The success of CNN is due not just to the vision of Ted Turner but to what Live from Baghdad identifies as the “guts and judgment” of Robert Weiner, who during the months leading up to the Gulf War of 1991 made a genuine broadcasting breakthrough which made CNN the world’s premier station for late-breaking news. Live from […]
When Phone Booth begins, a voiceover tells filmviewers that a particular phone booth near Times Square (53rd & 8th) will be removed the following day, presumably outmoded in the modern age of cellphones. Indeed, we next observe publicist Stewart Shepard (played by Colin Farrell) talking on his cellphone with various clients as if he were some sort
Where did all the “Valley girls” go? In the 1970s, a linguistic phenomenon emerged in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles at schools and newly opened shopping malls, when spoiled Gentile girls peppered their conversations with such words as “bitchin,” chased boys, and otherwise spent their time idly while their narcissistic parents were too
A street-smart Czech and a film-crazed Russian, the master criminals of 15 Minutes, land at JFK airport with barely a penny in their pockets, hungry to collect a payoff from a crime committed in Eastern Europe. Emil Slovak (played by Karel Roden), nevertheless, has a game plan–commit wild crimes, get a million dollars in the
What are the “best interests of the child” and who decides? In I Am Sam, directed and cowritten by Jessie Nelson, thirtysomething Sam (played by Sean Penn) has the intelligence of a seven-year-old but works as a cheerful and sweet busboy at Starbucks; he hangs out with his best friends, other mentally retarded men. Though unmarried,
FROM HELL TRIES TO TRACK DOWN JACK THE RIPPER AS AN AGENT OF QUEEN VICTORIA In 1888 Jack the Ripper terrorized the East End of London. At least five prostitutes plying their trade late at night in Whitechapel had their throats slit, and in four cases their bodies were mutilated. Thirteen other victims have been
A GENERAL LEADS A PRIVATE WAR IN THE LAST CASTLE A three-star general pleads guilty in a court-martial and is sentenced to ten years at Leavenworth in The Last Castle, directed by Rod Lurie. The offense is to disobey orders and ignore intelligence by authorizing a foray in Burundi that results in the death of
FILIPINO AMERICANS RESPOND TO ASSIMILATIONIST PRESSURES BY TAKING PRIDE IN THEIR CULTURE The plight of Filipinos in Los Angeles is featured in The Debut. The Mercado family is about to celebrate the 18th birthday of their daughter Rose (played by Bernadette Balagtas), so a fiesta is organized. There is an elaborate preparation of coiffure and
Do filmviewers need to see another film in which a white man brings black boys to the Promised Land? Paramount Pictures, which produces many films focusing on African Americans, evidently thinks so. Based on a true story, as recounted in Daniel Coyle’s Hardball: A Season in the Projects, the film Hardball focuses on Connor O’Neill
Liam, directed by Stephen Frears, is an English film that focuses on how a precious seven-year-old boy views life as he looks for role models in his long path from childhood to adulthood. Based on Joseph Keown’s novel The Back Crack Boy,the story is set in Liverpool as the Great Depression deepens among the working