GRAN TORINO, the latest from Clint Eastwood, explores the relationship between an angry older vet stuck in the 1950’s, and a young Hmong teenager, trying to avoid joining the local gang in Detroit. Eastwood stars and directs.THE INTERNATIONAL stars the ever popular Clive Owen and Naomi Watts as two government agents fighting a multinational war-stoking, evil-doing bank.
Race relations and internal prejudices are explored in SPINNING INTO BUTTER where a teacher (Sarah Jessica Parker) with racist leanings is thrust into the center of a hate crime.
WERE THE WORLD MINE explores the ultra rich and musical dream-life of a lonely gay teenager. CROSSING OVER is an ensemble piece, starring Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, and Ashley Judd and focusing on the many different sides to immigration, both legal and illegal.
Look for a new Bernal Heights movie night coming soon! Sabrina, at the BHNC, is dedicating her time to getting a monthly movie night happening at the neighborhood center. She has circled Friday, June 26th as the first date. Keep checking this space for information about this event, and if you are a filmmaker and would like to show your work, let me know – I will pass you Sabrina’s information.
Bernal Height’s own Nancy McGinnis brings her personal and intimate rock to the Stray Bar on July 18th at 4pm. You can also check her out on the main stage at SF Pride on Saturday June 27 between 12 and 3pm. Check out info here.
Amy and I are especially excited to announce our very-soon-to-be-open new business – SUCCULENCE. A life and garden supply store, SUCCULENCE will be located in the back patio and barn area behind Four Star Video. We are beginning small, as a succulent store, selling desert plants and supplies, but our philosophy knows no boundaries. We believe that one of our highest duties is creating and extracting as much succulence out of life as we can. To that end, we will sell anything that fits into this vision. Local art, artisan planters, canned concoctions (pickles, preserved lemons, bbq sauces) will all soon be highlighted and available at our new business. We can’t tell you how super psyched we are about this. We hope you will be as well. We plan on being open from around 11-5, daily, and our goal is to be open by Father’s Day at the latest. Stop in and get a succulent!
I know it’s a month or so late, but I watched DOUBT last night with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams – it was awesome! Excellent script, excellent acting, and enough ambiguity in the storyline to leave room for a nice long discussion with your screening buddy afterwards. Check it out.
Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the store.
Love and Kisses,
Ken
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Links we are super hip on this week:
Take a delicate adventure, and see the eggs of history by a local Bernal Heights artist.
Beyond Asiaphilia - local filmmaker Valerie Soe's excellent blog focusing on Asian/American arts, culture and other related topics.
Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival.
Videofest 2009 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.
Pal’s Takeaway – Yummy yummy.
Do you have a link Four Star Customers should check out??? Email it to me.
............//NEW RELEASES//............
CROSSING OVER.
Drama.
Harrison Ford/Ray Liotta/Jim Sturgess/Ashley Judd.
Directed by Wayne Kramer.
* This multi-plot ensemble piece revolves around immigration, both legal and illegal. Ford’s character is a Immigration/Customs Agent who has a sensitive disposition and a reluctance to prosecute. Liotta is a crooked green-card supervisor. Judd is a defense attorney involved in multiple challenging situations.
GRAN TORINO.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Drama/Action.
Clint Eastwood/Bee Vang.
Directed by Clint Eastwood
* Eastwood’s second big release of 2008 (CHANGELING being the other) sees him starring in the film as well. He plays Walt Kowalski, an old curmudgeonly Korean War vet widower living in Detroit in a neighborhood being populated by members of the Hmong community. Kowalski is your classic bigot with a ice cube for a heart who allows the ice to melt revealing a…slightly sweeter bigot. What causes his heart to melt? Only the introverted teenager next door who enters his life when the local Hmong gangbangers force him to try to steal Walt’s prized 1972 Gran Torino. You think someone’s going to successfully steal Clint Eastwood’s car? Uh, no. This film has the added bonus of Clint singing on the soundtrack!
THE INTERNATIONAL.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Action/Suspense.
Clive Owen/Naomi Watts.
Directed by Tom Tykwer.
* Tykwer (RUN LOLA RUN, PERFUME, THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR {amazing!}) continues his transition into Hollywood-based cinema with this, ahem, international thriller about a money-laundering, gun-running, multinational corporate bank being pursued all over the globe by the attractive combination of an Interpol agent (Owen) and a NYC assistant DA (Watts) .
NICOTINA.
Action/Drama/Comedy/Crime/Foreign (Spanish).
Diego Luna.
Directed by Hugo Rodriguez.
* 2003 dark comedy just getting to DVD (maybe because of Luna’s big success with MILK) about a diamond deal, Russian mobsters, Swiss bank accounts and a cyber stalker (Luna) muddling everything up in his pursuit of the hot chick next door.
SPINNING INTO BUTTER.
Drama.
Beau Bridges/Sarah Jessica Parker/Miranda Richardson/Mykelti Williamson.
Directed by Mark Brokaw.
* Sarah Daniels, a young teacher (Parker) harboring racist tendencies, relocates to a very white town in Vermont where she hopes to continue to hide her rotten value system. However, at the new school where she finds employment, a young black man becomes the victim of a hate crime, and Sarah becomes the faculty’s point person in dealing with the crime, and the larger issue.
WERE THE WORLD MINE.
Adventure/Fantasy/Musical/Romance/LGBT.
Tanner Cohen/Zelda Williams/Rickie Goldman.
Directed by Tom Gustafson.
* Timothy (Cohen) a young gay man, stuck in high school and spending his time living in his musical daydreams, has a unique opportunity when he is cast as Puck in the high school presentation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He finds a secret love potion recipe hidden in the script and uses it to basically turn the town gay.
............//DOCUMENTARY/............
LADIES OR GENTLEMEN.
Documentary.
Tim Curry/Damon Wayans/Jack Lemmon/Robin Williams.
Directed by Kevin Burns.
* An exploration into cinematic cross dressing.
WOODSTOCK, 3 DAYS OF PEACE AND MUSIC: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT.
Rock-Doc – The definitive.
Arlo/The Who/Country Joe and The Fish/Sly/Jimi/Santana/Richie Havens/Jefferson Airplane/Janis…and on and on.
Directed by Michael Wadleigh
* Two-Disc 40th Anniversary edition of the 1969 music festival to end all music festivals.
............//TELEVISION/............
THE SHIELD: SEASON SEVEN – THE FINAL ACT.
Television/Cops/Robbers.
Michael Chiklis/Laura Dent/.
* The seventh and final season of the popular tv series following good and bad cops in an inner-city precinct of Los Angeles.
............//BLU-RAY NEW ADDITIONS/............
FLETCH.
Comedy/Suspense.
Chevy Chase.
Directed by Michael Ritchie.
* 1985 goofball comedy about Fletch, a Los Angeles investigative journalist.
............//FAMILY/............
FRANNY’S FEET: PLAYING SOCCER.
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