense versus those who have given up. But what happened to their woman, the woman they are pushing far away, who remain painfully absent, or appear once more as the bad figure to be dethroned from her insidious omnipresent power?

The artistic effort is well worth seeing, the acting is great, the women are not important enough but then, this film was made by men and is about boys coming of age so what can you expect.

Without reservation I recommend this as a date flick, a film that can inspire enjoyable conversation but doesn't have to.


Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective