Showing posts with label The Guardian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Guardian. Show all posts

Saturday, September 1, 2018

A Star Is Born

With Stars In Their Eyes
Bradley Cooper & Lady Gaga
OK, a star really hasn't been born, more like rebooted, Lady Gaga 3.0, or is it 4.0? Anyone?

While the initial trailer online for this opus was, to me a neutral affair, the reviews from the Venice Film Festival have been anything but. 

Everyone is going gonzo for Gaga & Bradley Cooper in what is the 4th take on a timeless theme and film. 

Here are some quotes from those in the know who have seen it at the Fest -

Owen Gleiberman, Variety:
"A Star Is Born is that thing we always yearn for but so rarely get to see: a transcendent Hollywood movie."
 Stephanie Zacharek, Time:
"Cooper’s version proves there’s always a way to freshen up old material."
 Peter Bradshaw, the Guardian:
"He appears opposite a sensationally good Lady Gaga, whose ability to be part ordinary person, part extraterrestrial celebrity empress functions at the highest level at all times… Cooper is arguably prettier than Lady Gaga, but she is the one who commands your attention: that sharp, quizzical, leonine, mesmeric face—an uningratiating face, very different from the wide-eyed openness of Streisand or Garland."
With the film opening October 5th, Warner Brothers suits obviously knew it was going to get good reviews. Thus they showed it out of competition the Venice Film Festival to create buzz.

You'd better work!

A Star Is Born on IMDB:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517451/  

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Saturday Sinema: Behind THE COVE



Little fish, big fish swimming in the water...

YAGI Film Inc. announces the U.S. premiere of Behind THE COVE, a documentary film rebuttal to the Oscar-winning film The Cove with week-long screenings in New York and Los Angeles, in late November (11/25/16 – 12/1/16) and early December (12/2/16 – 12/8/16), respectively.

Behind THE COVE, the 105-minute Japanese film by first time director Keiko Yagi, includes interviews with people on both sides of the international whaling dispute, including the director and antagonist from 2009’s The Cove, the Academy Award-winning film which negatively portrays the practices of fishermen in the small, remote town of Taiji in Japan. 

This is the first film to respond to anti-whaling The Cove from the Japanese perspective. While generally highly regarded, The Cove has also been lambasted by some critics for being one-sided propaganda, Japan-bashing, for lacking a basic understanding of related cultural issues, and for using deceptive filmmaking strategies. The depiction of Japanese people in the film has also been controversial.

What started out as a personal investigation, triggered by childhood memories of whale dishes, led first-time Japanese documentary filmmaker Keiko Yagi to the town of Taiji, the center of the whaling debate and the stage of The Cove. With no budget, limited experience in filmmaking, no fluency in English, but armed with a video camera and a strong desire to find out the truth of the matter on whaling, Yagi discovered a much bigger story than she had initially imagined.

In Behind THE COVE, Yagi attempts to present a comprehensive picture of the dolphin and whale hunting issues in Japan, which includes interviews with people on both sides of the whaling dispute, its sinister political side, what The Cove did not offer, and a unique take on the topic. Throughout filming, Yagi got to know the anti-whaling activists, who set-up camp in Taiji every year during the dolphin-hunting season. In her film, Yagi also presents the ‘voices’ of the Japanese, who usually consider silence to be a virtue. To get a balanced and greater understanding of the story, she also interviewed experts in the whaling world from Japan and overseas, including representatives from the International Whaling Commission (IWC), scientists, and researchers. As Yagi delved into the topic, specific issues with The Cove became apparent.

“Before Western environmental and animal activist concerns persecuted the animal agriculture and fishing practices of the East in such a highly publicized and critical way, you’d think they’d first take a serious look at the situation at home prior to using Japan, a quiet country, as a scapegoat, ” says Yagi. “In the U.S. alone, billions and billions of land and marine animals are subjected to deplorable conditions before they are brutally killed for food each year to satisfy the heavy meat-eating habits of Americans…. the relatively small fishing village of Taiji, in rural Japan, accounts for marine animal deaths in the thousands, not billions. To demonize such a relatively small industry abroad, when compared to the magnitude of what’s happening in – and is relatively ignored in – the U.S., seems a bit misguided and, perhaps, even racist.”

Yagi is not alone in these sentiments. David Cox of The Guardian Film Blog called The Cove a “piece of evangelism,” and subsumed that from a neutral point of view “Westerners.... kill and eat cows. Easterners eat dolphins. What's the difference?” Academic Ilan Kapoor, echoing the famous phrase by Gayatri Spivak, argues that “It's a case of (mostly) 'white men saving cute dolphins from yellow men.’”

Hirotaka Akamatsu, Japanese Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, said “It is regrettable that this movie is made as a message that brutal Japanese are killing cute dolphins.” According to Michelle Orange, of Movieline, “As a piece of propaganda, The Cove is brilliant; as a story of ingenuity and triumph over what seems like senseless brutality, it is exceptionally well-told; but as a conscientious overview of a complex and deeply fraught, layered issue, it invokes the same phrase as even the most well-intentioned, impassioned activist docs: Buyer beware.”

Yagi further explains, “In Japan, some fishermen, particularly in remote rural areas, see dolphins and whales as just fish, consumed for centuries as part of local cultural traditions…. in China, dog meat from man’s best friend is acceptable to some as a food source…. in the bacon-loving U.S., highly intelligent and social pigs are widely considered suitable for cruel slaughterhouse practices and the dinner table. There are cultural differences as to which animals are deemed acceptable as food sources and which are not. One of the key questions our film poses is: Who gets to choose which animals are okay to eat?

Yagi will be in attendance at a selection of screenings in both New York (Cinema Village) and Los Angeles (Laemmle Music Hall), during the film’s U.S. debut. For additional information, please visit http://www.behindthecove.com/index_en.html.

Behind THE COVE (2015, Documentary, Japan, 105 min.)
 –

New York Screenings
:Friday, November 25 - Thursday, December 1, 2016

Cinema Village22 East 12th StreetNew York, NY 10003212-924-3364https://www.cinemavillage.com/Now-Playing/behind-the-cove.html

NYC Q&A Sessions with the Director (after the screening):• Fri. 11/25 at 7:10pm• Sat. 11/26 at 7:10pm• Sun. 11/27 at 5:10pm

Los Angeles Screenings
:Friday, December 2 - Thursday, December 8, 2016

Laemmle Music Hall9036 Wilshire Blvd.Beverly Hills, CA 90211310-478-3836http://www.laemmle.com/films/40990 

Sunday, June 26, 2016

"Beautifully Squeezed Tube Of Toothpaste" Rihanna

Your Hand Is Like Blue Velevt
Rihanna & Chris Martin
Coldplay's consciously un-coupled frontman Chris Martin recently gave an in depth interview to The Guardian where he spoke quite highly of  Rihanna.

You know Rihanna, the music superstar who was featured on Colplay's Princess Of China? You know, her. 

Well Martin came up with a strange/beautiful/WTF? analogy to describe Rihanna's voice.

It's like a "Beautifully squeezed tube of toothpaste" he said.

This is a huge compliment when you think about it. How many times has anyone ever used a tube of toothpaste squeezed in a way that would make you feel you did it "beautifully" and utilized the whole freakin' thing? Yeah, I thought not.

Wow! Wished Chris would have dispensed some of these gems about ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow, but perhaps those analogies were not nearly as endearing.

Rihanna on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/badgalriri/?hl=en

Chris on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Iamchrismartin