Movies or Cinema

"One Night in Miami" cornicles the night four of the leading African-Americans public figures in the sixties assemble after the Heavyweight title fight just won by Cassius Clay (Eli Goree). This fictional account of what happened in a well guarded motel room was adapted by Kemp Powers from his play of the same name. The attendees of that meeting was Clay, Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Malcom X ( Kingsley Ben-Adir). What is imagined  by Mr. Powers is the story of four influential men, all focused on the same objective, but divided over how to get there. The film begins by setting up all four characters and  where they are in their careers and society. Its bumpy at first and familiar faces pop up, Micheal Imperioli and Beau Bridges, distracting from the story. But once the characters and actors get into that room and the door closes the film crackles. Clay has decided to join the Nation of Islam and change his name. Malcom X is Clay's mentor and t...

"Julie and Julia" will satisfy a food lovers visual appetite and perhaps trigger his appetite while satisfying a cinephiles need for a visual story light of intellectual heft but refreshingly entertaining. Based on the book by Julie Powell it tells the story of how Julie was able to balance her stressful job of helping those affected immediately after the events of 9/11 by initiating a mission to cook every recipe in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Along side her story, the director Nora Ephron, takes us on a parallel journey with Ms. Child as she navigates life in Paris as a diplomat's wife attempting to discover what will be her life's work. The drama of "Julie and Julia" lay with Julie (Amy Adams) as she desperately tries to find a release from her professional world that's filled with anger, heartache, desperation and fear. Julie is absorbing too much of it. Her one enjoyment is cooking. When her boyfriend (Chris Me...

 The announcement by Warner Bros. studios to release its entire slate of 2021 films straight to streaming has sent shock waves through the industry. The relationship between studios and theater owners was precarious at best but this just turns the knife. Streaming has become very romantic for the major studios especially during the age of COVID. Even before the pandemic many customers went to streaming for their entertainment. Netfix pretty much led the way by inventing the process. Disney followed suit and created Disney Plus to add to its collection of channels and Warner Bros. started HBO MAX. It seems that streaming has become the NFL of distribution for the major studios while theaters have morphed in Major League Soccer. But just like the MLS there is still a lot of potential value in the venue. Technology has always disrupted the film business. The younger makers usually take these new inventions and run with it while the established and more traditionalists shy away from in...

  It is often said on the set of a movie in the middle of production that the problems that arise from the production don’t matter. It’s what shows up on the screen that counts. To a point, they are correct. An audience should be locked into the story. Films rely on the audience’s suspension of disbelief and when the movies are responsible for shattering that it ruins the whole cinematic experience. Some low budget films can make a person falling out of a building as realistic, albeit more creatively, as a big budget production. An audience knows from the first frames of the movie what kind of production it is and accepts it for the story that’s being told. William Wellman I believe it is important and would even go so far as to say imperative for an audience to know something of a film’s creation to get the full joy out of the experience. How so? The same as if we learn from where a wine is made and from what grape and what year so we can determine whether there was a drought ...

 There doesn't seem to be much good will toward Americans in director Bong Joon-ho's The Host. It is not a fact that hangs over the film since they only appear two or three times throughout but each time with pernicious results.  The Koreans only other nuisance is the title creature itself. If Bong's intention was to hint at how American intervention was felt by the K oreans it is so subtle as not to offend. But throughout the film several themes ran along side the creature but none too glaring to derail its rampage or divert the audience from the story which maintained its high energy along with nall of its twists and turns keeping the outcome ambiguous.  It starts in a Korean lab where the American tells his Korean subordinate to dump some expired chemicals down the drain. Needless to say we find out the results of that action. Years later a group of park goers are drawn to an unusual mass hanging on a bridge. This mass throws the country into a panic as it descends fro...

 What is the difference? The great Sidney Lumet, whom I consider a creator of cinema, states, "I can't even say the word, 'cinema.' It gets stuck in my throat." Both terms- I would also include, film, motion pictures and moving pictures- are nothing more then labels describing an art form. But in my own personal orbit I make a distinction. Movies entertain for a couple of hours. They attract viewers with the promise of watching a celebrity portraying a "memorable" character, a fireworks display of action and explosions that hold an audience's attention, making them laugh with comedy, or watch on the edge of their seats from a characters' drama or portal them into some fantastic world of a filmmaker's imagination. These are what movies promise. They are stories. Stories that comprise of all the art forms; painting, music, poetry, literature and theatre. With the proper use of these art forms movies stimulate the senses. Even smell and taste ca...