Sunday, May 31, 2009

Before Sunset (2004)

This is an okay movie. Jesse (Ethan Hawke) has written a bestselling book about his life and is now visiting Paris where the story takes place. He is questioned by journalists who are trying to determine if the events really happened. After he finishes signing his autograph, he leaves the bookstore with a woman (Julie Delpy) he met several years before. The pair walk the streets of Paris and discuss the events of the past nine years, while Jesse struggles over whether to abandon his current life in order to rekindle the fling.

This is the sequel to the film Before Sunrise (1995). The film was shot with the Steadicam and the longest scene was 11 minutes. The events in the story unfold in real time at about the same length as the film. The sequel was done nine years after the first film, which is the amount of time that elapses in the story. Hawke was going through a divorce with Uma Thurman during filming. The bookstore at the beginning of the film is Shakespeare and Company in Paris's Left Bank.

Friday, May 22, 2009

25th Hour (2002)

This is an okay movie. Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) is given 24 hours of freedom before he is sent to prison for seven years. In his last day on the outside, Monty tries to reconnect with his father who's never given up on him, and gets together with his two closest friends from the old days, Jakob (Philip S. Hoffman) and Frank. Also in the mix is his girlfriend, Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), who might have been the one who tipped off the cops to his stash of money.

I find it unlikely that he could walk away after a felony and not be found by the police. The film was directed by Spike Lee. The story is based on the 2002 novel by David Benioff. At the time of release Anna Paquin was 20 and Rosario Dawson was 23. The Tribute in Light ran temporarily from March 11 to April 14, 2002, and has since been turned on to honor each anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

The Hustler (1961)

This is an imperfect-but-creditable movie. Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) is an arrogant pool hustler, who’ll strip anyone of their money in a pool game. Facing off against the legendary champion Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason), he knows it’s all on the line. At the local bus terminal, Eddie meets Sarah (Piper Laurie), an alcoholic who attends college classes twice each week, and he moves in with her.

A hustler is someone who disguises their pool skills in order to lure someone into making an unfair bet. The film is based on the 1959 novel by Walter Tevis. The three words Sarah writes on the bathroom mirror with lipstick are: perverted, twisted, and crippled, referring to the people Eddie associates with and specifically the one who abused her. Much of the action was filmed at two now-defunct pool halls, McGirr's and Ames Billiard Academy in New York City.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Let the Circle Be Unbroken

I liked this book written by Mildred D. Taylor. Life in the South during the 1940s was turbulent and frightening for black landowners like the Logans. For young Cassie it was a time of growth, discovery and some very hard lessons about what it meant to be black in Mississippi. Her friend T.J. goes on trial for a murder he did not commit, confronting an all-white justice system. And a greedy white landowner tries to gain control of the Logan’s farm. But with strength and perseverance, Cassie and the rest of her family survive even the deepest prejudice.

The book is sad and touches on a serious topic, but it is well done. This is the sequel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. The book shows how poverty is a hard enough struggle without the extra burdens of racism and socialism. While the poor laborers were struggling to make ends meet the federal government under the New Deal, decided to restrict their crops and raise their taxes. White landowners were able to use a loophole to take some of the money the government intended to give to black farmers. The author was born in 1943 in Jackson, Mississippi.