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July 25, 2007
Broken English
(out of four)
Broken English takes 30 minutes to do what most romantic comedies manage with a simple montage. That's a good thing, by the way. In the post-Seinfeld, post-Sex and the City world of speed dating, nothing indicates the leading lady has given up on love like a series of bad (usually blind) dates that fizzle over superficial reasons, like having "man hands" or "funky spunk."
Broken English thinks more of its audience and its characters. Nora Wilder (Parker Posey) is nearing 40. Her best friend (Drea de Matteo) is married, perhaps not happily so, but at least advantageously attached. Even her mother (Gena Rowlands) has found a second love. Meanwhile, Nora's stuck on the road to spinsterhood, too jaded to put much hope in the men she meets.
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Posted by Peter Debruge at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
Introducing the Dwights
(out of four)
Tim Dwight has a secret, and it's almost an hour into the melancholy Australian comedy Introducing the Dwights before the young man (Khan Chittenden) works up the nerve to share it with his girlfriend Jill (Emma Booth). You see, Tim's parents are entertainers. His mom's a nightclub comedian, his father's a lounge singer and Tim, well, Tim's downright ashamed by association.
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Posted by Peter Debruge at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)
July 23, 2007
Big Bang Love: Juvenile A
(out of four)
What's the new Takashi Miike movie doing at Outfest? For the uninitiated, Takashi Miike is the most unpredictable director working today, the gonzo poster boy of Asian extreme cinema whose bloody, over-the-top ideas defy imagination — precisely the quality we jaded, seen-it-all-before film critics cherish most in movies: the element of surprise (which in Miike's case is putting it mildly). Outfest, of course, is the country's second-oldest gay and lesbian film festival, turning 25 this year. Needless to say, it is not a forum where Miike's fans might ever expect to find one of his movies.
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Posted by Peter Debruge at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2007
Talk to Me
(out of four)
Petey Greene is a legend in Washington, D.C., where as the world's unlikeliest disc jockey — an alcoholic ex-con with a vocabulary entirely unsuited to FCC standards — he became a sounding board for the civil rights movement.
He was a one-of-a-kind personality living under incredible circumstances, and actor Don Cheadle brings the man to fiery life in the most charismatic performance of his career, smoothing out Greene's rougher edges for our sake. Directed by Kasi Lemmons (Eve's Bayou), Talk to Me reaches beyond a mere biopic plot to capture the moment when America's black community found its voice. When Petey gets out of prison and bursts into the offices of WOL-AM to collect on a job, it's as if the entire neighborhood is storming the station demanding to be heard, only to find The Man himself (Martin Sheen) barring the door.
Posted by Peter Debruge at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)