The first reviews from the Lima Film Fest are up… you can already buy tickets for the shows which start showing on August 6th until August 14th. They aren’t much, but you can get all the Lima Film Fest 2010 tagged items to keep updated throughout this week.
Here are the reviews at the moment:
Entre a Luz e a Sombra (2009)
Genre: Documentary
Directed by: Luciana Burlamaqui
Between Light and Shadow is a documentary that spans 7 years into the life of a Brazilian actress, who devotes herself to working with the prisoners in Carandiru — which was the largest penitentiary in South America [there’s even a movie about the 1992 massacre there]– A couple of the prisoners, Rap duo 509-E members Dexter and Afro-X, who were there for different sentences, are encouraged to create music.
The documentary shows that even though the actress [whose name escapes me, and doesn’t show up anywhere] and the guys from 509-E were born in the same city, but where born in different parts of town and in different families, there’s a disconnect. This is why The Actress spends 20 years of her life working with prisoners on theater workshops, dancing, encouraging them to create music, or paint, while also supporting 509-E in their rap careers in and outside prison. The rap duo is granted permission to perform at events outside prison while still doing their sentences because the judge granting these permissions is convinced that this is a good way to give prisoners a second chance.
Of course politicians and police enforcement officers are against prisoners going out and commenting on political issues. And of course the duo, young at that time, was against “The Man” so they didn’t waste any time to speak up.
There are problems in Carandiru, the prisoners take over the prison with hostages — “We have women and kids” read one of the messages they hung — and the situation got out of control. The prison was closed down, the prisoners transfered, and Carandiru was demolished. With terrorist groups running rampant in and out of prison, government officials stopped letting prisoners do public events… even when 509-E was winning big in the Rap festivals and awards.
Finally, as time passed by, Dexter and Afro-X split after Dexter was transfered to another prison, and Afro-X was given probation because he was fathering a child with singer Simony.
In a telling ending, both Dexter and The Actress — who were a couple in the beginning of the documentary — tells us what we’ve known all along. Maybe it’s just better to put your best effort in keeping children out of the prisons. Because once people live “the life” and feel proud of it, there’s never going back.
2.75/5
COMPETENCIA OFICIAL – DOCUMETAL
Screenings:
Tuesday 10 @ 4pm in Centro Cultural Catolica – Sala Azul
La Yuma (2009)
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Starring: Alma Blanco
Directed by: Florence Jaugey
La Yuma — don’t ask me what Yuma means, but La Yuma is the boxing nickname of the character — tells the story of a girl from the poor neighborhoods of Managua, Nicaragua, who wants to become a professional boxer. One day she sees her brother mugging a young journalist who loses a disc with his work, so she decides to return it to him, and decides that she likes him. As she deals with her possible love life, as well as her family life with her younger siblings, good-for-nothing mother with her good-for-nothing boyfriend, she finally gets the chance to train under renown boxing trainer Polvorita.
La Yuma pretty much reminded everyone of Girlfight — which launched the career of now the familiar Michelle Rodriguez — for their “tough girl who wants to box” theme, but ultimately La Yuma distances itself from boxing, and focuses on what Alma Blanco’s character has to do for her and her siblings to survive.
Since the story starts out as a boxing film, and then distances itself from it… La Yuma seems a bit disjointed, as if you were watching 2 or 3 different films. However, the film’s protagonist is interesting — she’s tough and sassy with a sense of humor — she keeps bringing you back into the story. The acting is a bit uneven, especially from Ernesto (Gabriel Benavides) the “love interest” and you wonder why La Yuma feels attraction towards him, but characters like Doña Scarlett (María Esther López), or La Cubana (Juan Carlos García) are enjoyable and memorable enough.
3/5
COMPETENCIA OFICIAL – FICCION
Screenings:
Monday 9 @ 5.15pm in Cineplanet Alcazar – Sala 1
Tuesday 10 @ 7.30pm in Centro Cultural Catolica – Sala Azul
Thursday 12 @ 9.45pm in Cineplanet Alcazar – Sala 1
Whatever your thoughts are about Toy Story, and Toy Story 2, if you got the chance to grow up and grow old with the Toy Story franchise, you’re going to feel like Toy Story 3 will be pulling your heart strings. I wasn’t emotionally attached to the franchise, and I still felt the nostalgic ending, quite reminiscent of the ending in the Winnie the Pooh books. That of having to grow up, and let go.
There, I said it.
Look, I love Jakey G. but Prince of Persia was a joke. This is coming from someone who isn’t even a hardcore fan of the video game. Yeah, I used to play it on my cousin’s computer back in DOS system. LOL
Below the break, possible spoilers~ you’ve been warned.
Sands of Time introduces Dastan as a kid living in the streets saving another street kid from being punished by the King (Sharaman) ‘s men… so of course, the King sees something special in him and takes him home. Flash forward years, and Dastan — now a hot-looking Prince — and his brothers are about to take on a city that is supposed to be dealing weapons to the Persian’s enemies [hint: weapons of mass destruction].
In their looting, Dastan gets a dagger… THE Dagger (with capital D), which the princess of the city, Tamina, was trying to protect. After the murder of his father the King, Dastan is accused of being the perpetrator, and flees the city with Tamina as sort of hostage and help… but of course, Dastan didn’t do it! So he must clear his name, with the help of the Dagger, which uses some magical sand to turn back time.
Unlike the poster (and set of posters), Sands of Time looks very orange. It actually starts with a full shot of a sunrise — or was it a sunset set backwards? — anyway, it was all very reminiscing of Aladdin, so I began singing Arabian Nights in my head… or maybe I did a bit out loud. The caption, set in Papyrus, said something like two people linked together in time — I thought they might have been talking about KidDastan and the other street kid, but seeing as the other kid was left behind when Dastan was adopted… alas, it’s probably Dastan and the Princess whose city he’s about to ransack.
First of all, “Hi, hello, Cate Blanchett as Lady Marion”
You were my favorite part of the film. Even though I was all like “Lady Marion in an armor?” I still liked it. She was multi-purpose that Lady Marion. She changed horseshoes, and took charge of the crops, and talked to the priests and bishops like it was her business. Even though it totally didn’t fit the period, I was all over it.
is not really that memorable.
It’s funny, it’s got loads of moments for laughs — my dad even said so while saying it’s just a film to watch for fun with the kids.
My favorite – most surprising – moment was actually with Scarlett Johansson playing Russian-non-Russian super heroine Black Widow (aka. Natalie Rushman, aka Natasha Romanoff) taking on a dozen or so guards as Happy Hogan (played by Jon Favreau, who directed the film) was taking one of his own. But then again, it was because I literally burst out laughing, not because I thought it was the coolest thing ever… this is the best Johansson has looked on screen in a really LONG time.
Iron Man 2 – for the ones who don’t follow anything about superhero films – follows Tony Stark after he’s announced to the world that he is Iron Man, and that he’ll be the keeper of world peace, as he cockily says that he’s managed to privatize it. However, as he keeps using the Iron Man suit, his body begins a toxic transformation as the material used to power it is… well, toxic.
So as Stark processes the idea of dying, he begins setting his business affairs in order, and living a self-destructive last-days. Little did he know that an enemy is ready to use the Stark’s Iron Man tech to disrupt “world peace”.
Visual effects were their usual top-notch selves, except when Rhodey (played by Don Cheadle, replacing Terrence Howard) was using a suit… there was something funky with his moving and flying… maybe because it’s meant to not be as cool as Iron Man.
In honor of the release of Let the Right One in here in Peru, I have put together my Top5 Little Girls on Film. It wasn’t how cute they were, it was about young girls — I’m only taking into consideration girls younger than 15 years old — dealing with not so innocent stuff. It wasn’t also about dealing with issues teens deal with normally.
These characters weren’t dealing with coming-of-age stories. These were already adults inside girly bodies.
After so many years of watching animated films, it feels like Dreamworks has found their winning formula of cheap thrills and decent box office numbers, and they’re sticking with it. Time and time again, they put out a piece with similar jokes, running gags, and uninspiring character design with little heart.
I saw it yesterday in the morning, and I was very surprise to actually find out it was going to get release here. I was already getting used to the idea of watching it on DVD or cable.
