Hey everybody,

2007 marks the fifth anniversary of filmbrats.com. To celebrate, the site is going to undergo a few changes over the coming months. One of those changes is the loss of the hotline. If you have this page bookmarked, you might want to switch it over to the main page where you'll find all the information you need as to what's new, what's to come and what I think of everything film.

Thank you all for visiting the hotline, and I hope to see you back on the main site for at least five more years!

Hey everybody. I'm back again with a few more film festival reviews and a few new releases as well. I'd like to welcome back guest critic Ryan Wiggins to the site for his joking yet honest take at Stranger Than Fiction. You may remember that he reviewed Without a Paddle a while back. Well I hope you read it, because he's asked me to retire it from the site. In addition, I have my review of Borat as promised. I also was able to catch Volver so I posted that for you all as well. I hope that by the end of the year, I'll have completely caught up with my film festival coverage. That means this site should be seeing a whole lot of activity in the coming weeks. Be sure to watch out for that. In the meantime, enjoy these 6 new reviews.



Stranger Than Fiction- A Real Contender
By Ryan Wiggins

When I saw Stranger than Fiction starring Will Ferrell, first I said "Wow," then I started screaming "Four Stars!" This magical romp has got De La Hoya written all over it, and I DO mean Oscar.

Wait, what's that noise, you ask? Well it's either the deafening sound of bees, or else the buzz has reached a fever pitch. I'm going with the latter.

This comical mind-bender is one of the year's best films. Let me reiterate- four stars. I tried to turn my hands but they seemed to be locked in a fist-like position, with my thumbs sticking straight up in the air.
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+++++++++


Volver
Review by Jon Waterman

****

Although Raimunda and Sole’s mother died nearly four years ago, there are many that feel that she lives on. Several in the village, including close friend to the girls Augustina heard their Aunt Paula talking to her for a while until Aunt Paula finally passed on as well. That event became just one in a tumultuous series of problems for Raimunda. Not only did her close relative die, so did her husband at the hands of their daughter (also named Paula, after the aunt). So, not only does she have to find a way to cover up and get rid of this newly found dead weight, she also has to provide for her family. That’s not to say that Sole doesn’t have problems either, because now her mother’s spirit has come to live with her.

I think I just found my favorite Pedro Almodóvar movie. I have not seen a lot of the writer/director’s work, but from what I know of him I can say that this is not only his best work, but also his most accessible. This story has plenty of trademark quirks, twists and turns, but they aren’t as radical or extreme. They seem like perfectly acceptable extensions of the plot giving the film a nice “normal” progression – a word not usually used to describe Pedro’s pictures. Even so, it’s still essentially an unpredictable tale that should keep you interested.

I’m glad Almodóvar didn’t take go down some of the roads his writing presented him with.
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+++++++++


Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Review by Jon Waterman

****

Borat, a television personality in Kazakhstan, is asked by their government to travel to the United States. His purpose is to study, and document on film, what makes America so great. Borat fully intends to carry out his assignment, until he sees an episode of Baywatch in his hotel room. He instantly falls in love with CJ (aka Pamela Anderson) and makes it his new mission to travel to California in order to seek her out and make her his bride.

Half narrative. There’s no hiding the fact that most of this stuff is made up. As much as Sacha Baron Cohen would like to make us all believe that Borat is a real person by conducting tons of promotional interviews as the character he made famous on his brutally hysterical series “Da Ali G Show,” the situations and camera coverage is simply a little too polished to be anything but fake. The good news is that doesn’t matter one bit. Luckily the team of accomplished British comedy writers (Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham and Dan Mazer) does a great job of taking a 90% improvisational entity and giving him a fun and interesting narrative thread.
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++++++++


Change of Address
Review by Jon Waterman

***1/2

French horn player David just moved to Paris and is in need of a place to stay. He serendipitously runs into Anne when placing an ad for his teaching services. She offers him a chance to stay with her friend, which is soon revealed to be her. He accepts and they quickly become close friends. In the meantime, David finds himself falling for Julia, one of his young students, and comes to Anne for advice. However, her advice backfires when during the weekend excursion between David and Julia, a man named Julien enters the picture. Then….

If ever there were a French Woody Allen, it would be writer/director Emmanuel Mouret. And I’m talking about good Woody Allen, too. The story may not be as original, seeing as how it is a rather ordinary, yet well-executed screwball romantic comedy, but the fumbling awkward and charming delivery of Mouret (who plays David) is extremely reminiscent. The style of humor also works in the same vein. Sure, a lot of the humor comes from the stupidity of the characters (meaning smart people that make horrible decisions), but much of it also comes from the awkwardness and various tensions between the four as well as some clever lines.
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+++++++++


Jasmine Women
Review by Jon Waterman

***1/2

Young Mo wants to be a movie star. Well, actually, she just wants more out of life than helping her mother run the portrait studio in Shanghai. It just so happens that the opportunity to become a movie star presents itself. Her mother of course is heavily resistant. As Mo gets older she finds that her daughter wants to break free as well. Li aspires to be the wife of a popular communist boy at school. Following her ideal man, she soon discovers that perfection may not be obtainable. Then there’s Li’s daughter Hua. Hua is simply looking for honest true love. Can any of these women find what they’re looking for?

The film is divided into three chapters that are at the same time extremely distinct, while also melding together to form a fluid and cohesive whole. Chapter 1: Grandma takes place in 1937. The various green hues that permeate the mise-en-scene not only aid the estranged relationship between Mo and her mother, but also lend itself towards myriad metaphorical interpretations about the era and the character’s journey. It’s like a new spring is blooming in her life, but the vibrant yet dark shades of green let us know just how tumultuous it is. Chapter 2: Mother is set in 1958. Mo is all grown up and the color palette has changed with her attitude. Now the world is a sea of warm red tones. Not only does this convey the obvious Communist idealism of Mo’s daughter and her new husband but also the burning desire within Mo for so many things. Chapter 3: Daughter brings us to 1981. This dawning technological age contains more blue, but it’s the emotional states of the characters that really make it this way. The desire is overwrought with frost while somehow still shimmering a lasting beacon of hope.
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++++++++


A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Review by Jon Waterman

***

Dito left New York in 1986. He just couldn’t handle watching his friends spiraling further down into the gutters. He didn’t want to end up following the same path and regret never trying to make something out of himself. His father thought of him as a traitor for leaving his family and his home, and subsequently stopped speaking to him. Years have past and now that his father is sick, Dito finds himself forced to finally come back home and confront all the demons he left behind as well as recognize the saints.

I’m sure the book probably doesn’t suffer this problem, but I think the movie would have been much better if all the present day stuff were taken out entirely. Those sequences were already few and far between, plus the tone of the film doesn’t quite match, nor does the caliber of acting. The scenes all seemed forced, and the horrible present day ending honestly almost ruined the entire movie for me. It was that bad. Up until that point, however, I was riveted.
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