As she ponders her future, Bella is less aware than you are that she has very similar effects on the monster boy rivals for her affection -- glowing eyes, rising tempers, pronounced teeth, ungodly strength, usually demonstrated on others of their ilk or furniture.
Vampires have laws? -- Bella (Kristen Stewart) When Bella (Kristen Stewart) wakes for the first time in The Twilight Saga: New Moon -- the first of many times -- she's horrified by the nightmare she's just had. That is, as she looks out on a flowery field, she sees her future, as Edward's (Robert Pattinson) beloved and as an old woman. It's a little creepy that the latter part of the fantasy has her looking…]]>The pile-on of big emotional moments, accompanied by big music, is overwhelming. This is a movie demanding to be loved.
Michael's gift is his ability to forget. -- Sean (Tim McGraw) The Blind Side, the movie, opens much like The Blind Side, the book -- with that excruciating and infamous moment when Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann's leg snapped on TV. Both remember the event as transformational -- for Theismann, whose career ended then, and for football, which had to accommodate new possibilities. The sacking of Theismann by Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor, Michael Lewis writes, "led…]]>What could possibly be better than getting face time with one of the most legendary filmmakers of all-time? Getting face time with Almodovar and getting him to talk about some of Matt Mazur's favorite things: Jessica Lange, Ingmar Bergman, and actresses behaving badly. Generous, energetic and all-around amazing, Almodovar talks to PopMatters about his new film, Broken Embraces and much more.
Pedro Almodóvar’s newest feature film Broken Embraces is a beautiful homage to cinema, an amalgam of styles that finds Almodóvar's direction as graceful and strong as ever -- there is a mature ripeness to these new images, which hold a delicately hidden eloquence and heartache in addition to a profound strength. As is his usual custom, the director toys with linear composition and symmetry in his hybridized world, filling in each space of the frame…]]>Today: Viva Pedro: The Almodovar Interview -- What could possibly be better than getting face time with one of the most legendary filmmakers of all-time? Almodóvar talks to PopMatters about his new film, Broken Embraces and much more.
Edited by Matt Mazur and Produced by Sarah Zupko PopMatters’ inaugural Director Spotlight series kicks off with a true bang: our subject, Pedro Almodóvar is one of the most important directors currently working in film, a true legend. What is it about the great Spanish director that resonates so profoundly with spectators worldwide? His signature, colorful visual style? His keen awareness of and sensitivity to the issues of women? His audacity when portraying a large…]]>In the 2008 presidential election, America crossed the Henson Point -- the point where we are a post-Baby Boomer society. The Rockist calls for a champagne toast.
Forty years on, where has Sesame Street taken us? As most of my Readistas know, I rather enjoy my role as a contrarian. When Ronald Reagan and Ray Charles died within a few months of each other a few years back, I told every one that Ray made a much more positive impact on society than Ronnie. A few months back, after the deaths of Ted Kennedy and Eunice Shriver, I told every one that…]]>Dan Reed's documentary traces the events of those three days in Mumbai last November by using the recorded conversations as well as local footage, some shot by the journalists who arrived on the scene long before police or the Indian Coast Guard or Navy appeared.
"'Wait for the rest of the movie.' Should I write that down?" Instructed by his controller by cellphone, a terrorist in Mumbai last November wants to be sure he had the phrasing down. When the authorities arrived, he was to issue a warning that the chaos wreaked by 10 gunmen over the previous three days was "just the trailer." The cellphone conversation is chilling for all kinds of reasons, not least being this idea that…]]>Though Almodovar's work seems to have penetrated the xenophobic American critical monolith, winning Oscars and scoring major points with stateside critics, he has often been taken to task by the European press. Bringing a special insight into Almodovar's place in the world of European filmmaking is a correspondent from Madrid, who turns a microscope on Pedro's role in post-Franco Spanish cinema, and the importance of his work as a European auteur.
May 26, 2009: Pedro Almodóvar writes in his blog an entry titled “Black Chronicle of the Cannes Festival”, in which he analyses the chronicles published in one of Spain’s most important newspapers, El País, about the premiere of his last film, Broken Embraces, at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The tone of the entry, as its title suggests, is not very happy, and it exhaustively details how such journal might have offered to its readers…]]>Tracing the entwined careers of influential cinematographers Vilmos Zsigmond and László Kovács, No Subtitles Necessary: László & Vilmos is entertaining, sometimes flatfooted, and often illuminating.
As a child in Hungary, László Kovács would go to the movies with his mother. "I didn’t know much about the world," he remembers. When the film began, "I took a deep breath, always through this rectangular frame, I will see the world." Such impressions inspired Kovács to attend the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest from 1952 to 1956, where he began creating his own images of the world. When the Hungarian Revolution…]]>What many of the women in Almodóvar’s films do have in common, despite their characterization as victim or martyr or heroine, is that they are survivors.
Pedro Almodóvar’s career as a director has been inextricably linked with his filmic portrayal of women almost right from the beginning. His representations of gender roles, in general, and women, in particular, have led to both accusations of misogyny and conversely, admiration of his understanding and celebration of women in his films. These two distinct labels have been applied to Almodóvar throughout his career and while seemingly at odds with one another, both hold some…]]>Almodóvar’s insistence on pushing boundaries and transcending confining definitions of acceptability, gender, sexuality, and narrative structure place his body of work amidst (among others) a queer cinematic canon that acknowledges and appreciates his placement of queer bodies and characters in essential strands of the narrative structure.
Pedro Almodóvar is a cinematic auteur that refuses to abide by limitations (both preconceived and personal), whether they be limitations of the imagination, limitations of space, limitations of story or the limitations of gender and sexuality constructs. The panoply of characters that occupy his narratives is not particularly beholden to these limitations either. Assuredly, the most celebrated and critically acclaimed Spanish director of his generation, the 57-year-old director's work is celebrated amongst a number of…]]>A Death in Tehran pieces together the short life of 26-year-old Neda Soltan, but mostly considers the effects of her death, captured by a cell phone camera.
"That look still challenges me. It's with me all the time, I can't forget it. The blood that gushed out of her mouth and chest, that’s always with me." Surely, under any circumstance, witnessing a friend's death would be a traumatic and life-changing experience. But Delbar Tavakoli's experience is especially difficult. Her friend was Neda Agha Soltan, whose murder in Tehran last June was recorded on cell phone video and uploaded to the internet. Viewed…]]>A true passion for cinema is something that effortlessly shines through the work of the greatest filmmakers. We've seen homages to classic films, in this year alone, in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, Judd Apatow's Funny People and Lee Daniels' Precious, but no contemporary director references film history as commandingly as Almodovar.
Perhaps more consistently than any other contemporary filmmaker, Pedro Almodóvar’s ardent cinephilia is displayed throughout his movies. Alongside allusions to theatre, literature, dance, painting, television and advertising, references to film are central to the world that Almodóvar constructs on screen. From the very beginning of his career, the director has creatively incorporated allusions to the diverse range of movies that have inspired and influenced him; his work, as Jose Arroyo has noted, “borrows indiscriminately from…]]>Alison Brie, who plays Trudy on Mad Men and Donald Glover, who wrote for 30 Rock before joining the Community cast, indulge in a friendly, teasing, tête à tête of sorts, as they consider PopMatters 20 Questions.
Alison Brie, who plays Trudy on Mad Men and Donald Glover, who wrote for 30 Rock before joining the Community cast, indulge in a friendly, teasing tête à tête of sorts, as they consider PopMatters 20 Questions. Donald plays football jock Troy and Alison plays goody two shoes Annie on NBC’s new comedy, Community, which airs Thursdays at 8PM on NBC. The next episode of Community, “Environmental Science”, airs 19 November. Señor Chang (Ken Jeong)…]]>The documentaries of this year's Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival show more than they tell, underlining how each story is shaped not only by subject's self-presentations, but also by the films' frames.
"Since I was born, there was only war," says Hossein over a long shot of rocky hillsides and gray sky. "They keep bombing Afghanistan. Russia, Karmal or, who knows, the USA. There's only war and it never ends. How can anyone rebuild Afghanistan?" The camera cuts to roosters fighting on a ledge, the same stark landscape in view behind them, interrupted by small single-floor homes bumped up against each other. Hossein appears at the back…]]>As soon as Six asks how to get out, at the start of AMC's The Prisoner, you know where he's headed.
Six thinks that everything is fake. -- Two (Ian McKellen) Everything you say is a trap. -- Six (Jim Caviezel) "How do I get out of here?" As soon as Six (Jim Caviezel) poses this essential question at the start of AMC's The Prisoner, you know where he's headed. You know whether or not you've seen Patrick McGoohan's beloved series of the same name. You know because the scene set here is now familiar rather…]]>Almodovar 101 takes a look at some of the Spanish auteur's greatest hits - from Pepi, Luci and Bom up through Volver, a crack team of PopMatters film writers/Almodovar experts from New Jersey to Madrid are on hand to guide readers through the vivid world of the director.
All About My Mother (1999) Mothers should die before their children. Or so the natural order would have you believe. But when a child is taken from a parent at a too-young age, what happens to the broken heart they leave behind? When the mother’s identity was virtually wrapped in a delicate tissue paper of their children’s needs and future, how do they move into their own future and go forward? The first step, according…]]>All Brüno has is its hit or miss nature, and for the most part, the targets are too easy and often sideswiped instead of struck head on.
Sometimes, the process is more interesting than the final product. Even the most mediocre effort -- be it song, film, or novel -- has a motive and a meaning to those who created it, and there are clearly instances where that impetus is more intriguing (and entertaining) than what's actually placed before the consumer. Take British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's latest, Brüno. Based on the flamboyant Austrian fashionista character from his Ali G series, this…]]>Instead of being the kind of bracing, insightful docudrama that sheds light on a subject few outside the UK know about, what we wind up with is a bloated effort that tries to be everything to everyone -- coming of age comedy, pop art period piece, political satire, crafty character study, ensemble romp, and/or hilarious history lesson.
One of the most intriguing things about the early '60s cultural craze known as The British Invasion is how little impact the actual music had back home. While bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones had their frothing fan-base, the UK's government controlled radio rarely played their songs. That's because the BBC dedicated less than two hours a week to rock and roll, believing that the listening audience deserved a more "sophisticated" fare. No,…]]>Intergenerational dilemmas -- how to be foxes, to be individuals and also parts of communities -- form the complicated heart of Fantastic Mr. Fox.
If what I think is happening is happening, it better not be. -- Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) "You know, foxes live in holes for a reason." Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) does know, even before his wife (Meryl Streep) tells him. And yet, he's tired of living in a hole. "It makes me feel poor," he sighs. Aspiring to more, Mr. Fox decides to move Mrs. Fox and their preteen son Ash (Jason Schwartzman)…]]>As the action becomes less fabulous and more repetitive over 2012's 150 minutes, the philosophical debate ratchets up.
The first word of the end of the world comes from India. In 2009, sweating and fretting, Dr. Satnam Tsurutani (Jimi Mistry) calls his friend Adrian (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who drops everything and rushes right over from the United States. Startled by the data rolling over Satnam's basement monitors -- along with the buckets of ice cooling hardworking assistants' hot feet -- Adrian then rushes right back to DC, where he bum-rushes a fancy-dress fundraiser to…]]>Phillipe Diaz's powerful documentary The End of Poverty? is uncharacteristically revolutionary among today's issue documentaries, and all the more refreshing for its bluntness.
Recently the poor seem to have lost their status as a subject of interest for the Western creative class. Once upon a time, the writings of Jacob Riis and Michael Harrington, WPA documentation, and even Preston Sturges' films made the struggles of the poor (working or not) a constant and difficult-to-ignore pop-cultural theme. The hobo, a poignant representation of those millions made homeless by the Great Depression, became such a stock in trade during the…]]>Pirate Radio leaves out any mention of the usual historical and cultural background, say, sex as a potential means of mixing races and classes.
There's lots of great music in Pirate Radio. Indeed, most every scene appears designed to illustrate a popular circa-'60s track, from a raucous celebration accompanied by Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing In the Street" to a tender love scene (closeups of young, earnest flesh) under Herb Alpert's "This Guy's In Love With You" to a bride named Elenore, making her entrance along with the Turtles' "Elenore." Subtlety is not the point. Selling soundtrack CDs, that's…]]>