Saturday, September 13, 2008

Friday, September 12, 2008

LEMON TREE




Drama
Original title: Etz Limon
In Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles

BACKGROUND

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Doron Tavory: Israel Navon, the Defense Minister of Israel
Rona Lipaz-Michael: his wife Mira
Hiam Abbass: Salma Zidane, owner of a lemon grove
Ali Suliman: Palestinian lawyer Ziad Daud

REVIEW
A movie that touches upon the continuing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians could well serve one side or the other. This one does not: it is a balanced portrayal of conflict at the personal level with no hint of bias. That in itself is quite a trick.

On more than a few occasions things go unsaid or the screen fades to black and we are left to figure it out ourselves. Quite refreshing. The acting throughout is excellent and done in a very convincing manner. In fact the whole film has that ring of truth about it.

CLASSIFICATION

Saturday, September 6, 2008

AMAL




Drama
Mostly in Hindi with English subtitles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Rupinder Nagra: Amal Kumar, an auto rickshaw driver in New Delhi
Koël Purie: Pooja Sethone of Amal’s regular clients, owner of a small business
Naseeruddin Shah: Mr. Jayaram, not one of Amal’s regulars
Tanisha Chatterjee: 10-year-old ? Priya
Seema Biswas: Ms. Sapna Agarwal, an estate lawyer
Roshan Seth: Suresh, one of her employees
Vik Sahay: Suresh’s nephew, Vivek Jayaram
Amardeep Jha: Amal’s mother, Radha

REVIEW
This is a simple tale about someone who chooses to live a modest life serving others. The leisurely pace of the story contrasts sharply with the hectic traffic Amal deals with daily. The acting for the most part is quite good although there are moments when it feels a little unreal. One other thing: greater effort should have gone into the post-production editing phase as some scenes drag on a bit.


CLASSIFICATION

WHO IS KK DOWNEY?




Dark comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Darren Curtis: Terrance, lead singer of his band The Black Guts
Matt Silver: his best friend and the band’s drummer Theo Huxtable
Pat Kiely: music critic ? Connor
Kristin Adams: Sue, Terrance’s ex

REVIEW
Unconventional, unrealistic, unsavory and vulgar. I walked out after 10 minutes when Connor alone in his bedroom began to … oh never mind; you don’t want to know.


CLASSIFICATION
presumably for drug use, profanity, sexual situations.

TRAITOR




Action\adventure

F.Y.I.
The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) is a computerized index of criminal justice information. The database includes criminal record history information, fugitives, stolen properties and missing persons. It is available to Federal, state, and local law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies.

Semtex is a general-purpose plastic explosive. It was first made by the Semtín East Bohemian Chemical Works in the Czech Republic; it is used in commercial blasting, demolition, and in certain military applications. Semtex became notoriously popular with terrorists because it was, until recently, extremely difficult to detect. It is also known as terrorist playdough.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Don Cheadle: Samir Horn, former U.S. Special Operations officer
Saïd Taghmaoui: Omar, member of a fundamentalist Islamic terrorist group
Guy Pearce: FBI agent Roy Clayton
Neal McDonough: his partner Max Archer
Aly Khan: Fareed, Omar’s boss in Marseilles France
Archie Panjabi: Chandra, Horn’s lady friend from Chicago
Jeff Daniels: a veteran CIA contractor Carter

REVIEW
The title gives us a clue: not everything is as it appears. Trouble is, to figure out just who fits that description.

Without any unnecessary pyrotechnics nor the too frequent chase scenes that are the mainstay of most movies of this type, we can actually spend time becoming engrossed in the story itself. And it’s a good one, one that makes you think.

The acting is uniformly good (Cheadle in particular) and the cinemaphotography top notch. The pacing is fine and there is a ring of truth about the whole thing.


CLASSIFICATION
for intense violent sequences, thematic material and brief language.