Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Moody dialogue, drab lighting, and characters who aren’t quite who they say they are pepper the indie film z’A Little Trip To Heaven.” Starring Forest Whitaker as Holt (an insurance investigator looking into a man’s suspicious death), and Julia Stiles as Isolde (the frightened and sketchy sister of the deceased), A Little Trip’s destination actually is closer to hell than heaven.
Equal parts documentary, children’s story, and narrative drama, Cave of the Yellow Dog is a beautifully filmed adventure that the entire family will enjoy. It’s unique on many levels, the most notable being that the charismatic family portrayed in the film are an actual family, and none of them are professional actors. The eldest daughter (played by adorable Nansal Batchuluun) appears to be about 6 or 7 years old.
During her recent three-week trip to Vietnam, actress Jordana Spiro made do with just one backpack. “Really, there’s almost nothing you can’t buy there if you need it,” she says. “It’s a completely amazing place and I’d go back in a second.”
Equal parts Romeo and Juliet and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Shinobi offers breathtaking cinematography, appealing actors, and ninjas. What more could a movie fan ask for?
“Sparkle” tells the rags-to-riches (and rags again, for some of the characters) tale of three sisters with gorgeous voices. There’s Sister (Lonette McKee), Sparkle (Irene Cara, Fame), and Delores (Dwan Smith), who team up with a couple of players (including a very young Philip Michael Thomas, pre-Miami Vice) to form a singing group.
In Because I Said So, Diane Keaton outdoes any pushy parent trying to marry off their children. On the eve of her 60th birthday, Daphne (Keaton) decides that she will find a suitable suitor for her youngest daughter Milly (Mandy Moore). Never mind that Moore was barely into her 20’s when she shot the film and easily could pass as a high-school senior. The film asks us to believe that an otherwise smart, loving mother would push marriage on a young woman who obviously wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment.
At its core, “Stomp the Yard” is a romantic drama disguised as a dance film. Or is it the other way around? DJ (Columbus Short) is a troubled teen from Los Angeles who gets a chance for a better life when he is admitted into Atlanta’s privileged Truth University. Just when he thought he had escaped a life of gangs, DJ finds himself in the middle of a “war” between two upper-crust fraternities where stepping (a popular dance form) is their weapon of choice.
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.
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.
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.