Ender’s Game
It’s big, it’s bold and it is undeniably spectacular, but the new film by Gavin Hood suffers from a number of faults that have afflicted his earlier work: a profound lack of humor. Hood burst onto the popular consciousness in 2005 with Tsotsi, a film that followed the life of a homeless black boy in the backstreets of Johannesburg. It was not a film that required a light touch. But when dealing with extraordinary rendition in the star-studded Rendition, or superhero exploits in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, irony, if not humor, would have been appreciated. With Ender’s Game, a thoughtful and magnificent astro-adventure that pits a child against alien hordes intent on the world’s destruction, Hood provides metaphors, moral dilemmas, and soul-searching aplenty, and the onscreen battles take starfleet engagements to a whole new level -- but oh, for something to lighten the load! A sequel-ready ending further weakens the drama, and while Ender’s Game fails to be all that it could be, it is packed with so much material most people would be hard-pressed not to find something they liked about it.
Machete Kills
A sequel to Machete, the 2010 Robert Rodriguez splatter fest that was anchored by the iconic, if long-suffering, character actor (and former felon and ex-boxer) Danny Trejo. Trejo plays a machete-wielding killer who is hired by the US government to battle his way through Mexico to take down an arms dealer who is about to launch a weapon into space. With Trejo in the lead, you can expect a high body count, and with Rodriguez in the director’s chair, you know the blood is going to be in your face. And that is the best reason to go watch Machete Kills, a top-notch B-movie that knows exactly what its customers want. Throw Lady Gaga, Antonio Banderas and Charlie Sheen into the mix, and you know that Rodriguez is out to have some fun. Don’t expect logic, or nuance, or anything that is going to get in the way of people being killed for your entertainment. As one of the character’s in the film says, “Machete kills. That’s what he does!” And that about sums this film up.
Blue Jasmine
It was getting to the point where it was becoming hard to be a Woody Allen fan anymore. Match Point, Scoop and Cassandra’s Dream were a low point, redeemed ever so slightly with more recent work such as Whatever Works and To Rome with Love, which were at least interesting, but also a little bit workmanlike. With Blue Jasmine Allen has found a muse in Cate Blanchett, and created what may be his best film in a decade. Blanchett is Jasmine, a New York socialite who has been taken for everything she has by Hal (Alec Baldwin), and has come to San Francisco to impose on her much less wealthy sister (Sally Hawkins). She is fighting a losing battle with her memories, and her narcissistic hang-ups and their consequences begin to overwhelm her and everyone around. Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern, one of the most sober of film critics, goes so far as to say that “Cate Blanchett tops anything she’s done in the past” with this role that is hilariously funny while also being absolutely tragic.
Frances Ha
A film for writer-director Noah Baumbach -- who most recently directed Greenberg, which has a strong claim to being the best of all Ben Stiller’s movies -- is back with what may be his most compassionate and nuanced film since The Squid and the Whale. Shot in velvety black and white, recalling the tones of Woody Allen’s Manhattan, Frances Ha tells the story of a New York woman who throws herself headlong into the realization of her dreams, even as we discern that the possibility of their actualization is constantly dwindling. Like some early Allen pictures, Frances Ha is an ode to the city of New York and the people, in all their variety, who live there. It watches the character of Frances, played by Greta Gerwig, struggling to invent herself. Gerwig sparkles, and actress Micky Summer (daughter to musician Sting), is a perfect foil in a slight tale that manages to be charming, effervescent, playful and deeply sad all at the same time.
English Vinglish
Veteran Bollywood actress Sridevi stars in a light-hearted drama about a quiet, sweet-tempered housewife who despite her considerable homemaking skills endures endless slights from her husband and children due to her reluctance to learn English. Things come to a head when she visits Manhattan to help in wedding preparations for a niece’s wedding, and is inspired to sign up for language classes. The development is pretty predictable as a story of female empowerment, and there are some gentle hints of romance that never conflict with a story centered on strong family values. There is a nice performance by Cory Hibbs as the camp English teacher, and some musical interludes that root the film firmly in the Bollywood tradition are good fun. While English Vinglish never courts controversy about ethnic or gender issues, its cheerful spirit and good humor make it an enjoyable introduction to Indian cinema. Dialogue is mostly in English.
Taiwan’s English education system is being pulled apart by three opposing forces. Bilingual Nation 2030 pulls students toward English and global communication. Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness pulls them toward digital judgment, verification and AI-mediated work. But Taiwan’s old exam culture pulls them back toward memorization, grammar drills, timed reading and correct answers. If the education system keeps using old exams to define success, it risks producing graduates who are neither genuinely bilingual nor genuinely AI-ready, but trained for tasks machines can already perform. The first force is Bilingual Nation 2030. Launched in 2018, the policy aimed to “help Taiwan’s workforce connect
“Taiwan’s Opposition Leader Comes to US With a Message Straight Out of Beijing” read a May 31 headline in the Wall Street Journal. Top US administration officials and members of Congress almost certainly read the WSJ, and if there was a bullet point takeaway that people in Washington should absorb ahead of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chair Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) arrival in DC on June 9, that headline is it. The last few columns have discussed this very topic, and the timing is not coincidental. While those top officials likely do not read the Taipei Times, judging by the number
With weighty, anxiety-inducing geopolitical topics dominating the headlines, checking in on the wild and weird state of local politics can take some of the edge off. This November’s elections will determine who will be in charge of fixing potholes in your neighborhood, not the potholes in Taiwan’s complicated geopolitical space. Recently, after an online interview with a Taipei-based journalist, I commented that Taipei journalists never go further than the MRT can take them. He laughed and agreed. Naturally, the Taipei mayoral race is eating up much of the press attention. TAIPEI CITY Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Puma Shen (沈伯洋) has
As someone who normally steers clear of books with “transcendence” or “metaphysics” in their subtitles, this reviewer — a casual observer of local belief systems since the 1990s — found Fabian Graham’s Money God Temples in Taiwan a challenging read. Those who’ve only dipped their toes into temple culture will likely need to parse several sections with special care if they’re to keep up with the author, a British ethnographic researcher whose previous books have investigated religious practices among ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia. This scholarly volume examines a facet of Taiwan’s religious landscape that didn’t exist a century ago, and
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