August 26th, 2006
Films to see, films to avoid
Just wanted to mention two of three recent/new films that are definitely worth seeing: Volver and Little Miss Sunshine. Volver is Pedro Almodovar’s luminous inter-generational look at a family and its ghostly matriarch, and clocks a five star review from The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw. Little Miss Sunshine is a funny, quirky, well-scripted look at a warring family on a roadtrip. RV it ain’t.
The turkey in the bunch is The Sentinel starring a haggard Michael Douglas, an under-used Kiefer Sutherland and a fairly anaemic Eva Longoria. It’s your Hollywood- Presidential-assassination-attempt-with-a-bit-of-The-Fugitive thrown in. It’s not a comedy but nearly everyone at the screening laughed all the way through. Plotholes we can forgive, over-reliance on coincidence can be overlooked but when the script, and in particular the dialogue is this woeful, we won’t apologies for giggling. Lots of “Who Sent You?!”s, gadget trickery and a rivalry based on a personal grudge. You get the picture.
August 26th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
I was about to see Volver last night, but that would have involved an hour’s waiting. Instead, I saw Look Both Ways in the IFI. Very morbid, and rarely uplifting. Not sure what to think of it really.