In honor of the release of VOLVER, a real "women's movie," here's a random little shortlist of great woman things:
Eileen Myles reading last week at Dog Eared Books on Valencia Street from her new book, SORRY, TREE. She's so rad.
Kate Rosenberger, who owns Dog Eared, as well as Red Hill Books and Phonenix Books.
THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE, an incredibly melodramatic and awesome lesbian film from 1960s England. Check out the hip nightclub scene: The crowd looks like they could be hanging out at El Rio today!
Dawn Huston, who runs El Rio.
LA STRADA, NIGHTS OF CABIRIA and all other Giulietta Masina movies.
THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT and all other Hanna Shyulla movies.
GLORIA, OPENING NIGHT and all other Gena Rowlands movies. OK, maybe not all other Gena Rowlands movies.
SHUT UP AND SING, the recently released documentary about the spitfire, confidence and perseverance of The Dixie Chicks.
Godard's TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER, playing at the Castro Theater through April 5.
Cherchez la femme!
four star.
............**//RELEASE OF THE WEEK//**............
VOLVER.
Comedy/Drama. Spain.
Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Duenas, Blanca Portillo.
Directed by Pedro Almodovar.
* So good! Once again, Almodovar throws us in to his intensely colored world, where giggle-inducing humor bleeds into the deepest of tragedies. Almodovar's rich pallette, usually trained on the bright primaries of Madrid, is given another hue — the desolate and windy landscape of La Mancha (where Almodovar himself grew up). The film's title, VOLVER, meaning to return, says it all. The film also marks the return of the director's decades-long muse, Carmen Maura. She is part of a nearly all-female ensemble, making this the most highbrow "chick flick" in ages. With its themes of female solidarity and reinvention, we were reminded of the wonderful film BAGDAD CAFE. The Portland Oregonian: "In VOLVER, the latest marvel to emerge from his sharp and joyful mind, Almodovar blends autobiography, gossip, melodrama, music, the supernatural and the suffocatingly quotidian in a story about a woman — indeed, a tribe of women — struggling through a life of pain and disappointment." The mysterious (and hilarious) ghost story subplot plays gently with Catholic superstition. And once again, Almodovar uses music to intoxicate his actors and his audience, until the whole thing feels quite heady, like everyone has drunk too much sangria after a day in the sun. The New York Times: "Full of surprises and reversals, unfolds with breathtaking ease and self-confidence." The Washington Post: "Engages our hearts as well as our funny bones." All in all, one of his most crowd-pleasingist in a long line of crowd pleasers.
see also: ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, TALK TO HER, BAGDAD CAFE.
............//NEW TITLES//............
THE GOOD SHEPHERD.
Drama/Suspense.
Matt Damon, Robert DeNiro, Angelina Jolie, Joe Pesci, John Turturro, Alec Baldwin, William Hurt, Billy Crudup.
Directed by Robert DeNiro.
* Hollywood, it seems, wants its spy dramas to be good again, like back in the '70s, except starring Matt Damon. And why not have DeNiro direct? He was around in the '70s: He must have gleaned some cinematic knowledge. Well, DeNiro certainly won over David Denby at The New Yorker, who calls this "one of the most impressive movies ever made about espionage." Was Denby duped? Variety countered, "Not boring, exactly, but undeniably tedious."
see also: THE BOURNE IDENTITY, THE DEPARTED, CASINO ROYALE.
JUMP IN!
Comedy/Sports/Teen.
Corbin Bleu.
Directed by Paul Hoen.
THREE NEEDLES.
Drama. (Afrikaans, Mandarin, Xhosa, French and English languages.)
Olympia Dukakis, Chloe Sevigny, Sandra Oh, Stockard Channing, Lucy Liu, Shawn Ashmore, Sook-Yin Lee.
Directed by Thom Fitzgerald.
Please note that our copies of this title have been slightly waylaid. They should be in stock within a few days.
VOLVER.
see above: "release of the week."
............//SERIES//............
ENTOURAGE, SERIES 3.
HBO Comedy/Drama Series.
TWIN PEAKS, SERIES 2.
Cult Classic Mystery Series.
............//FAMILY//............
CHARLOTTE'S WEB.
Drama/Family.
Dakota Fanning; Voices by Julia Roberts, Dominic Scott Kay, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Cedric The Entertainer, Kathy Bates, Reba McEntire, Robert Redford, Andre Benjamin, Sam Shepard.
Directed by Gary Winick.
DORA THE EXPLORER: SHY RAINBOW.
Animation/Family.
****
