A socially engaged documentary with more heart than head, The Island President takes as its central figure the charismatic, crusading, image-savvy (and now ex-) president of the Maldives, Mohamed “Anni” Nasheed, detailing his efforts to drive climate change conversation and cooperation to the top of the international to-do list. A friendly, somewhat lightweight portrait that doesn’t really dig down into the issues at its core, director Jon Shenk’s movie, the Audience Award winner at last fall’s Toronto Film Festival, unexpectedly achieves ancillary connection as a ground-floor look at a grand clash of political and governmental wills that takes place at the Copenhagen Climate Summit of 2009. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. For more information on the movie and playdate availability, meanwhile, click here. (Samuel Goldwyn, unrated, 101 minutes)
Daily Archives: April 7, 2012
Angelina Jolie Cast in Title Role in Maleficent
The long-rumored casting of Angelina Jolie in the title role of Maleficent, as Disney’s ultimate villain, has been confirmed, along with the film’s release date, March 14, 2014. The live-action film will explore the origins of the evil fairy Maleficent, and what led her to curse Princess Aurora in Disney’s animated classic Sleeping Beauty. Leading a team of visionary filmmakers known for creating and transporting audiences to new and exciting worlds, Academy Award-winning production designer Robert Stromberg (Alice in Wonderland and the forthcoming Oz The Great and Powerful) will direct, from a script by Linda Woolverton. The film will be produced by Avatar producer Joe Roth.
Morgan Spurlock Talks Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope
Since bursting onto the scene (and out of his jeans) with the self-torturing Super Size Me, for which he ate nothing but McDonalds for an entire month, documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has shown a knack for selecting zeitgeist-friendly subjects for his nonfiction explorations. In his latest movie, Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope, he turns his attention to the annual San Diego-set celebration of comic book culture that has grown into a full-fledged pit-stop/forced blind date for Hollywood studios and the eager genre film fans they wish to court. I recently had a chance to speak to Spurlock one-on-one, about comic books, the direction of Comic-Con, the unusual focus of his next project, and the diminishing sentimental value of physical objects. He’s a talker, don’tcha know, and the conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read. For a review, click here; for more on the movie, meanwhile, including its VOD options, click here.
We Have a Pope
An amiable comedy import at once thoughtful and low-key, multi-hyphenate Nanni Moretti’s Italian-language We Have a Pope takes an unlikely subject — the aftermath of the election of a new pontiff, and the swirl of self-doubt surrounding the newly infallible voice of God on Earth — and turns it into something rich, surprising and altogether rewarding.
The performances, too, are special; Michel Piccoli is arresting and sympathetic as newly elected pontiff Cardinal Melville, bringing a great vulnerability to the role. And Moretti himself (above) is wry and wonderful, delivering a droll turn as a not particularly religious psychiatrist brought in to try to settle matters. There isn’t a big play for theological profundity here, but the narrative omissions of We Have a Pope shouldn’t count as strikes against it, and given a simple surrender to its basic conceit the movie richly compensates arthouse-leaning and intellectually curious viewers with both laughs and an awakened contemplation. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. For more information on the film, click here. (Sundance Selects, unrated, 104 minutes)