The Sole Arbiter of Good Taste (Free subscription) | 01/07/2010
1. Il Divo (Paolo Sorrentino, 2008) The biopic can be one of the most teeth-grindingly awful forms of cinema and, with only a few notable exceptions, political ones especially so. Take, as an example, a film like Gus Van Sant's Milk (2008) which, chained to the constraints of the biopic format, rendered very dull a subject matter which had made for a lively documentary in the form of The Times of Harvey...
The Hot Blog (Free subscription) | 01/02/2010
26. Garbage Dreams - director Mai Iskander 27. Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans - director Dawn Logsdon & producer Lucie Faulknor 28. Racing Dreams - dir Marshall Curry 29. Tell-Tale - director Michael Cuesta 30. Is Anybody There? - director John Crowley, actor Michael Caine 31. Norman Jewison 32. Wild & Wonderful Whites Of West Virginia director Julien Nitzberg, producers...
...an endless banquet (Free subscription) | 01/01/2010
Print Andrea Nguyen, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors Andrea Nguyen, Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Samosas, and More Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China Fuchsia Dunlop, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren, A16 Reed and Reed, Holy Smoke Ethné & Philippe...
Movie Talk (Free subscription) | 12/30/2009
Vampires, aliens and wizards fought it out at the box office in 2009, but the year at the cinema wasn’t just about blockbusters. Plenty of fine movies reached the screens with much less hype and from places other than Hollywood. Here’s my top 10 of the year’s cinema releases, plus an additional half-dozen films that [...]
Blog Absolute Point (Free subscription) | 12/30/2009
The Kennedy Center Honors airs Tuesday night on CBS. It s a yearly celebration of the arts where recipients are recognized from their lifetime achievements. “Welcome to the 32nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors, a tribute to five extraordinary honorees … see more. Robert Deniro See also: robert dinero | grace hightower | mel brooks | robert [...]
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 12/25/2009
In this special edition of Film Weekly, Jason Solomons and Xan Brooks sum up 2009 by counting down their respective top 10s of the year's best movies. There's also a competition for loyal listeners – up for grabs is a Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee prize pack, with a mug, DVD and poster signed by director Shane Meadows. Just listen to the montage of four directors who have featured in In the Director's...
Crooked Timber (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
I watched Paolo Sorrentino’s quite extraordinary film Il Divo last night. It is remarkable in so many ways, but especiallu, as a portrait of evil in the form for Giulo Andreotti (as depicted by Toni Servillo) and also, in terms of the most marvelous cinematography. In a recent post I attracted hostility from some by [...]
JoBlo (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
I first saw IL DIVO at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal, and I was not overly enthusiastic about it. The problem was that it presumed a certain familiarity with the Italian Political scene of the eighties and nineties, which, I'm sure, was fine with Italian audiences- but left me feeling out of the loop. However, when I received this DVD in the mail, I decided to give the film another chance,...
The Huffington Post (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
Il Divo is one of the best and funniest films of the year, a tour de force in which director Paolo Sorrentino (previously known for...
Salon (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
Paolo Sorrentino's dazzling, daring "Il Divo" brings the cinematic bravado of Coppola and Scorsese back home
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 10/28/2009
Know your Bill Murray from your Buster Keaton? This week, Pinkos smacks his lips and delivers a tray of bone-dry comic amuse-bouches for you to sample I like my comedy the way I like my sherry and my bathroom floor – dry. In fact, the greater the understatement, the finer the blend, the deader the pan, the more eagerly I lap it up. A straight-faced, down the line, mockumentary mickey take as...
DVD Talk (Free subscription) | 10/27/2009
Recommended THE MOVIE: If you were looking for a concert DVD by a quartet of nearly sexless guys, then you've clicked on the wrong review. Run now, because I don't think the movie Il Divo is for you. In its opening scene, the main character undergoes acupuncture for migraines and ends up with a bunch of sticks in his head and face. He looks not dissimilar to Pinhead in the Hellraiser series. If you...
Most Beautiful Fraud in the World (Free subscription) | 10/06/2009
Two Germans and an Italian walk into this blog. No this isn't some strangely timecentric joke from a Tarantino film, it is a listing of my three latest reviews posted over at The Cinematheque . First up is the German film Cloud 9 ( my review can be read here ). You know, the one about old people having sex. This sexagenarian love triangle movie may set off a sort of ick factor in many viewers, especially...
Terry Malick's son (Free subscription) | 09/05/2009
Paulo Sorrentino came to prominence and international acclaim with 2004's 'The Consequences of love', an intimate tale of a mysterious hotel dweller with dubious mafia connections. Il Divo, out this year in the UK, carries on and expands the subject of organised crime, this time in the account of Guiliano Andreotti. Andreotti was the Italian PM for several terms from 1946 right into the early 90's....
Seattle Times (Free subscription) | 09/05/2009
The film "Il Divo," The Puyallup Fair, restaurant critic Frank Bruni and artist Roger Shimomura are highlights of this week in arts in Seattle.
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