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Archive for October, 2010

United Way half of Maine will host the main selection of “Waiting for Superman” at 7 pm tonight at the Railroad Square Cinema. The film is directed by Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”). Waiting for Superman follows Anthony Francisco, Bianca, Daisy and Emily – young people behind the statistics of education today – on a test system public education.

The documentary’s key point is that we can not exclude the possibility of future for their children. In order to promote excellence in education and a bright future for all children, communities must engage in dialogue to ensure quality education and a bright future for every young person.

United Way of Mid-Maine Educare partners with Central Maine, Bangor Savings Bank, Holiday Inn, Plum Creek and Railroad Square Cinema will host a rally before the show at Central Maine Educare, and a reception after the show at Holiday Inn. Tickets are $ 20 each and include access to the collection of pre-show, film screening and reception.

127 hours, based on the true story of the battle of a man and his way of sacrifice while trapped in the canyons of Utah, is a stimulant, disturbing piece, revealing great entertainment. See a director Danny Boyle, the man is exactly the kind of fun for people who may be remembered during awards season.

127 hours shoots of the cannon fires at a ridiculous speed. Energy that comes from the movie the first half hour is enough to give the viewer more adventurous adrenaline.

These high-octane sequences introduce the audience to Aron, a real life daredevil who clearly lives life to the fullest in every way. Aron is the kind of scattered individual that would jump off Niagara Falls for fun, but good luck having a cohesive conversation with him for more than five minutes. He’s far too busy playing Russian roulette with life to answer his mother’s yearning voicemails, or tell his boss where he’s headed for the weekend. Even when the sprightly climber encounters two attractive girls lost in the desert while canon jumping in Moab, Aron only allows he to decelerate briefly, before zipping off like the roadrunner to encounter his next challenge.

However, unbeknownst to Aron, the cruel hand of Mother Nature has other plans. While attempting to cross over a dangerous canyon, he slips at falls, dislodging a massive boulder that literally crushes his hand and pins it to the mountain. Initially panicked, Aron tries everything in his might to life the massive rock off his arm, but to no avail.

That’s when things get interesting. At this point, the title of the film flashes across the screen, which is likely to cause a pit in audiences’ stomachs as they realize this is only the beginning. Whether he lives or dies, Aron is stuck in between this rock for the next five days, and the viewer’s must endure his journey as well.

I would be hard pressed to think of any film in the past ten years that really makes you feel as if you are right there with Aron, feeling every bit of his pain, going hungry with him, slipping out of reality with him and finally, and most importantly, suffering through the imminent decision necessary for his possible survival. Director Boyle completely immerses the viewer in Aaron’s experience. Throughout the five days, Aron recounts deep memories of childhood and first love, but also about the beautiful simplistic things, such as the insatiable desire for a lukewarm Gatorade that’s sitting back in his jeep, or the absolute joy derived from feeling 15 minutes of sunlight against one’s body. It’s all of these things that Aron took for granted in life, and it is those things that we take for granted as well.

James Franco is the screen for almost the entire 90-minute performance, and is an attractive hero, and man. Create some live photos of Aron Ralston real life filmed with a video camera, in a haunting, accurate manner. In other sections, Franco acts entirely through facial expressions, using multiple layers reveal phenomenal. A look at his eyes reveals an immense sadness, guilt, fear and regret. This is by far the best performance of an actor’s career has risen steadily.

127 hours is not perfect. Aron Boyle trying to gain sympathy during the flashbacks of his distant relationship between the parent and the loss of his first love is not always successful, proceed to the cold and inefficient. In addition, the last fifteen minutes is controlled so hard that the film almost Veers get rolling in the eye area. However, as a fear claustrophobic account of one man’s struggle for survival, or even as a manifestation of what we should all appreciate all that life hands, 127 hours is 94 minutes of movie star full of joy, horror, sacrifice and redemption.

The Gotham Independent Film Awards, , have nominated a number of movies with a jumping  gun on the 2010 prize season, that have actually played Charm City and/or premiered at the Maryland Film Festival. Even one of the “Best Films Not Playing at a Theater Near You” was the closing presentation at the Chesapeake Film Festival. And a couple of nominees have Baltimore or Maryland creative connections.

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You (and they mean anywhere, including Baltimore): “Kati with an i” by Robert Greene, director; “Littlerock” by Mike Ott; “On Coal River” by Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood (the closing attraction at the Chesapeake Film Festival); “Summer Pasture” by Lynn True and Nelson Walker; “The Wolf Knife” by Laurel Nakadate.

Best Feature: Three have opened in Baltimore: “The Kids Are All Right” by Lisa Cholodenko (Baltimore-bred Bart Walker, a partner in Cinetic Media, helped get it to the screen); “Let Me In” by Matt Reeves; and “Winter’s Bone” by Debra Granik, who grew up in Maryland. “Black Swan” by Darren Aronofsky and “Blue Valentine” by Derek Cianfrance have not yet been released or shown at festivals here.

Best Documentary: “12th & Delaware” by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady played at the Maryland Film Festival and has aired on HBO; “The Oath” by Laura Poitras also played at the MFF and has aired on PBS; “Public Speaking” by Martin Scorsese and “Sweetgrass” by Lucien Castai haven’t been seen at festivals or regular screenings here; “Inside Job,” by Charles Ferguson, arrives November 5.

Best Ensemble Performance: “Tiny Furniture” played at the Maryland Film Festival; “Please Give” had a good run at the Charles; “The Kids Are All Right” (again, a Baltimore hit); “Winter’s Bone” (ditto); “Life During Wartime.”

Breakthrough Director: John Wells for “The Company Men”; Kevin Asch for “Holy Rollers”; Glenn Ficarra and John Requa for “I Love You Phillip Morris”; Tanya Hamilton for “Night Catches Us” (Hamilton came to the Maryland Film Festival with her movie); Lena Dunham for “Tiny Furniture” (Dunham also came to the MFF with her movie).

Breakthrough Actor: Prince Adu in “Prince of Broadway”; Ronald Bronstein in “Daddy Longlegs” (Bronstein came with the film to the Maryland Film Festival, along with directors Josh and Benny Safdie); Greta Gerwig in “Greenberg” (a hit in Baltimore, now on DVD — and Gerwig has been a frequent guest of the MFF, though not for this film); Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone” (as noted, a favorite in Baltimore); John Ortiz in “Jack Goes Boating” (also played in Baltimore).

The all time sexiest singer MADONNA has desires to settle back in London.

Madonna was married with British citizen and Film director Guy Ritchie. However they get prompted their divorce on 2008 removed her British citizenship and moved back to her motherland, the United States of America.

The Material Girl Madonna herself wants to head back to Great Britain because she “feels her heart is” in London. Since she’s no longer a British citizen by virtue of marriage, Madonna has to apply for a visa to legally settle in the British country.

“Madonna has loved being back in the States since the divorce but England is where she feels her heart is now,” a source said.

“She is deliberately focusing on work that will keep her in Britain.

“She has had meetings with her London legal team, Mischon de Reya, to arrange a visa that will enable her to move back for good. Now that she is no longer a British citizen by virtue of being married to Guy, she has to apply like everyone else.”

Rocco,10 years old,Guy Ritchie’s legitimate son,is able to stay in Britain.However,his other siblings, Lourdes,13, and adopted kids David Banda,5, and Mercy James,4, will need their mother to complete all the necessary documents before they can stay and live in U.K.

“The other children will automatically gain visas as Madonna’s dependents as long as she can get past the paperwork,” the source added.

“The past couple of years have been the breath of fresh air Madonna needed after her divorce, but Madonna is now ready to hold the British lifestyle again.”

‘Greed is back!’ trumpet the ads. What they really mean is ‘Gordon Gekko returns!’

Because it’s the promised repeat of Michael Douglas’s decade-defining turn as the reptilian Wall Street raider – a performance that won him an Oscar way back when Catherine Zeta-Jones was merely an 18-year-old wannabe – that will suck viewers back into cinemas.

Movie reviews: More of this week’s film releases go under the Metro.co.uk microscope

The plot sees the now disgraced, seemingly penitent Gekko out of prison, out of the financial game and hitting the celeb circuit with his book Is Greed Good? Meanwhile, his estranged, eco-activist daughter (Carey Mulligan in a ‘look cute and blub’ girlfriend role unworthy of her talents) refuses to talk to him until she’s coaxed into it by her fiancé (the ever pointless Shia LaBeouf), a talented young trader who, unbeknown to her, has already secretly adopted Gekko as his mentor in an ominously Faustian pact. A frustratingly sidelined Douglas still twinkles and gets one blow-your-braces-off emotional confrontation with Mulligan but the rest of the film is a disappointingly stagey plod, particularly compared to the 1987 original. True, it’s a tough call to make the ins and outs of the sub-prime mortgage crash thrilling viewing, but writer/director Oliver Stone fails to capitalise on his material. New lines such as ‘the mother of all evil is speculation’ are hardly on a par with classic Gekko mantras such as ‘lunch is for wimps’.

It looks slick, it keeps your attention and, LaBeouf aside, the cast (also including Frank Langella and Josh Brolin) is gold standard but the script never really grasps the zeitgeist. Bottom-line result: greed may still be good – it’s just not that great.

San Diego Film Festival consisted of the premiere of Leland Orser’s feature film directorial debut entitled Morning, a Q and A with Leland and company after the film and a glamorous rooftop after party at the Se hotel.  The 9th annual San Diego Film Festival kicked off to a successful start at the Gaslamp Theater in Downtown San Diego. A variety of filmmakers, actors, writers, producers, directors and fans came to mingle, and share their mutual love for the art of cinema. Robin Laatz, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the San Diego Film Festival, was also present in the midst of all the excitement. The red carpet led the way into the Gaslamp Theater lobby, where many got the opportunity to catch a glimpse of Leland Orser, whose past work consists of parts in Seven, Saving Private Ryan and the Bone collector.

Mini-Review of Morning:

At the San Diego Film Festival  Leland, as a director, takes a minimalist approach to directing this film and it looks and feels like no other director’s style.  The film explores the alienated, agonizing journey to the acceptance of death. Leland Orser throws the audience in a consuming darkness that none of us ever want to drown in, with his tragic film, Morning, about the immediate four days after a couple loses their child. As the film rolls along, the couple, as well as the audience, learns to tread in these dark waters.

Mark Munroe, Leland, and Alice Munroe, the exceptional Jeanne Tripplehorn, tear away in separate paths to drag themselves through that necessary journey alone.  Leland has very few lines of dialogue as Mark, trapping himself within his house, letting the boy inside the man grieve. His actions and mannerisms are more powerful, and cut deeper, than any dialogue would have done. Alice Munroe unsuccessfully interacts with the world, attempting to stay at her friend’s house that has experienced loss in the past, but Alice feels that she does not fit anywhere. It’s as if she is the only one of her kind, and in a way she is for temporary moments. The world contradicts the unique pain they both feel, as Leland shows us that the world never stops, making the journey of these characters a heroic feat to accomplish.

On top of Leland Orser and Jeanne Tripplehorn, the rest of the cast, which includes Laura Linney, Elliott Gould, Jason Ritter and Kyle Chandler, all give wonderful performances. The editing and cinematography, such as the notable incorporation of the blurred flashbacks to happier times with the couple and their child, both deepen the wound of the tragedy. Leland Orser has entered a fine film into the world of cinema with Morning, showing the extraordinary human capability to endure.

After the film, Leland and company did a Q & A session, answering a number of interesting questions.  The crowd responded to the film with a round of applause and Leland, sharply dressed, took center stage and light-heartedly apologized for making the audience watch a film with such a tragic story. Leland discussed how the film started out as a short and expanded into a feature film that’s a little over an hour and a half.  The director also discussed a few humorous stories during production, like how Kyle Chandler jokingly kissed him first before he had to do a scene that required aggressively kissing Leland’s wife, Jeanne Tripplehorn. He also went into how he prepared for this film, character-wise, by distancing himself from his family as much as possible so the two lives wouldn’t collide in any way.

There are many great films in store for tomorrow and the weekend, such as Nowhere Boy, Welcome to the Rileys and the inspirational documentary, My Run.  Get passes, tickets and more information at the San Diego Film Festival website. The San Diego Film Festival continues today with films such as The Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher, and A Little Help, starring Jenna Fischer and Chris O’Donnell.