To Boldly Go… The anticipation surrounding this movie had built up so much, and I’ve been so disappointed this year by a majority of the hype machines that have been dragging their collective weight across 2013. The Great Gatsby was apparently the Not So Great Gatsby, the Evil Dead was pretty much Less Evil and More Dead, so naturally I was skeptical about this new Star Trek. I bought tickets, and headed to see it, but not in 3D. I figure, if the movie is good enough in 2D, then it’s worth seeing again in 3D. The movie blasts off ... Read More »

Everytime you walk into a health food store you might want to give a nod to Father Yod. Funny how the local Whole Foods is just an extension of what Yod created back in the 1970s. But The Source Family doesn’t glorify health food stores per se, rather this excellent documentary examines the communal family that Yod created. Maybe his aim was utopian, and maybe Yod even had a criminal past, but one thing is certain: this family was living the life. Father Yod had several wives and fathered a lot of children many of whom are seen talking to the ... Read More »

For every fan of classic French film as well as affectionatos of foreign and art films comes Renoir. A biography of sorts this handsome movie depicts the late years of the impressionistic painter Auguste Renoir. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Renoir is really about the model who became a kind of muse to Renoir and subsequently became the wife of Jean Renoir the famous film director. We’re first introduced to beautiful actress Christa Theret as Andrée Heuschling as she lies her way to a meeting with the master painter. Even as she disrobes for a session we ... Read More »

The Great Gatsby will overwhelm you with its opulent style. That’s not a bad thing. The latest movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel leaves no zoom unturned as helmer Baz Luhrmann paints a portrait of a society at odds with itself, both idealistic and yet hopelessly decadent, both ancient and modern. It’s not like Luhrmann appeared out of nowhere. A generation ago he was fresh with Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet. His film that I find the least interesting, Australia, is actually his highest grossing film. It’s not like Luhrmann’s making a movie that was based on a ... Read More »

Houston, if you can spare the time for a memorable experience, allow yourself to be immersed in a different world or two the coming two weekends.   The festival very appropriately opens with Annemarie Jacir’s “When I Saw You,” which beautifully portrays the potential of the human spirit and new possibilities for the future, even in the face of devastating dispossession. The main character Tarek, a 11 year-old refugee of 1967, teaches us that there is no sense in waiting for saviors. Taking matters into his own hands, he is determined to return to Palestine even if on foot, refusing ... Read More »

If there’s one film you want to put on your list of things to do this week, add the Ken Loach film The Angels’ Share. Loach is hardly under the radar, having worked as a director known for social realism in films since the ‘60s. Angels’ Share won a Jury Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. The Angels’ Share starts out knee-deep in street dirt. Our protag Robbie (impressive newcomer Paul Brannigan) has just been assigned 300 hours community service in lieu of a jail sentence. His personal life is a shambles with a pregnant girlfriend whose brothers will ... Read More »

Band of Outsiders (Bande à part) looks luminous in glorious black-and-white in a new Blu-ray release from Criterion Collection (5/7). Band of Outsiders has Jean-Luc Godard at the top of his game in 1964, playing with film conventions and voice-over narration all while subverting crime genre films. BOO stars Godard’s muse (and then wife) Anna Karina and perhaps is most remembered for a scene where she and the male stars (Sami Frey, Claude Brasseur) run through the Louvre museum. There’s also a famous scene where the trio observe a minute of silence in a coffee shop although the absence of ... Read More »

Nobody will confuse Iron Man Three with social realism but perhaps not oddly this entry in the on-going Marvel super hero series features a terrorist bombing at the Mann’s Chinese Theater and puts the onus for the President of the United States’ kidnapping on his environmental record. One super villain tells POTUS as he’s about to assassinate him live on camera, strung up midair, arms outstretched over an offending oil tanker and offshore rig that there’s hardly any sympathy to be had after he’d let his friends who caused the movie’s fictional Gulf disaster walk away free. But subtleties are ... Read More »

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the right film at the right time. Under the helm of Mira Nair this adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s novel puts some ugly truths on display. Riz Ahmed (The Road to Guantanamo, Four Lions) a British actor of Pakistani decent totally owns this film, his lead performance as Changez gives the story a solid post of support. After a brief intro that shows Changez at a traditional family ceremony the story starts out in Pakistan as Liev Schreiber interviews Changez. This will be the bracketing scene(s) that begins and ends the film. We flashback to Changez in ... Read More »

You know how everyone was jumping on the Haneke bandwagon when Amour came out last year. It was fashionable to embrace his cinema of cruelty, and let’s face it on a scale of Haneke suffering Amour doesn’t lacerate like Funny Games or The White Ribbon or The Piano Teacher. Meanwhile another foreign film came out last year, played various festivals and had a brief domestic theatrical release. After Lucia (Después de Lucía), from Mexico (d. Michel Franco) should’ve had the same critical accolades as Amour, yet it just wasn’t widely seen. (Both films played at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.) But ... Read More »