If you’ve been brought up by a tight family, you’ll probably identify with the slogan uttered now and then by one of the members of these misfortunates: "No one lays a finger on a Strobbe." Then again, maybe that’s not such a great accomplishment, because who’d want to? In adapting a best-selling novel about a wacky Belgian family, filmmaker Felix Van Groeninger captures the essence of Dimitri Verhulst’s book "De helaasheid der dingen, making the tome cinematic by giving more activity to the principal performer who is not simply a passive sponge. Belgium’s Oscar entry for Best Foreign Picture of 2009, "
The Misfortunates" is a down-and-dirty look at a white-trash family in the Belgian province of Flanders in 1988 with occasional extensions to current times. Few films possess the kind of genre-swapping that Groeningen taps into, merging off-the-wall ribaldry with moments of tender emotion, a look at people who are wasting their lives as seen through the prisms of comedy and sympathy.
By Harvey Karten - In his production notes, Tim Blake Nelson says that we all try to find balance in our lives: between order and rationality, between chaos and spontaneity. This is another way of interpreting Aristotle’s notion that the happy life finds a mean between two opposite poles, a happy medium. "Leaves of Grass" quotes not only the obvious author, Walt Whitman, but philosophers like Epicurus, Aristotle and Socrates; the playwrights Shakespeare, Plautus and Sophocles; even Lucretius, about whom one horny young coed in the story provides a translation.
Feste is the name of the Clown in Shakespeare’s "Twelfth Night," but writer-director Shana Feste’s debut film has more in common with "Hamlet" than any of the Bard’s comedies. Feste is likely aware that the Holmes and Rahe scale of stressful events, listing in numerical order the most powerful such happenings with links to physical illness, puts the death of a spouse and, presumably the death of one’s child, right on top. Losing a child is the most psychologically disastrous occurrence a parent can feel: if you have any doubt about that, "The Greatest" will set you right. While there’s some humor, restrained in parts and flat-out comical in one scene that finds a naked guy at a party strung out on acid while doing shtick, the film will have particular resonance for those who have lost someone dear to them.
By Susan Granger - Why and for how long can Jennifer Aniston make formulaic romantic comedies? Certainly she was appealing as Rachel on "Friends," the long-running TV series for which she and her cohorts banked multi-millions. But since then, Aniston’s become more known for her diet, lustrous hair and love life than her thespian efforts. Relentlessly courting the fashion press, she invariably wears stylish outfits and totes the latest handbag, as chronicled by ubiquitous magazine editors. But she has yet to prove herself a real movie star.
On the day of a critics’ screening of "The Secret in their Eyes"-which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film of 2009-an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal entitled "Can You Alter Your Memory: Taking the Sting Out of Upsets." People may soon be treated by new techniques for phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety-related conditions. Rape victims can replace their memories with less fear-filled ones.
In Roland Emmerich’s 1996 movie “Independence Day,” Julius Levinson tells those around him to pray. “But I’m not Jewish,” protests one. “Nobody’s perfect,” replies Levinson. There are worse things that can happen to people than being born other than Jewish, although the general public probably thinks that imperfect people must be permanently depressed. In an occasionally amusing, even upbeat documentary about people born with deformities because their mothers took the drug Thalidomode while they were pregnant, Niko von Glasow, himself a Thalidomide victim, pulls together twelve people on an unusual project. To have them “come out” in the most graphic way, all would get photographed nude, their tiny arms, or miniature legs could be seen by all passersby as the posters would be exhibited in a public square in Germany.
Por Harvey Karten - Hay tantos a propósito de las canciones en la banda sonora que hay que preguntarse por qué el director Miguel Sapochnik pasado por alto la canción más animada en "Damn Yankees": "Tienes que tener corazón / Todo lo que necesitas es el corazón". Entonces otra vez el corazón está lejos de todo lo que necesitas de verdad: es sólo uno de los órganos se sustituye por una compañía que cobre sólo las personas que reciben trasplantes de órganos a plazos las mismas tasas de usura de crédito que a día de hoy las empresas a obtener: 19% para empezar, subir al 26%. Al igual que con las tarjetas de crédito a día de hoy, sin embargo, es mejor pagar en su totalidad antes del procedimiento, pero si tu bolsillo se carece de 650.000 dólares para un corazón (de ser así siempre puedes comprar un hígado en su lugar), es mejor que no ser un alto riesgo prestatario. Si usted no paga a tiempo, ¡oh, pero te dan un período de gracia de 90 días-los chicos de la Corporación de la vuelta y toma posesión del órgano. Y usted que pensaba que los hombres de repos contratado para recuperar autos fueron los bottomest de los alimentadores de fondo!
By Harvey Karten - There are so many apropos songs on the soundtrack that you’ve got to wonder why director Miguel Sapochnik overlooked the liveliest song in "Damn Yankees": "You gotta have heart/All you really need is heart." Then again the heart is far from all that you really need: it’s only one of the organs being replaced by a company that only charges people given organ transplants on the installment plan the same usurious rates that today’s credit companies get: 19% to begin, going up to 26%. Like with today’s credit cards, though, you’re better off paying in full before the procedure, but if your pockets are lacking $650,000 for a heart (if so you can always buy a liver instead), you’d better not be a subprime borrower. If you don’t pay on time-oh but they give you a 90-day grace period-the guys from the corporation come around and repossesses the organ. And you thought that repo men hired to take back autos were the bottomest of the bottom-feeders!
