“American Blackout”
By focusing on controversial congresswoman Cynthia McKinney–who has been a vocal opponent of President George W. Bush and his administration–and a few others, Inaba doesn’t lose the viewer with too many subjects.
Month: December 2006
Tahiti
It is with trepidation I walk back to my room after dinner. I am used to strolling back to hotels in foreign countries, but I am not accustomed to looking overboard into a pitch black ocean while doing so. But when you are on a cruise ship, that’s what you do. You lay in the sun. You eat plenty of food. You relax. And if you’re a land lover like me, you think about what it takes to keep a liner like the M/S Paul Gauguin afloat.
“The Good Shepherd”
A complicated movie about the Central Intelligence Agency and its agents, “The Good Shepherd” isn’t your typical spy movie. Though it stars Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie–actors with considerable experience in the action-espionage genre–“The Good Shepherd” requires that they play more subdued and (much less interesting) characters here.
“The Beauty Academy of Kabul”
When “liberators” don’t understand the country they’re trying to help, the end result can be well meaning, but diluted. In the documentary The Beauty Academy of Kabul, filmmaker Liz Mermin focuses on a group of American hair stylists who travel to post-Taliban Afghanistan to teach local women how to beautify themselves and their customers.
“Pursuit of Happyness”
Based on the true-life story of Chris Gardner, a San Francisco salesman forced at times to shelter his young son (played by Smith’s adorable look-alike offspring Jaden Smith) in a men’s room, there is little suspense to “The Pursuit of Happyness” in terms of Chris’ outcome. (His story and eventual accomplishment as a successful and wealthy Chicago businessman was well-publicized on the newsmagazine show 20/20.)
“Unaccompanied Minors”
A comedy aimed at the inner kid in all of us, “Unaccompanied Minors” provides a few laughs and some good acting by its young thespian stars. But the hyuck fest doesn’t offer enough substance, or even some so-bad-it’s-good vignettes, to hold the viewer’s interest for long.
Truth’ about feature docs good news
A crop of outstanding documentaries bravely examines some of the modern world’s most pressing issues — from global warming to free speech.
