Postcards from the Edge

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE (1990)
starring Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine,
Dennis Quaid & Gene Hackman

Acting: 8/10
Story: 7/10
Setting: 7/10
Overall: 7.5

images from www.moviegoods.com

Paris, je t'aime

PARIS, JE T'AIME (2006)
starring Steve Buscemi, Miranda Richardson, Juliette Binoche,
Willem Dafoe, Nick Nolte, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Fannie Ardant,
Gena Rowlands, Natalie Portman, among others.

Acting: 8/10
Story: 8/10
Setting: 8/10
Overall: 8.5

2006 poster	2007 Style A (red)

07 Style C (DVD cover)	07 Style D (also Spanish & Russian)

Turkish	Taiwanese

German (featuring one of the short films)

La Vie en Rose

LA VIE EN ROSE (2007)
(Original Title: La Môme)
starring Marion Cottilard, Gérard Depardieu, Sylvie Testud & Jean-Pierre Martins

After watching Julie Christie in Away From Her and then this film, there's no denying how Marion Cotillard overtook her in the Oscar Best Actress race. Her performance is absolutely overwhelming.

Acting: 8/10
Story: 7.5/10
Setting: 8/10
Overall: 8

Alternate	French

Japanese

images from www.moviegoods.com

One True Thing

ONE TRUE THING (1998)
starring Meryl Streep, William Hurt,
Tom Everett Scott, & Renee Zellweger

Meryl Streep never ceases to amaze me! She really did look like she was dying. Her dedication and craft was deserving of that Best Actress nomination. William Hurt is looking a lot like one of my high school teacher on that poster; I hated his character, for what he did to his wife. Everett Scott is surprisingly good; the only other film I remember him of is Dead Man on Campus (I don't know how on earth I remember that.) Too bad he's the only one in the "family" that haven't won an Oscar. Oh, Rory's mom from Gilmore Girls makes a cameo as Zellweger's best friend. Ultimately, this film is heartbreaking and sentimental and a must for any Streep fans (like myself.)

Acting: 8/10
Story: 7/10
Setting: 7.5/10
Overall: 8

images from www.moviegoods.com

Away From Her

Jazzercise with Israel / Germany Leading the board

Jazzercise with Israel / Germany Leading the board

Christie and Dukakis (who I did not even recognized) looked good for their age, could not help but feel sorry for Pinsent's character, very subtle performance from each, beautiful setting, ending is eh, Christie could've been deserving of the Oscar, but Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose was far superior.

Acting: 8/10
Story: 7/10
Setting: 8/10
Overall: 7.5

Little Miss Sunshine

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (2006)
starring Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell,
Paul Dano, Alan Arkin, & Abigail Breslin

Funny, witty, Abigail Breslin is entertaining, I'm not sure why Alan Arkin won an Oscar for this role, sorta disappointing ending, but overall enjoyable.

Acting: 8.5/10
Story: 7/10
Visual: 8/10
Overall: 8

images from www.moviegoods.com

Junebug

JUNEBUG (2005)
starring Amy Adams, Embeth Davidtz,
Alessandro Nivola, & Ben McKenzie

So, I saw this movie yesterday on our DVD player, which I rarely use because of the quality of our tv. It was the first time in a long time that I watch a film in one sitting, so surprise

Embeth Davidtz stars as Madeleine, an art curator, who meets George (Alessandro Nivola) in an art show, and marries him a week later. Months later she travels down south to North Carolina to pursue a painter to sign with her gallery. As it turns out, George lived not far from the painter, so they took this opportunity to meet his family.

This movie is billed as a comedy-drama, and is just so. Amy Adams as the glorious and pregnant Ashley is the saving grace and the star of the film. She was undeniably funny and I cannot help but smile whenever she's onscreen and feel sad when her husband, Johnny (Benjamin McKenzie) continually ignores her. I remember watching McKenzie a few years back in The O.C. and thought he was uninspiring, but here he plays a very much complicated character.

Alessandro Nivola is gorgeously sexy as Davidtz's husband. My brother informed me a few minutes into the film that Davidtz was from one of my childhood favorite movies "Matilda", and I had to make sure that she was, and sure enough my brother was right. I was like, "It's Miss Honey!" I knew the American accent she was sporting in that movie was not hers.

Acting: 8/10
Story: 7.5/10
Visual: 8/10
Overall: 7.8

Premise Change

I started this blog with the aim of critiquing movie posters. However, as things keep coming up, like recently moving to a new house and not having an internet for almost TWO WEEKS, I realize I do not have the capacity nor the position to do just that. With my posts I felt something was missing. Who knows?

Anyway, so I decided to review movie posters of movies I just watched. I felt that would put more meat into my posts. Ha.

Onto the new programming!!!

Sports: 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games

Atlanta 1996 Centennial Olympic Games
19 July to 4 August 1996

Above is the poster for the celebration of the 1996 Olympic Games, celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Modern Olympics. Athens beat 5 other cities, including sentiment favourite Athens, to host these games.

The poster was created by Primo Angeli and personally chosen by then IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Positive: It's colorful in the usage of the Olympic colours, and incorporates the emblem of the games. The typography of "Atlanta" at the bottom is beautiful, and the use of the Olympic rings over the line for "A" is nice. Certainly better than the you-know-what mascot.

Negative: I could not tell if the figure is a man or a woman. If she's a woman, she definitely has an ample bottom, sadly flat chest, and overtly muscular arms. If he's a man, then he definitely has an ample bottom and rightfully muscular bottom, yet he sports a devastatingly prominent man boobs.

BACK FROM HIATUS--Days of Darkness

Just moved to a new (and better) house, but we did not have internet for more than a week.

I swear I felt like I was dying inside. As if I was behind on what's going on with the world. Oh internet, you don't know how you've occupied people's lives.

TV: ANGELS IN AMERICA

Angels in America (TV Miniseries 2003)
starring Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, & Emma Thompson

Featured above is two posters (teaser, left & standard, right) for the miniseries Angels in America. It is based on the two plays (originally performed on Broadway in 1993 and 1994) by Tony Kushner , Millennium Approaches and Perestroika.

The teaser poster depicts the lone image of Emma Thompson as an angel, and the words "Look Up! Look Up!" (which is spoken in the show). I like it as a whole, althoughsomeone who has no premise of the series would assume it's about religion, which entirely untrue. I like the A behind the title, as in Alpha and Omega.

Thompson's Angel America appears once more in the standard poster, but this time showing her visiting Prior Walter, played by Justin Kirk. It is actually the final scene in the Part One of the miniseries. One of the angel's line ("The messenger has arrived") appears as well. I like this overall and is very effective. It truly captures the premise of the show, challenging whether what before you is real or just a fervor dream.

The Beginning: WEST SIDE STORY

WEST SIDE STORY (1961)

starring Natalie Wood & Richard Beymer

So this is the beginning of my blogging experience. I began one before, but decidedly made it into a private one. Hopefully this works out haha.

So, I decided for my first entry to discuss the West Side Story movie poster. This is one of my most favorite movies (top 3) and the poster happens to be excellent as well. I mean, the faded typography itself is iconic, the stairs and the dancing figures as well. The color combination of black and red itself reflects the tension between the warring gangs in the movie. And red is for love of course.

I'm not sure about the repeating of the dancing figures. The one on the stairs depict them separate in white, while the one above shows them holding hands but in black. Perhaps in death they've come together, while they are separated during life? I'm not confident about my reasoning.

Anyways , I also included some other posters, including international ones. I like the German one, Tony's face on the Italian one is whacked, and the Polish one oddly looks African inspired.

Alternate	Italian

German	Spanish (?)

Polish

images from www.moviegoods.com