This movie was recommended to me a while ago by Invisible Woman…I finally sat down to watch it and whoa! I know absolutely nothing about art, except that I can appreciate a beautiful piece when I see it (maybe that’s all I need to know), but this movie totally put me in the center of the art world of the 80’s, when Jean-Michel Basquiat broke into the scene.
Can I just say that Jeffrey Wright is tremendous? I cannot use enough adjectives to describe this man…the way that he is able to fold himself into a role and entirely become the character is breathtaking. I was so into this character that at the end I had to remind myself that I wasn’t looking at Basquiat for real…the emotions and nuances of a life can be hard to undertake, but Jeffrey Wright was born to act. Brilliant…
The movie tells the story of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s rise in the art world and his foray into drugs, which eventually lead to his demise. The storyline follows him from living in a box in a park to hosting his own shows and his friendship with Andy Warhol, played weirdly, but well, by David Bowie. It is Basquiat’s drug use that costs him his love, played by Claire Forlani, and his friend, played by the delicious Benicio del Toro. There are lots of quality stars in this movie, and they all contribute to a film that is rich and detailed and visually stimulating…the art and sights of SoHo are magnificently displayed.
This movie was just good…very good. I would recommend adding it to your list of films to watch, if you have not seen it already.
Update: Seems as though I didn’t get the recommendation from Invisible Woman…she always comes to mind when I think of movies, so I automatically thought it was her…I don’t know where I got Basquiat from, but whoever recommended it to me, thanks! tee hee hee…
Rating: 8.5
Next up: Ghosts of Cité Soleil
It’s all love…
I have returned to my love of movie watching; it is a release that is unmatched; being allowed to immerse yourself in fiction for at least 2 hours is a pleasure that I have missed…
With that said, it does take a good movie to enhance this pleasure and Things We Lost In The Fireis a good movie. It is the story of Audrey Burke, played by Halle Berry, who after losing her husband, Brian (played by David Duchovny), reaches out to his childhood best friend (Benicio Del Toro as Jerry) to come and live with her and her two children. Jerry is a drug addict, and his struggle to get clean is daily. The relationship between Audrey and Jerry is troubled and smeared with resentment and anger (displayed by Audrey), if for nothing else that Brian has remained Jerry’s friend despite his addiction.
Audrey resents her husband’s relationship with Jerry so much yet invites him to live with her and her children. The movie does a good job of showing her anger and also showing how she tries to put it aside at times; the movie also allows Audrey to express some of that anger in moments that are centered around her bitterness and resentment of both her husband’s death and his relationship with Jerry. She goes through most of this movie in a daze…never fully accepting her husband’s death and using Jerry as a stand in wherever Brian would have been. But only when she dictates it to be…when Jerry steps over her imaginary line, she loses it…
It is in these roles that Halle Berry shines. When she is able to get inside a character and become one with it, she is splendid. Her performance in this movie is great; it ranks up there with her roles in Losing Isaiah and Monster’s Ball. This one may even be at the top because I didn’t feel like she was trying too hard…I felt that she eased into this role smoothly and it showed wonderfully.
The truth is, however, that this movie absolutely belonged to Benicio Del Toro. Benicio is one of those actors that makes you pay attention to him, no matter how small or how big his role is on the screen. His magnetic appeal is undeniable (see The Usual Suspects or Traffic—for which he won an Oscar—for more proof) and his talent is undeniable. In this role, Benicio went from down to up to down to up, displaying an amazing range…I am always impressed after seeing anything he does.
Overall, I liked this movie. It is a bit of a tearjearker (I had my Kleenex out at the end)…but worth a good look…
Rating: 7.5
Up next: I Am Legend (Will Smith…yummy…)
It’s all love… 
The Last King of Scotland is one of those movies that I should have broken my “I don’t go to the movies” rule to go and see…it was stunning! I was taken in with this movie from the beginning and it didn’t let me go until the credits roll…I love that!
Let me begin by saying that although the story is focused around Idi Amin’s reign, his relationship with Dr. Nicholas Garrigan and other elements of the tale are fiction. The story, however, is captivating. James McAvoy as Dr. Nicholas Garrigan is fresh out of college, looking to get away from his parents, and chooses to travel to Uganda for adventure and to “help.” What he gets is the last thing he probably ever imagined. His chance meeting with Idi Amin on the side of a road leads to him being selected as the dictator’s personal physician, then personal advisor…all hell breaks loose after that.
Which leads me to the absolutely, devastatingly excellent performance of Forrest Whitaker. Forrest is one of those actors who studies. He totally immerses himself in whatever role he undertakes; and the end result is always magnificent. I recall watching him on several episodes of ER; the man’s talent was so above ER, it was ridiculous (and I happened to love ER). This role, however…this role simply was him. Like Denzel was Malcolm, like Jamie was Ray…Forrest was Idi Amin. Forrest did an exceptional job of capturing what was Idi Amin’s erratic behavior, switching moods from sweet to crazy in seconds. Never knowing between scenes what you were going to see next was one of the best things about this movie.
The storyline, with it’s fictional tale weaved into historical facts, was easy to follow. The real story is interestingly enough; but I understand why the fiction is there for the movie. It is a smooth movie; going from one scene to the next is effortless; I didn’t feel as though I missed anything.
Overall, a very good movie. I would recommend it.
Rating: 8.5
Next up: Things We Lost in the Fire
It’s all love…
Finally, American Gangster…
I didn’t go to the movies to watch American Gangster; it costs too damn much to go to the movies these days so I wait for the DVD and get it through NetFlix…nevermind the fact that every single member of my family had this movie on bootleg; I absolutely refused to watch it (I have a thing)…
But I watched it last night, and I have to say that I felt that Denzel wasn’t committed. Let me say first that I love Denzel. He is one of the finest actors I have ever seen light up the screen ever. But this role? It seemed to me that he went through it lazily, almost as if to say that he could do it with his eyes closed (which he probably could). Maybe it was the essence of the character, but I wasn’t drawn in. I think this was the first time I’ve watched Denzel and this has happened.
There were some moments (the first scene required me to rewind because I was just like, “Damn!”) that were brilliant, and others that were like, “I wish this movie was over already.” I guess that is just what happens when a movie is almost three hours long. What captivated me most was the story of Frank Lucas, which I thought could have used more development. Bumpy Johnson was there, then he wasn’t, then Frank was there, then he went to Vietnam, then he made all this money, then it was gone. That’s pretty much it. Oh, I forgot, he met this pretty Puerto-Rican beauty pageant woman and married her, and brought his brothers into the fray…but who was Frank Lucas? I would have liked to see some more introspection into him and his thinking…
Even though Idris Elba was not on the screen that long, he was beautiful as Tango. Just the right amount of ghetto and rawness. And Ruby Dee is always beautiful and gracious…I don’t think this role was particularly worthy of an Oscar nomination (there are so many other roles of hers that deserved it; the Oscars be trippin’)…Common and T.I. were mere screen fillers…
Russell Crowe, I thought, was the shinier star in this film. His cop had layers and nuances that were complicated and just below the surface; you didn’t get to see all of his troubles, but you knew they were there. His relationship with his partner, who later turned into a druggie, was just powerful. An amazing piece of work.
American Gangster is an okay movie; there have been better films made about a person’s life, fact and fiction. I recommend it only because Denzel and Russell are in it…and even then I still can’t give it a particularly high rating.
Next up: The Last King of Scotland
Rating: 6.5
It’s all love…
