Precious
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire to give the film its full title, is not easy to watch, but if you are looking for a cinematic experience to challenge glib optimism about the human condition, this is the movie for you. The performance by Gabourey Sidibe as the title character, an overweight, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child, has already garnered intense critical acclaim, and other performances, including those by comedian Mo’Nique as Precious’ mother and, startlingly, Mariah Carey, as a social worker, seem all of a piece for a movie that is on track to becoming a definitive work about the early 21st-century American experience. Precious picked up two Oscars, a remarkable achievement for a film that skirts the edges of art house. But be warned: In Precious, hope is a distant and difficult prospect.
The Crazies
It is a question why George Romero would wish to preside over this inept remake of his own 1973 classic of the same name. Romero, who has an executive producer credit for this film, seems content to watch Breck Eisner, the director of such innocuous adventure fare as Sahara (2006), labor through yet another predictable take on the zombie genre. Critics have uniformly been unable to find anything new in his vision in terms of content or style. Stars Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell, who lead a band of normal people out of the zombie infected regions.
Date Night
Despite the well-worn concept of a couple from the burbs having romance injected back into a humdrum existence when they visit the Big Apple, early reviews rate Date Night highly. Steve Carell and Tina Fey get caught up in a case of mistaken identity and plenty of comic goings-on for a mix of rom-com and adventure, with Mark Wahlberg stepping in to provide the muscle. Directed by Shawn Levy, who hits his stride in this film, despite a track record that includes The Pink Panther (2006) and Night at the Museum (2006).
It’s Complicated
The most complicated thing to work out about It’s Complicated is why it is so bad. After all, you have Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin in the lead roles as a divorced couple who have accidentally rediscovered their old spark, and Steve Martin as a possible suitor for Streep’s affections. There is acting talent to spare, but no chemistry. Director and writer Nancy Meyers specializes in deeply improbable romantic comedies with a veneer of sophistication. Her credits include Something’s Gotta Give (2003) and The Parent Trap (1998), which were reasonably appealing rom-coms that made good use of high-profile stars. Alec Baldwin as a laddish divorce lawyer playing against Streep’s tightly wound celebrity chef wife would seem to be a surefire hit, but the whole thing turns out to be a damp squib.
I Give My First Love to You (Boku no Hatsukoi Wo Kimi Ni Sasagu)
Japanese tearjerker based on a manga series, I Give My First Love to You pulls out all the stops to get you reaching for the tissues. Main character Takuma falls in love with Mayu, the daughter of his cardiologist. The reason Takuma is consulting with a cardiologist? He’s got a dickey heart — he might not make it past 20. As kids the two promise to marry, but after Takuma realizes that his life is likely to be cut short he begins to distance himself from Mayu, hoping that she will find a more suitable life partner.
Little Nicholas
(Le Petit Nicolas)
Having had its Taiwan premiere as part of the Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival, Little Nicholas hits movie theaters today. The title character is based on illustrations by Jean-Jacques Sempe for a French children’s book by Rene Goscinny. Sempe’s illustrations are hugely popular in Taiwan, rivaling Jimmy Liao (幾米) for the cute but bittersweet portrayal of an urban everyman. Humor and cuteness are all major selling points of this story of a little boy who suffers sudden anxiety when he faces the arrival of a little brother or sister. With the aid of school friends he concocts various ways of dealing with the competition. The film has already proved hugely successful with French audiences, and the appeal of retro European fashions and a slightly dated view of childhood innocence along with Sempe’s established reputation in Taiwan are set to make this a family favorite here as well.
Taipei Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival
(台北金馬奇幻影展)
Organized by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (台北金馬影展), Golden Horse Fantastic celebrates the wacky, bloody and sexy aspects of cinema with a program that focuses mostly on B-movies and horror flicks, along with a mini retrospective on Roman Polanski’s early works and a segment of movies selected by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) titled Hou Hsiao Hsien’s Favorite Fantasy Films. Check out www.ghfff.org.tw for more information. NT$160 tickets are available at the door or through ibon kiosks at 7-Eleven stores. Runs until April 22.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and