paulkirk-1

I'd encourage anyone interested in watching good acting and film-making to watch "Night Catches Us".

The movie is set in 1976, in Philadelphia, and it is not "Rocky's" S. Philadelphia. The main characters have all had experience/involvement in the Black Panther movement, and the movie cuts a path through the complex feelings and realities that have evolved since they were once involved with it.

It's one of those films that revolves around a core group of characters who've all turned into somewhat different people from when they first knew each other. The dynamic is even more intense because each of the main characters has a tie-in to someone who was obviously a leader or loved one -- indeed it was his death years earlier that led the group to disperse.

I'm kinda bummed that awards seasons might be passing by this gem. Kerry Washington is great, but it's Anthony Mackie's film; he has an intensity and dignity. No overwrought acting.

I channel surfed past this many times, mainly because the synopsis sounded so cheesy, so "Love American Style". However, it turned out to be quite good, very well done. The two stand-out features are the dialog and acting. Great cast. The premise is actually well executed and there aren't too many weak moments. I guess what I was most amazed by was how often you thought the wheels are going to come off the cart, and instead, the cart just banks the turns, so to speak, and the movie keeps flying. There are some nice little sub-plots, particularly the relationship that develops between the character played by former Conan sidekick Andy Richter. Also, want to mention that the music accompanying it was good.

Wes Anderson's "Life Aquatic" is what happens to that kid you had as a friend who always had the best stories to tell when you were on a long bus ride on a field trip or sitting around a campfire with the other Boy Scouts. The rest of us grow up to have workaday lives, but Anderson has decided to hold on to that sense of fascination and wonder we all used to have. He puts that on display in "Life Aquatic," a rambling fish story of a fish story. "Life Aquatic", like other Anderson movies, is a Calliope of a film: incredible visuals, a great cast and script and, probably just because it seemed like a good idea, it has a Greek chorus of one fashioned by a guitar playing Brazilian who also doubles as a shipmate on the "Belafonte", the Jacques Cousteau-like oceanographic institute run by Bill Murray's character (Steve Zissou). (Even the ship's name is a good joke; Harry Belafonte is known for calypso singing; Calypso, of course, is the name of Jacques Cousteau's famous research boat.) And even though the movie is supposed to be about Zissou's search for the shark that killed his best friend, it's really about reminding us that the journey we go on to find the answers to things can be as magical and wonderful as we want it to be.