Emily Carlson's movie blog

A Very Long Engagement - Emily Carlson

2008-01-22T10:35:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed this movie. I thought the sadness mixed with the qurkiness really made the film different. American critics have lambasted the director for this: I say, this is a French film, not American. What works there is different, I liked the change in pace and expectations. I would almost like to watch the movie again: reading the subtitles distracted me from the lovely scenes of old time Paris and the emotion of Audrey Tautou. I highly reccomend this film. Here are some summaries from IMDB:

Five desperate French soldiers during The Battle of the Somme shoot themselves, either by accident or with purpose, in order to be invalidated back home. Having been "caught" a court-martial convenes and determines punishment to be banishment to No Man's Land with the objective of having the Germans finish them off. In the process of telling this tale each man's life is briefly explored along with their next of kin as Methilde, fiancée to one of the men, tries to determine the circumstances of her lover's death. This task is not made any easier for her due to a bout with polio as a child. Along the way she discovers the heights and depths of the human soul. From the commander who wantonly and secretly destroys the men's pardon, to the amazing lengths one condemned man's friend goes to in an effort to save at least some of them. This movie operates at many levels. A love story. A mystery. A testament to brutality of "The War to End All Wars" and most particularly the men, women, and children affected by this dark and disturbing time in world history. Technically the cinematography (by Bruno Delbonnel) is amazing. Many scenes will have you asking how that was shot. The use of color, the score, the authenticity of the costume, the portrayal by the actors, the effects, and the story itself all combined to make a delightful feast of sound and vision. Look for a long cameo of Jody Foster. Amazing! Jean-Peirre Jeunet is a master. Written by Liam McBain

This film is inspiring, to follow what you believe and find your loved ones! A very moving film but very true to life! A story of five soldiers being summoned to No Mans Land and left to die. The film shows how these soldiers fought for their lives and how one particular solider, Manech, and his soon to be wife, played by Audrey Tautou, uncovers the truth to find out about his whereabouts. Written by Gem

Five desperate men shoot themselves in order to be relieved from the horrifying frontline at the Somme, in WWI. A court-martial decides to punish them by leaving them alone in no-man's land, to be killed in the crossfire. Then all hell breaks loose and they all die. Or not? One of these men's fiancée, a young girl who can't walk since age 3, receives information that makes her suspect his boyfriend might have gotten away alive. So she embarks in a painful, long and often frustrating ordeal to find out the truth. Written by Erwin van Moll {max404@hotmail.com}

From the director and star of "Amelie" (Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Audrey Tautou) comes a very different love story, "A Very Long Engagement," based on the acclaimed novel by Sebastien Japrisot. The film is set in France near the end of World War I in the deadly trenches of the Somme, in the gilded Parisian halls of power, and in the modest home of an indomitable provincial girl. It tells the story of this young woman's relentless, moving and sometimes comic search for her fiancée, who has disappeared. He is one of five French soldiers believed to have been court-martialed under mysterious circumstances and pushed out of an allied trench into an almost-certain death in no-man's land. What follows is an investigation into the arbitrary nature of secrecy, the absurdity of war, and the enduring passion, intuition and tenacity of the human heart. Written by bondish

Stardust - Emily Carlson

2008-01-20T15:13:00.000-08:00

Wow. Not what I was expecting at all. A fantasy movie, very Princess Bride style. Loaded with stars like Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Sienna Miller and Robert Di Niro, who should have left the script where they found it. Too long and over the top. I wouldn't reccomend it.

The passage from this world to the fantasy kingdom of Stormhold is through a breech in a wall by an English village. In the 1800s, a boy becomes a man when he ventures through the breech to prove his love for the village beauty by finding a fallen star. The star is no lump of rock, but a maiden, Yvaine, and Tristan, the youth, is not the only one searching for her: three witches, led by Lamia, want her heart to make them young. The sons of the dead king of Stormhold want her because she possesses a ruby that will give one of them title to the throne. Assisting Tristan are his mother, the victim of a spell, and a transvestite pirate of the skies. Will Tristan win his true love? Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}

A young man named Tristan (Charlie Cox) tries to win the heart of Victoria (Sienna Miller), the beautiful but cold object of his desire, by going on a quest to retrieve a fallen star. His journey takes him to a mysterious and forbidden land beyond the walls of his village. On his odyssey, Tristan finds the star, which has transformed into a striking girl named Yvaine (Claire Danes). However, Tristan is not the only one seeking the star. Lord Stormhold's (Peter O'Toole) three living sons not to mention the ghosts of their four dead brothers all need the star as they vie for the throne. Tristan must also overcome the evil witch, Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), who needs the star to make her young again. As Tristan battles to survive these threats, encountering a pirate named Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro) and a shady trader named Ferdy the Fence (Ricky Gervais) along the way, his quest changes. He must now win the heart of the star for himself as he discovers the meaning of true love

Marie Antoinette - Emily Carlson

2008-01-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

I watched this movie last night and at first I didn't like it. It's not an instant classic, like Pride and Prejudice, it's a little different with the rock music and a little akward at times. But I realized.. it's supposed to be like that. A glimpse into the world of Marie Antoinette. While I'm not a fan of Kirsten Dunst, I appreciate the movie now. It's not fabulous, but it's worth a watch. Here's a few reviews from IMDB.

"All eyes will be on you," says the Austrian duchess, Maria Theresa to her youngest daughter Marie Antoinette. The film, marketed for a teen audience, is an impressionistic retelling of Marie Antoinette's life as a young queen in the opulent and eccentric court at Versailles. The film focuses on Marie Antoinette, as she matures from a teenage bride to a young woman and eventual queen of France. Written by Scrltrose83

"Let them eat cake!" This is a motion picture detailing the life of Marie Antoinette after her betrothal to Louis XVI. From shoes to scandals, this movie outlines Marie Antoinette's nature, and her dedication to a life of fabulousness and outrageousness. We hear her utter those immortal words that caused such an outrage amongst the peasants of France, but we soon learn that it was a lie, as was much of her life. Written by Kristie M

Based on Antonia Fraser's book about the ill-fated Archduchess of Austria and later Queen of France, 'Marie Antoinette' tells the story of the most misunderstood and abused woman in history, from her birth in Imperial Austria to her later life in France. Written by David Gunning and Aimee Black

The Nanny Diaries - Emily Carlson

2008-01-14T19:27:00.000-08:00

I saw this movie with my mom the other night.. and I agree with this review - it was horrible! I thought Scarlett Johansson was a good actress, but she's awful in this. And Paul Giamatti looks really freaky. I didn't even recognize him! The movie was WAY too over the top.

Marjorie Baumgarten, The Austin Chronicle

Directed By: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, Alicia Keys, Nicholas Art, Donna Murphy, Chris Evans, Nathan Corddry, Judith Roberts
(PG-13, 105 min.)

An awful lot of good talent has been squandered in this by-the-numbers film version of the bestselling tell-all about the lifestyles and child-rearing habits of the rich residents of New York's Upper East Side. Last time out, co-writers and directors Springer Berman and Pulcini scored an artistic success with American Splendor, their film adaptation of Harvey Pekar's surly yet touching comic books about quotidian life in America. Their rendition of The Nanny Diaries, however, is flat-footed and tiresome, hitting the same notes over and over while tossing in an unnecessary romance and an acting performance by the musician Alicia Keys in a failed attempt to keep things spicy. Johansson and Linney are both excellent in the leads, as the college grad who takes a job as a nanny and the socialite/trophy wife whose self-obsession has no bounds. Linney, in particular, is at the top of her game here, with every inflection of her line delivery as perfect as her tasteful coif and grooming. Despite these well-shaped depictions (including that of American Splendor's Giamatti as the largely absent dad and husband), the film lacks any real bite or sass. It's hard to empathize with Annie Braddock (Johansson), a new college grad who's so daunted by the brightness of her future that she decides to downgrade her plans and accept a live-in nanny gig that Mrs. X (Linney) improbably offers to her when their paths cross in Central Park. Mrs. X is as stereotypically snooty as her son, Grayer (Art), is bratty – but of course, that's only until Annie (whose name everyone, in one of the film's running jokes, mistakes as Nanny) tames his overprivileged and underloved spirit. The same points are reiterated a number of times, though little evolves or changes. That's where the comments of a best friend (Keys) and mom (Murphy) help to fill out the story, as well as a coy romance with a guy (Evans) in an apartment upstairs. Annie's desire to become an anthropologist instead of the business exec she was schooled to become causes her to view everything she witnesses on the Upper East Side as a Museum of Natural History diorama. It's an effective device, although it seems somewhat similar to the ways in which the filmmakers handled the comic-books-to-real-life transitions in American Splendor. With all these spoons full of sugar, where's Mary Poppins when you need her?

The TV Set - Emily Carlson

2008-01-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

I watched this movie last night, it was funny, quarky and different. A short movie with a lot of good acting. I enjoyed the satire of the TV pilot, even though I am not very familiar with Hollywood. I would highly reccomend this movie!

A television network is making a pilot of Mike's quirky comedy based on the aftermath of his brother's suicide. As the network suits ask for change after change, and as Mike struggles with compromise, there are strains on families, execs who show rushes to their children, leads who feel each other out, and assistants who put a smile on everything. Can an honest show get made in the world of reality TV chasing an audience of teen-aged boys? Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}

David Duchovney's character writes a personal story that is being considered for a pilot. He is forced to accept a series of compromises from his choice for the male lead, to a intimate plot device (suicide), even down to the name of the pilot. On each issue he compromises his original vision in order to satisfy his desire to get the pilot 'picked up'. Rationalizing that having the pilot made in a compromised format is better than not at all, he gives in, only to see the final product turn out so far from the original smart and funny concept that he is ashamed of the outcome.

Eastern Promises - Emily Carlson

2008-01-08T23:53:00.000-08:00

This movie is next on my Netfix list. It was named one of the best Independent movies of the year, and looks quite good.

The mysterious and charismatic Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin is a driver for one of London's most notorious organized crime families of Eastern European origin. The family itself is part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood. Headed by Semyon, whose courtly charm as the welcoming proprietor of the plush Trans-Siberian restaurant impeccably masks a cold and brutal core, the family's fortunes are tested by Semyon's volatile son and enforcer, Kirill, who is more tightly bound to Nikolai than to his own father. But Nikolai's carefully maintained existence is jarred once he crosses paths at Christmastime with Anna Khitrova, a midwife at a North London hospital. Anna is deeply affected by the desperate situation of a young teenager who dies while giving birth to a baby. Anna resolves to try to trace the baby's lineage and relatives. The girl's personal diary also survives her; it is written in Russian, and Anna seeks answers in it. Anna's mother Helen does not discourage her, but Anna's irascible Russian-born uncle Stepan urges caution. He is right to do so; by delving into the diary, Anna has accidentally unleashed the full fury of the Vory. With Semyon and Kirill closing ranks and Anna pressing her inquiries, Nikolai unexpectedly finds his loyalties divided. The family tightens its grip on him; who can, or should, he trust? Several lives - including his own - hang in the balance as a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution reverberates through the darkest corners of both the family and London itself. Written by Focus Features

Hairspray

2008-01-01T12:23:00.000-08:00

I saw this movie last nite, it was enjoyable and fun. However, I think the original movie with Rikki Lake is a little better. I didn't think John Travolta was as convincing a mother, and Michelle Pheiffer was a little over the top. However, if you're in the mood for some light hearted non-heavy material, Hairspray is your movie. Here's a synopsis from IMDB.

May 3, 1962 begins the same as every other school day for Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky), a severly overweight high school student from Baltimore, Maryland. She endures a day's worth of boring classes so that she and her best friend Penny Pingleton (Amanda Bynes) can race home to catch their favorite TV program, The Corny Collins Show. The program, a teen dance show, is broadcast from Baltimore's station WYZT on weekday afternoons.

Some of the teenagers featured on the show also attend Tracy and Penny's school, in particular snobby rich girl Amber Von Tussle (Brittany Snow) and her heartthrob boyfriend Link Larkin (Zac Efron), with whom Tracy is madly in love. Amber's mother Velma (Michelle Pfeiffer) manages station WYZT, and goes out of her way to make sure Amber is prominently featured and that Corny Collins remains a segregated program. Corny Collins (James Marsden) and all of his "Council Kids" are white; black kids are only allowed on Corny Collins on "Negro Day", held the last Tuesday of each month and hosted by local R&B radio DJ Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah).

Neither Tracy's plus-sized shut-in laundress mother Edna (John Travolta) nor Penny's strict Catholic mother Prudy (Allison Janney) approve of their daughters basing their lives around a TV show, particularly one where teens dance to "race music". Tracy's father Wilbur (Christopher Walken), a joke-shop proprietor, is far more lenient. On one day's show, Corny Collins announces that one of his "Council Kids" is going on a leave of absence, and auditions for a replacement will be held the next morning - during school hours. However, Velma turns Tracy away at the audition for being overweight and supportive of integration. Tracy is sent to detention for skipping school, but finds that detention hall is where the black kids hang out and dance. Tracy befriends the detention hall's best dancer, Motormouth Maybelle's son Seaweed (Elijah Kelley), who teaches Tracy several R&B dance moves. These moves secure Tracy a spot on The Corny Collins Show.

Tracy quickly becomes one of Corny's most popular Council Kids and a threat to Velma's quest to have Amber win the show's yearly "Miss Teenage Hairspray" pageant. In addition, Tracy also becomes a threat to Amber's courtship with Link, as he becomes increasingly fond of Tracy and less so of Amber. Tracy's popularity earns her a sponsorship offer from clothes salesman Mr. Pinky (Jerry Stiller), who wants Tracy to be the spokesgirl for his "Hefty Hideaway" boutique for plus-sized women. Tracy convinces Edna to accompany her to the Hefty Hideaway and act as her negotiating agent, and in the process brings her mother's days as an agoraphobe to an end.

At school, Tracy eventually introduces Seaweed to Penny, and the two are instantly smitten with each other. One afternoon after Amber deliberately gets Tracy sent to detention, Link gets himself deliberately sent there in support of her. There Seaweed invites the girls and Link to follow him and his sister Little Inez (Taylor Parks) to a platter party at Motormouth Maybelle's record shop. At the party, Maybelle informs everyone that Velma has canceled Negro Day. Tracy suggests that Maybelle and the others stage a protest march, which they plan for the next afternoon, a day before the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant. Link, scheduled to sing at the pageant and worried about his budding career, backs out of the demonstration and accidentally offends Tracy in the process.

The next morning, Tracy sneaks out of the house to join the protest march, which comes to a halt at a police roadblock set up by Velma. The entire company of protesters is arrested, although Tracy manages to escape. She flees to the Pingletons' house, where Penny lets her hide out in a basement fallout shelter. However, Prudy discovers Tracy and calls the police, tying Penny to her bed upstairs with a jump rope. Seaweed and a few of the other detention kids (having been bailed out by Wilbur) arrive and help Tracy and Penny escape, and the kids concoct a plan to crash the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant. Meanwhile, Link visits Tracy's house in order to look for her, and realizes that he is as much in love with her as she is with him. Seaweed and Penny also acknowledge their love during the escape from her house.

With the pageant underway, Velma, leaving nothing to chance, places policemen around and inside station WYZT in order to prevent Tracy from entering. In addition, Velma switches the tallies from the pageant's phone lines so that Amber is guaranteed to win. Penny arrives at the pageant with an incognito Edna, while Wilbur, Seaweed, and the Detention Kids help Tracy sneak past the police and into the studio in time to participate in the Miss Teenage Hairspray dance-off. Link breaks away from Amber to dance with Tracy; then he pulls Inez, who has just arrived at WYZT with Maybelle, to the stage to dance for the pageant.

Against all expectations, Inez receives the most votes and wins the pageant, officially integrating The Corny Collins Show. A perturbed Velma loudly declares her frustration, informing her daughter of the tally-switching scheme. Unknown to Velma, Edna has turned a camera on her, and Velma's outburst is broadcast live on the air, getting her fired. Meanwhile, The Corny Collins Show set explodes into a celebration as Link and Tracy cement their love with a kiss.

The Hoax

2007-12-29T14:29:00.000-08:00

I had NO expectations for this movie, but I really really enjoyed it! I'm not even a RichardGere fan either! Now I am fasicated with Howard Hughes, and would love to learn more about him. Here is a synopsis from IMBD.

Early in 1971, McGraw-Hill passes on Clifford Irving's new novel. He's desperate for money, so, against the backdrop of Nixon's reelection calculations, Irving claims he has Howard Hughes's cooperation to write Hughes's autobiography. With the help of friend Dick Suskind, Irving does research, lucks into a manuscript written by a long-time Hughes associate, and plays on corporate greed. He's quick-thinking and outrageously bold. Plus, he banks on Hughes's reluctance to enter the public eye. At the same time, he's trying to rebuild his marriage and deflect the allure of his one-time mistress, Nina Van Pallandt. Can he write a good book, take the money, and pull off the hoax?

Blades of Glory

2007-12-26T13:32:00.001-08:00

I love this movie! It's laugh out loud, pee in your pants funny. A must see... Will Farrel is great in this flick~

When rivalry between the world's best men's figure skaters - sex addicted, improvisational Chazz Michael Michaels and germophobic, precise Jimmy MacElroy - breaks into a fight on the awards platform, they're banned from the event for life. Three years later, desire for a gold medal and a careful reading of the rules lead them to compete as skating's first male-male pair. Can they overcome mutual dislike, limited time to prepare, their coach's secret past, and the dirty tricks of their main opponents, the Van Waldenberg siblings? The key to victory or defeat may lie in the attraction of the virginal Jimmy toward Katie, the Van Waldenbergs' little sister. Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}

Chazz Michael Michaels and Jimmy MacElroy are two professional ice skaters, who after getting into a fight, are both banned from mens figures skating. Fortunately, it is soon discovered by an obsessed fan that they are banned from mens singles competition and not doubles competition. Now Chazz and Jimmy must team up as the first double mens team and take on the team of Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg, who are eager to do anything to get the victory. Written by Film_Fan

Mr. Brooks

2007-12-23T14:47:00.000-08:00

I just got this movie from Netflix. I've heard a lot about it, and am interested to see how Costner and Demi are... do they have chemistry? And how does he play a murderer? Here's the synopsis from Wikipedia.

Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner) is an upstanding business owner and family man, recently honored as the Portland Chamber of Commerce’s Man of the Year. In his secret life, Earl is a serial killer, hounded by his inner demons, manifested as the gleefully sadistic alter ego Marshall (William Hurt). While he has refrained from killing for the last two years, Brooks feels the urge rising once again and, spurred on by Marshall, murders a couple in their home. Despite killing them without noticing that their curtains are open, Earl follows his meticulous modus operandi, destroying all clothing and cleaning up the crime scene before departing.

The next day Earl attends his weekly meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, where he vaguely reveals his addiction without elaborating on the nature. Soon afterwards, Earl’s daughter Jane (Danielle Panabaker) returns home, having abruptly dropped out of Stanford. When pressed on her motives for abandoning college, Jane reveals that she’s pregnant, but Earl fears his daughter is hiding a much worse secret. Even more worrisome is the appearance of “Mr. Smith” (Dane Cook), a peeping tom who photographed Earl murdering the dancing couple. Fully aware of Earl's “Thumbprint Killer” alter ego, Smith demands to accompany Earl on his next murder, which Earl agrees to. As they troll for a victim, however, Smith becomes frustrated with Earl's meticulous preparations and grows nervous over Portland Detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore), chief investigator of the Thumbprint Killer case, who hounds Smith at every turn, suspecting he's hiding something. Tracy herself is distracted by personal problems, including a messy divorce from her sleazy estranged husband Jesse Vialo (Jason Lewis) and a violent serial killer named Meeks that she put away and has escaped to kill her because of it.

One day, Earl is shocked to find detectives outside his house, only to realize they are interested in speaking with his daughter, who left school following the murder of a student with a hatchet. Jane pleads innocence during questioning, but Earl realizes that his daughter may be guilty and afflicted with the same “addiction” he has. To deflect suspicion, he travels to her college campus in disguise and replicates the hatchet murder, making it appear the two murders are the work of a serial killer. At the same time, Earl and Marshall form a plan to address Mr. Smith's blackmail scheme, while researching Detective Atwood's background. Earl reevaluates his own life and decides that the best course of action for his family and friends is that he be murdered, a decision that infuriates Marshall. The plan involves taking Mr. Smith out on a promised thrill killing which would give Smith the confidence to kill Earl, to tie up loose ends.

Earl and Smith infiltrate a high-rise apartment and murder another couple, revealed as Atwood's estranged husband and his divorce attorney Sheila (Reiko Aylesworth), but not without Smith giving in to his nervousness by urinating himself on the floor of the apartment.

Meanwhile, Tracy requests a search warrant and goes to Mr. Smith’s apartment, believing him to be the Thumbprint Killer, but finds it empty, containing only an invoice with the furniture's forwarding address. Despite the attempt of her partner to bring her in for questioning in the killing of her estranged husband, she gets away to investigate the address where she coincidentally discovers it to be Meeks' hideout. In the ensuing gunfight, Tracy injures both Meeks and his girlfriend. Meeks kills his girlfriend and then commits suicide rather than being arrested.

Smith is now exhilarated by the killings and pulls a gun on Earl, who then reveals his intention to die at Smith's hands and spare his family the shame of his eventual arrest. The two arrive at a cemetery, where Earl stands in front of an open grave and beckons Smith to shoot him. Smith squeezes the trigger, but the gun doesn't fire. Earl, who reveals that he disabled Smith's gun should he change his mind, reveals that he wants to live to see his grandchild. Earl murders Smith with a shovel and rolls him into the grave. With Smith’s urine providing the only DNA sample of the Thumbprint Killer, Earl is beyond suspicion.

After the killings, Earl returns to his normal life, anonymously calling Atwood to find out why she became a cop, before hanging up. Despite his pretending to be Mr. Smith, Atwood realizes its not the same man. Later that night, Earl goes upstairs to bed, stopping in his daughter's bedroom. As he kisses his sleeping daughter, her eyes shoot open, and she stabs him in the neck with a pair of scissors and watches him bleed to death. Then she puts on his glasses. Earl wakes up, shuddering at the nightmare, and prays feverishly. The film ends with the exasperated voice of Marshall saying, 'Why do you fight it so hard Earl?'

La Vie en Rose

2007-12-19T08:40:00.000-08:00

I just watched this movie the other nite.. long, but I enjoyed it. Very choppy, moves back and forth is a confusing manner...but the music takes over and it's beautiful. This is a review by the New York Times.

A French Songbird’s Life, in Chronological Disorder
By A. O. SCOTT

As if acknowledging the challenges it faces in finding an American audience, “La Vie en Rose,” Olivier Dahan’s long, feverish film biography of Édith Piaf, notes that its heroine, an incomparably bright star in the French cultural firmament, never quite caught on over here. After a less than rapturous stateside reception, the film’s Piaf (played by Marion Cotillard) observes that Americans just don’t get her, and though she seems to have a good time in New York and California, the incomprehension appears to have been mutual. She won’t even try a corned beef sandwich at a Manhattan delicatessen.

But Mr. Dahan’s film goes some way toward bridging the gap. This is not because it explains Piaf’s appeal — though it does offer viewers a chance to sample the glories of her voice — but rather because it assimilates her life neatly into the conventions of the musical biopic. It turns out that we Americans don’t have a monopoly on singers and composers who emerge from traumatic childhoods, battle drug addiction, pursue difficult love affairs and win the hearts of millions. It also turns out that, while musical idioms sometimes have a hard time crossing the barriers of language and culture, certain narrative clichés are universal.

So if you have seen “Ray” or “Walk the Line,” you will hardly require a summary of “La Vie en Rose,” which flings its subject back and forth in time, simultaneously charting her rise from the tough streets of Paris and her decline into drug abuse and ill health. There are tearful confrontations, moments of bliss and betrayal, tantrums and onstage collapses, love affairs and business deals, all of it punctuated by the big, expressive, unmistakable singing of Piaf herself, as Ms. Cotillard, wide-eyed and fine-boned, lip-syncs along.

No one else could possibly be Édith Piaf, or Johnny Cash or Ray Charles (or Truman Capote or Muhammad Ali or anyone else on the ever-growing list). Their larger-than-life self-sufficiency adds a thrilling element of risk to the task of portraying any of them on film. Or so it would seem. Really, though, the audacity involved in taking up such a challenge predisposes audiences (and critics) to applause, as does the durable popularity of the originals. So it is hard not to admire Ms. Cotillard for the discipline and ferocity she brings to the role. But it is equally hard to be completely swept up in Mr. Dahan’s dutiful, functional and ultimately superficial film.

“La Vie en Rose,” which Mr. Dahan wrote as well as directed, has an intricate structure, which is a polite way of saying that it’s a complete mess. Resisting the habit of starting at the end and flashing back to the beginning, it begins at the late middle, goes back to the beginning, comes back to the near-end, jumps around in the early and middle middle and then noodles around between a bunch of almost-ends and the really absolutely final end, with a quick, baffling detour into an earlier part of the early middle. Clear enough?

The main casualty of this willy-nilly narration is any coherent sense of Piaf’s personality. It may be that Mr. Dahan and his collaborators did not want to subject their heroine to the indignity of psychological explanation, preferring to let her charisma rule the screen without qualification or compromise. And it is true that Ms. Cotillard is a dynamic, quick-witted performer, one whose sheer force of will goes some way toward showing how a funny-looking, abrasive street urchin could become the idol of postwar France.

But not quite far enough. Who was Piaf? The miserable childhood, with its saving moments of tenderness, is duly noted. Papa was a circus contortionist, Mama was a hopeless drunk, and little Édith lived for a while in Grandma’s brothel, where she was befriended by a soulful prostitute named Titine (Emmanuelle Seigner) and where she was briefly blinded by keratitis. Later Édith and her best pal, Momone (Sylvie Testud), sing on the streets of Paris — actually Momone makes faces and swigs wine while Édith belts out the songs — where Édith is discovered by a nightclub impresario (Gérard Depardieu).

He gives her a stage name. (Piaf means “sparrow.”) She is a hit. He is murdered. She is a suspect. What really happened? We don’t know, but in any case she soon moves on to a new mentor, and then to a love affair with the boxer Marcel Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins). Also at least one marriage, several car accidents and one brilliantly shot sequence, by far the best in the movie, in which she learns of a lover’s death.

To help us sort though it all, dates appear at the bottom of the screen. Oddly, the years of the Second World War are left out, an omission that seems puzzling given that Piaf is known to have aided the Resistance during the Nazi occupation (even as she continued to perform). But many of Mr. Dahan’s dramatic choices are puzzling, and his breathless camera movements seem driven more by desperation than by enthusiasm.

In the end, as often happens in movies of this kind, “La Vie en Rose” is saved by Piaf herself. Most of the songs in the film are accompanied by subtitles. (An exception is “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien,” the signature of her last years.) They are hardly necessary, given the undiminished power of that voice. Unfortunately the movie isn’t either.

“La Vie en Rose” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has subtitled swearing, drug use and some sexual references.

Factory Girl

2007-12-16T15:13:00.000-08:00

I am very excited to see this movie. It's been on my Netflix queue for over a month and I have heard great things about it. I have high expectations, and usually spells trouble!

This is a bio pic about Edie Sedgwick, (played magnificently by Sienna Miller) a waif-like rich girl who found favor with the celebrity media (hmmm, who does that sound like in todays culture?) in the 1960s through her association with pop artist, Andy Warhol (another great performance, this time by Guy Pearce). The pair of them form the core of a bunch of self-indulgent, unfettered sixties socialites that cling to Warhol, as he holds court at his studio (known as the factory, hence the title) as they live lives of excess and denial. Sedgwicks family is shown in a horrible light and Warhol is portrayed as an immature, narcissistic leech, constantly looking for rich people to exploit. Christensen plays folk singer, Billy Quinn, a fictional character rumored to be taking the place of Bob Dylan, who apparently had a relationship with Sedgwick.

A Love Song for Bobby Long

2007-12-12T07:15:00.001-08:00

This movie is very.. interesting. I should have known, I'm not a big John Travolta, and he is the drunk center in this movie. Not a great story line either. I thought I would be very impressed, but just came away so so. A little sad, a little melodramatic, a little boring.

Upon hearing of her mother's death, jaded teenage loner Purslane Hominy Will returns to New Orleans for the first time in years, ready to reclaim her childhood home. Expecting to find her late mother's house abandoned, Pursy is shocked to discover that it is inhabited by two of her mother's friends: Bobby Long, a former literature professor, and his young protégé, Lawson Pines. These broken men, whose lives took a wrong turn years before, have been firmly rooted in the dilapidated house for years, encouraged only by Lawson's faltering ambitions to write a novel about Bobby Long's life. Having no intention of leaving, Pursy, Bobby Long and Lawson are all forced to live together. Yet as time passes, their tenuous, makeshift arrangement unearths a series of buried personal secrets that challenges their bonds, and reveals just how inextricably their lives are intertwined.

Mira Nair’s The Namesake on NBR’s best Indie pics list

2007-12-06T17:36:00.000-08:00

Indian filmmaker Mira Nair’s film The Namesake has earned a place in the National Board of Review (NBR) awards’ list of best indie films of the year.

The film, based on Pulitzer Prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel of the same name, was among the four Fox Searchlight Pictures films that made it to NBR’s indie list.

The other three were Tamara Jenkins’ The Savages, John Carney’s Once and Adrienne Shelly’s Waitress.

Grim crime thriller No Country for Old Men, from brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, was named best film of 2007.

"We screened 328 films, and the diversity of these narratives is reflected in our 2007 ten best films. No Country for Old Men is a "brilliant convergence of extraordinary directing, a masterful screenplay and incredible ensemble performances,” Variety quoted NBR President Annie Schulhof, as saying.

George Clooney won best actor for his role as a conflicted attorney in Michael Clayton and Julie Christie earned the best actress honour playing an Alzheimer's disease sufferer who puts herself into a nursing facility in Away From Her.

The best director prize went to filmmaker Tim Burton for his dark retelling of Sweeney Todd starring Johnny Depp.

Oscar-winning actor-producer Michael Douglas was honoured with the career achievement award.

The NBR's list of top 10 films includes Assassination of Jesse James, Atonement, Sean Penn's Into the Wild and The Kite Runner, as well as action film The Bourne Ultimatum.

Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly won the best foreign film award. Body of War won best documentary and Ratatouille was named best-animated feature.

Awards will be handed at a gala dinner at Cipriani in Gotham on Jan. 15.

Paris, je t'aime

2007-12-03T15:12:00.000-08:00

Can't wait to see this movie!

Paris, je t'aime is about the plurality of cinema in one mythic location: Paris, the City of Love. Twenty filmmakers will bring their own personal touch, underlining the wide variety of styles, genres, encounters and the various atmospheres and lifestyles that prevail in the neighborhoods of Paris. Each director has been given five minutes of freedom, and we, as producers, carry the responsibility of weaving a single narrative unit out of those twenty moments. The 20 films will not appear in the order of the arrondissements, from one to twenty, but rather, in a pertinent narrative order, initially unknown to the audience. They will be fused together by transitional interstitial sequences, and also via the introduction and epilogue sequences of the feature film. Each transition will begin with the last shot of the previous film and will end with the first shot of the following film, and will have a threefold function: 1) The first is to extend the enchantment and the emotion of the previous segment, 2) The second is to prepare the audience for the surprise of the next segment, and 3) The third is to provide a general, comfortable and cohesive atmosphere to the feature film. The delightful and brief interludes of these transitions will enable the viewer to slide from one world to the next, featuring a recurring and unexpected character. This mysterious character is a witness to the Parisian life and helps create a continuous narration. It appears both in and in-between the films. In addition to the information these transitions will provide about the city and its people, their tone will be intentionally light often referring to famous scenes easily attributed to the history of Paris cinema. Similar specifications will be followed by the composer who will supervise the musical fusion between the films and the transitions as he creates the musical score of Paris, je t'aime. Considering the common theme of Paris and Love, the fusion between the films and the transitions, the fast pace of a fluid and complete storytelling, Paris, je t'aime will not be just another "anthology" picture. It will be a unique collective feature film that will constitute a two-hour cinematographic spectacle whose original structure will make for a dramatically different experience for its global audience

Evening

2007-12-01T16:42:00.000-08:00

Kind of depressing flick. Lots of heavy messages about regret, death, and love... but definetly NOT an uplifting movie. Fantastic performances though.

An all-star cast of the greatest actresses of our time - including Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave, Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Natasha Richardson and Glenn Close - come together in this passionate and heartwarming story. As Ann (Redgrave) reflects on one beautiful and life-changing weekend with the one true love of her life, her daughters (Collette and Richardson) come to their own understanding about the power of the past and the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters, family, and the loves of their lives.

Overcome by the power of memory, Ann Lord reveals a long-held secret to her concerned daughters; Constance, a content wife and mother, and Nina, a restless single woman. Both are bedside when Ann calls out for the man she loved more than any other. But who is this "Harris,"wonder her daughters, and what is he to our mother? While Constance and Nina try to take stock of Ann's life and their own lives, their mother is tended to by a night nurse as she journeys in her mind back to a summer weekend some fifty years ago, when she was Ann Grant, a young woman who has come from New York City to be maid of honor at the high-society Newport wedding of her dearest friend from college, Lila Wittenborn. The bride-to-be is jittery, and turns to her maid-of-honor, rather than her own mother, for support. Ann stays close to her friend, yet is even closer to Lila's irrepressible brother Buddy. Unexpected feelings surge forth once Ann meets wedding guest Harris Arden, a lifelong friend and intimate of the Wittenborn family. Ann's love for Harris will change her life, and those of her daughters, forever.

The Namesake

2007-11-29T18:11:00.000-08:00

Very excited to see this movie! Read the book, but I swear, have you ever seen a movie that was better than the book?

While traveling by train to visit his grandfather in Jamshedpur, Calcutta born, Bengali-speaking Ashoke Ganguli meets with fellow-traveler, Ghosh, who impresses upon him to travel, while Ashoke is deep into a book authored by Nicholai Gogol. The train meets with an accident, and after recuperating, Ashoke re-locates to America, settles down, returns home in 1977 to get married to aspiring singer, Ashima, and returns home to New York. Shortly thereafter they become parents of a boy, who they initially name Gogol, and a few years later both give birth to Sonia. The family then buy their own house in the suburbs and travel to India for the first time after their marriage. The second time they travel to India is when Gogol and Sonia are in their late teens, and after a memorable visit to Kolkata and then to the Taj Mahal, they return home. Gogol falls in love with Maxine Ratliff and moves in with her family, while Ashoke spends time traveling, and Sonia moves to California, leaving Ashima all her by herself. The Ganguli family will be destined to travel to India again soon - this time under very different circumstances - and after all have endured life-changing events.

Waitress

2007-11-27T18:11:00.000-08:00

Waitress is out on DVD today!

I am really excited to watch the independent movie, which has gotten rave reviews!

Jenna is unhappily married, squirreling away money, and hoping to win a pie-baking contest so, with the prize money, she'll have enough cash to leave her husband Earl. She finds herself pregnant, which throws her plans awry. She bakes phenomenal pies at Joe's diner, listens to old Joe's wisdom, tolerates her sour boss Cal, is friends with Dawn and Becky (her fellow waitresses), and finds a mutual attraction with the new doctor in town. As the pregnancy advances, life with Earl seems less tolerable, a way out less clear, and the affair with the doctor complicated by his marriage. What options does a waitress have?

Enchanted

2007-11-25T18:21:00.000-08:00

Here's the new spoof on Disney movies, out this weekend. Hum.. I like Patrick Dempsey, McDreamy, but this looks a little silly.

From Yahoo movies:

The tale follows the beautiful princess Giselle as she is banished by an evil queen from her magical, musical animated land--and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn't operate on a "happily ever after" basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer who has come to her aid--even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale prince back home--she has to wonder: can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?
A live-action story about a fairytale princess from the past who is thrust into present-day Manhattan by an evil queen. Soon after her arrival, Princess Giselle begins to change her views on life and love after meeting a handsome lawyer.

Emily Carlson unsure about Beowulf

2007-11-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

Emily Carlson isn't sure about the new movie Beowulf. Why is it animated with real people? I'm sure they had to pay Angelina Jolie and ton of cash to use her voice and likeness... why wouldn't they just have her REALLY do the movie, and not some image of her?

Here's a synopsis from Wikipedia:

This adaptation of Beowulf tells the story of how the warrior Beowulf helps King Hrothgar protect Heorot from the powerful Grendel. After defeating Grendel, Beowulf incurs the wrath of Grendel's mother, who seduces him in order to conceive a son. Beowulf leaves with Grendel's head to secure his reputation and claims to have also killed the mother. Fifty years after these encounters, Beowulf discovers that he has a third antagonist to battle with: a ferocious dragon that turns out to be his son. After a fierce battle that ends in the death of both warriors, Grendel's mother is once again left childless.

Emily Carlson watches Pretty Woman

2007-11-18T20:10:00.000-08:00

Tonight, Emily Carlson watched Pretty Woman. Twice. In a row. I forgot how much I love that movie! It's actually the only movie I like Richard Gere in. Here's a summary from Wikipedia:

Pretty Woman is a 1990 American romantic comedy motion picture. The film centers around the title character, down-on-her-luck prostitute Vivian Ward, (Julia Roberts), who is hired by an exceedingly wealthy business man, Edward Lewis, (Richard Gere), to be his escort for several business functions, and their developing relationship.
Pretty Woman was initially intended to be a dark drama about prostitution in Los Angeles but was reconceptualized into a romantic comedy. The film was a critical success and became one of 1990's highest grossing films, and today is one of the most financially successful entries in the romantic comedy genre, with an estimated gross of $464 million USD. Roberts received a Golden Globe for her role, and was nominated for an Academy Award.

2007-11-16T10:30:00.000-08:00

Emily Carlson is really excited to see the movie 'Lions for Lambs.' While I am NOT a Tom Cruise fan, the plot looks intriguing, and I think Meryl Streep is a genius. I'll let you know what I think after I see it...

Directed by Academy Award® winner Robert Redford, the story begins after two determined students at a West Coast University, Arian (Derek Luke) and Ernest (Michael Pena), follow the inspiration of their idealistic professor, Dr. Malley (Redford), and attempt to do something important with their lives. But when the two make the bold decision to join the battle in Afghanistan, Malley is both moved and distraught. Now, as Arian and Ernest fight for survival in the field, they become the string that binds together two disparate stories on opposite sides of America. In California, an anguished Dr. Malley attempts to reach a privileged but disaffected student (Andrew Garfield) who is the very opposite of Arian and Ernest. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C. the charismatic Presidential hopeful, Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise), is about to give a bombshell story to a probing TV journalist (Meryl Streep) that may affect Arian and Ernest's fates. As arguments, memories and bullets fly, the three stories are woven ever more tightly together, revealing how each of these Americans has a profound impact on each other and the world.

MOVIES!

2007-11-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

I, Emily Carlson, am a MOVIE FREAK. My favorite thing to do is curl up on the couch with a big bag of popcorn and enjoy a flick. Here are a few of my favorites:

It's A Wonderful Life: George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) has the picture perfect life: a loving wife, four young children, and his own business that he inherited from his father. However, things are not as they appear; On Christmas Eve, George encounters severe business difficulties at the Bailey Building and Loan due to an error by Uncle Billy who loses the cash that they owe the bank, owned by the Scrooge-esque Mr. Potter. This leads George to a life crisis, forcing him to contemplate the unthinkable act of suicide but he is saved at the last moment by the apperance of his guardian angel, Clarence. Clarence shows George how much his life meant by showing him how the world would be without him. Finally, George is convinced and Clarence returns him to the world as if nothing had happened. George returns home to find the entire community gathered at his house to raise money for his consistently philanthropic loan business. Even Mr. Potter's accountant donates money to the cause. The movie concludes with George's brother, Harry, bursting in the door, back from the war, and, to the sounds of the whole community singing of the "Auld Lang Syne" song, a bell rings and George finds out Clarence finally achieved his goal as an angel and obtained his wings.

Gone With the Wind: This classic film narrates the love between Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler during the American civil war. It's the history of a selfish woman who doesn't want to admit her feelings about the man she loves, and finally loses him.

The Bourne Ultimatum: Bourne is once again brought out of hiding, this time inadvertently by London-based reporter Simon Ross who is trying to unveil Operation BlackBriar--an upgrade to Project Treadstone--in a series of newspaper columns. Bourne (Damon) sets up a meeting with Ross (Considine) and realizes instantly they're being scanned. Information from the reporter stirs a new set of memories, and Bourne must finally, ultimately, uncover his dark past whilst dodging The Company's best efforts in trying to eradicate him.

The Sound of Music: Maria had longed to be a nun since she was a young girl, yet when she became old enough discovered that it wasn't at all what she thought. Often in trouble and doing the wrong things, Maria is sent to the house of a retired naval captain, named Captain Von Trapp, to care for his children. Von Trapp was widowed several years before and was left to care for seven 'rowdy' children. The children have run off countless governesses. Maria soon learns that all these children need is a little love to change their attitudes. Maria teaches the children to sing, and through her, music is brought back into the hearts and home of the Von Trapp family. Unknowingly, Maria and Captain Von Trapp are falling helplessly in love, except there are two problems, the Captain is engaged, and Maria is a postulant!