Movie: She Hate Me
She Hate Me Length: 2 hours, 18 minutes Studio: Sony Pictures Classics Website: http://www.sonyclassics.com/shehateme/ Release Date: 2004-09-03 Cast: Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Dania Ramirez, Ellen Barkin, Monica Bellucci Director: Spike Lee Screenwriter: Michael Genet, Spike Lee Music Score: Terence Blanchard WorkNameSort: She Hate Me Our Rating: 1.00 The tiresomely provocative Spike Lee’s latest scattershot screed…
Movie: Maria Full of Grace
Our Rating: 4.00 If you’re looking for socially conscious character drama unencumbered by sensationalism, make a date with Catalina Sandino Moreno, the star of this season’s most involving personal odyssey. As Maria, a pregnant 17-year-old conscripted into working as an in-flight drug mule, Moreno brings an almost Biblical equipoise to the story of her character’s…
Review – Run to be Born
Artist: Walking Concert
Movie: She Hate Me
Our Rating: 1.00 The tiresomely provocative Spike Lee’s latest scattershot screed is actually worthy topical drama for the first 20 minutes or so, with pharmaceuticals executive Jack Armstrong (Anthony Mackie) taking the heat for his company’s Enron-like collapse. But when our cash-strapped hero decides to pay the bills by studding himself out to a bunch…
Review – Stealing of a Nation
Artist: Radio 4
DYE, MOMMIE, DYE
Movie: The Blonds
Review – Piano Sonata No. 2 “Concord”
Artist: Charles Ives
Movie: Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair Studio: Focus Features Website: http://www.vanityfairmovie.com/ Release Date: 2004-09-03 Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Jim Broadbent, Eileen Atkins, James Purefoy, Jonathan Rhys Meyers Director: Mira Nair Screenwriter: Julian Fellowes Music Score: Mychael Danna WorkNameSort: Vanity Fair Our Rating: 3.00 This version of the Thackeray novel shows the usual scars of the underattended literary adaptation – a…
THE BILL COMES DUE
Movie: The Hunting of the President
Movie: Maria Full of Grace
Our Rating: 4.00 If you’re looking for socially conscious character drama unencumbered by sensationalism, make a date with Catalina Sandino Moreno, the star of this season’s most involving personal odyssey. As Maria, a pregnant 17-year-old conscripted into working as an in-flight drug mule, Moreno brings an almost Biblical equipoise to the story of her character’s…
THE BILL COMES DUE
Movie: The Hunting of the President
Movie: She Hate Me
Our Rating: 1.00 The tiresomely provocative Spike Lee’s latest scattershot screed is actually worthy topical drama for the first 20 minutes or so, with pharmaceuticals executive Jack Armstrong (Anthony Mackie) taking the heat for his company’s Enron-like collapse. But when our cash-strapped hero decides to pay the bills by studding himself out to a bunch…
Movie: Maria Full of Grace
Our Rating: 4.00 If you’re looking for socially conscious character drama unencumbered by sensationalism, make a date with Catalina Sandino Moreno, the star of this season’s most involving personal odyssey. As Maria, a pregnant 17-year-old conscripted into working as an in-flight drug mule, Moreno brings an almost Biblical equipoise to the story of her character’s…
Review – The Platinum Collection
Artist: Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music
Movie: She Hate Me
Our Rating: 1.00 The tiresomely provocative Spike Lee’s latest scattershot screed is actually worthy topical drama for the first 20 minutes or so, with pharmaceuticals executive Jack Armstrong (Anthony Mackie) taking the heat for his company’s Enron-like collapse. But when our cash-strapped hero decides to pay the bills by studding himself out to a bunch…
Review – Run to be Born
Artist: Walking Concert
DYE, MOMMIE, DYE
Movie: The Blonds
Review – Stealing of a Nation
Artist: Radio 4
Movie: Vanity Fair
Our Rating: 3.00 This version of the Thackeray novel shows the usual scars of the underattended literary adaptation – a frustratingly episodic structure and characters who attain and fall from prominence with jarring abruptness. Still, it’s a frequently enjoyable picture, less intimate than director Mira Nair’s previous Monsoon Wedding but a good deal livelier than…
Review – Piano Sonata No. 2 “Concord”
Artist: Charles Ives
Review – The Platinum Collection
Artist: Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music
NO AFTERGLOW
Other than, what a waste of time and money, about the only other thing I could think about on the drive home from an overpriced dinner at the Capriccio Grill Italian Steakhouse was how many starving people could have been fed with the money just spent. The experience was that much of a downer. When…
Review – Run to be Born
Artist: Walking Concert
Review – The Platinum Collection
Artist: Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music
Review – Stealing of a Nation
Artist: Radio 4
THE BILL COMES DUE
Movie: The Hunting of the President
Review – Piano Sonata No. 2 “Concord”
Artist: Charles Ives
Movie: Maria Full of Grace
Maria Full of Grace Length: 1 hour, 41 minutes Studio: Fine Line Features Website: http://www.mariafullofgrace.com/main.html Release Date: 2004-09-03 Cast: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Yenny Paola Vega, Guilied Lopez, Patricia Rae, Orlando Tobon Director: Joshua Marston Screenwriter: Joshua Marston Music Score: Leonardo Heiblum WorkNameSort: Maria Full of Grace Our Rating: 4.00 If you’re looking for socially conscious…
THE BILL COMES DUE
Movie: The Hunting of the President
THE HUMAN TRADE
On July 16, the country’s first-ever national training conference on human trafficking was held in Tampa. The keynote speaker was President George W. Bush. It wasn’t the average stop on the campaign trail. Since 2000, shortly after President Bill Clinton signed the first antitrafficking policies into law, the Bush administration has placed a growing emphasis…
Paul M. Wegman 1944-2004
When accomplished local actor Paul M. Wegman died Aug. 24 at the age of 60 – another casualty of AIDS – he left behind a portfolio of great performances that will live in the minds of his fans. But those of us who knew him even marginally well are blessed with off-stage memories that are…
HOT TIME IN THE CITY
On Aug. 29, in New York City, I found a reason to love George W. Bush. It took a year and a half of life-changing decisions to lead me there. I quit a steady career at the Orlando Sentinel, wagered my savings and fiancée on a move from Florida to Brooklyn, found a job, got…
“Into each life …”
“I have a couple of devious plans if this thing passes.” — Jeb Bush, on the class-size amendment. “On Friday, Gov. Jeb Bush visited three schools in the hurricane zone, issuing an executive order suspending certain state requirements limiting class size … ” — The New York Times, Aug. 21, 2004 Aug. 6, 2004 FROM…
BY THE THROAT
Anyone who thinks that lyrics and poetry are interchangeable hasn’t spent enough time reading the former aloud or trying to sing the latter. Clipped of their melodies, good (and great) lyrics can be as ungainly as grounded birds. And poems often have their own internal musics that resist the contours of a truly singable melody.…
THEY CALL ME MR. DOWNTOWN
Of all of the aspirations on the hasty path to my current perfection – the impeccably frosted straight hair, the impeccably frosted straight guy, er, sobriety – there is only one that I can honestly still wrap my receding hairline around; one sad goal still attainable by odd, meager means; one flickering hope for perceived…
Having a little chicken salad on Church Street doesn’t hurt
Certain amenities are required of a city: A lovely park, timely sanitation management, a friendly chamber of commerce. But it’s a city’s arsenal of delis that really sustains its citizens. Even the most ardent foodies sometimes shun the trendy, the hip, the adventurous for a satisfying sandwich, a freezer case of lettuce-free salads and a…
IN THE FAMILY WAY
Can you feel it? Right about now, the 2004-2005 NFL season is a Janet Jackson nipple-slip away from kicking off. While this year’s off-the-field entertainment will assuredly be sanitized for your family’s protection, the action on the gridiron looks to be exceptional yet again. My hometown heroes, the New England Patriots, are gunning for their…
Protest over protestor numbers
Just how many people were there in the streets of New York protesting the Bush administration Aug. 29? Depends on your source. Our beloved Orlando Sentinel put the figure at a mere 100,000, because really, how many people could there be who actually disagree with Shrubbie? The Washington Post put the figure at 200,000, a…
BY THE THROAT
Anyone who thinks that lyrics and poetry are interchangeable hasn’t spent enough time reading the former aloud or trying to sing the latter. Clipped of their melodies, good (and great) lyrics can be as ungainly as grounded birds. And poems often have their own internal musics that resist the contours of a truly singable melody.…
PLUS ÇA CHANGE
The special program devised to promote “Tango: The Obsession” was just finishing up as I walked up the front steps of the Enzian Monday night. The screening, I soon learned, had been sandwiched between a dance demonstration and a Q&A session with the film’s director. A Festival staffer of my acquaintance greeted me at the…
Culture
The Lake By Yasunari Kawabata (Kodansha) Though this edition of The Lake is little more than a repackaging of the same translation that’s been in print for years, any excuse to discuss this underappreciated work is welcome. Kawabata was known for work (like the more-famous Snow Country) that was frighteningly melancholic in its use of…
Culture
Get Your War On II By David Rees (Riverhead, 176 pages) Imagine if you turned on network news one evening and instead of hearing bland jingoisms about “staying the course” or “liberating Iraq,” Stone Phillips or Tom Brokaw lit into a profane tirade about the debacle in Iraq? If this sounds amusing to you, then…
Culture
The harsh light of reality shines through some of the most notable entries in this year’s edition of the Florida Film Festival, betraying a marked emphasis on the documentary approach that speaks volumes about what we expect from film and what we think of ourselves. It’s no surprise that the “you are there” doctrine appears…
MONDO GONZO
After Hunter S. Thompson’s memoir (Kingdom of Fear) came out last year, more than one critic noted that the author had become a parody of his former self. Not unlike Woody Allen and his 10-year streak of atrocities, HST was plagiarizing from his own canon, doing the same thing that made him famous 30 years…
DIGGING IN THE DIRT
In July of 1995, an army of Bosnian Serbs overwhelmed the thinly armed resistance of Srebrenica and overtook the town. During its fall, Gen. Ratko Mladic is alleged to have said, “It is going to be a feast. There will be blood up to your knees.” And indeed he was right. Over the next five…
ARTIST IS LOOKING FOR JESUS IN ALL THE WRONG FACES – AND FINDS HIM
He has that look, that holy look. The flowing hair, the high cheekbones, the white skin. Warner Sallman’s well-known image of a very European-looking Jesus Christ, painted in 1940, may be hanging in your grandmother’s living room, but it’s not hanging in Trent Tomengo’s house. When Tomengo, the 36-year-old Oviedo-based painter, looks at the face…
GUESS WORK
The press release for the upcoming political play Us and Them announces that it has been “developed over the last nine months (and `at a cost of` $12,000).” But writer/director/producer Bob Di Cerbo isn’t trying to win us over with hints of high production values. He’s more interested in revealing the labor that was involved…
