From the opening scene, director Jack Smight (Damnation Alley, Midway, Airport 1975) exhibits an ability to `show’ the story through cinematography and action rather instead of telling it through dialogue and actors – viewers actually learn a lot before any single character really opens his/her mouth (a tribute to the mood of Ray Bradbury stories, perhaps).
When a married Arlene Groden (Joan Allen) tells her house guest, William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost), that although it’s nice he’s expressed his love for her, it can be accounted for by the power of New Mexico, I knew I would express my love for this understated, eccentric, and satisfying film. While the two male heroes, Gibbs and Arlene’s husband, Charley (Sam Neill), are both depressed in the clinical sense, the film is not about depression but rather the forces of devotion and simplicity that keep these retro-hippies functioning in a remote world somewhere around Santa Fe, Taos, and El Paso.
Precious, 2012, Capitalism: A Love Story, this is our list of best films of 2009. Read More
The quote for my title is from a good British, crime film named RocknRolla, which was directed by Madonna’s ex-hubby Guy Ritchie. This was a pretty interesting movie on all levels: it had great humor, subtle violence, and characters that you’ll never forget.
Civil Rights & Jim Crow for the “Eat, Pray, Love” Generation
“You is kind. You is smart. You is important” is the mantra that Abileen Clark (Viola Davis), a domestic worker in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s, uses to comfort and empower her employer’s daughter. Neglected by a mother who finds her too chubby and cumbersome, and a constantly absent father, Abileen is the only caring adult in the girl’s life, the one who’s there for her through real and metaphorical storms. This all while being told, she is nothing short of the opposite of her own mantra.
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