Little Prince
One of the world’s best-selling books, this beloved novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupery has been interpreted into numerous operas, musical productions, television series and films in various formats and languages. Yet, this 3D stop motion and computer animation directed by the guy who helmed Kung Fu Panda is only the second full-length English-language film adaptation after the 1974 musical. Keep in mind that this is not a direct adaptation. Instead, we follow a little girl (Inside Out, anyone?) who is forced by her mother to spend her summer vacation studying for entrance exams to a prestigious school and preparing to be “a wonderful adult.” Her next door neighbor happens to be the aviator — the narrator in the actual novel. Over the course of the summer, he tells her the story of the Little Prince, whom he met in the desert when his plane crashed. This is when the stop-motion comes in, based on the author’s watercolor illustrations. There’s no doubt that the results are beautiful, but does the story-inside-a-story format work for a tale already with so many underlying nuances?
Black Mass
Also based on a book of the same name, Black Mass depicts the story of notorious Irish-American mobster Whitey Bulger (Johnny Depp, though it might take a minute to recognize him under all that makeup), who ran Boston’s Winter Hill Gang. The film chronicles how Bulger’s childhood friend-turned-FBI agent John Connolly enlisted him as an informant to take down the Italian mob, while Bulger gets away with murder and other criminal activities, eliminating his rivals and rising to the top. All goes well until Bulger’s activities get out of hand. In real life, Bulger went on the run in 1994, spending 12 years on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list until he was finally captured in 2011 and convicted of 11 murders among other crimes. Critics say that the film is fairly accurate to true events, and that it’s one of Depp’s best performances of late.
Strangerland
Nicole Kidman (in her first starring role in an independent Australian production since 1989) and Joseph Fiennes star as a couple who, seemingly recovering from some sort of past trauma, move their family into the Australian desert. On the eve of a massive orange dust storm, their flirtatious teenage daughter and younger son disappear, and the search begins while more about the family is revealed than they would like to. Kidman reportedly delivers a great performance as the mother’s mental state deteriorates. The trailer starts with the mother looking for the children, but things gradually become unhinged with brief cut scenes of sexuality, violence, anguish and other underlying emotions indicating that there’s much more to the film than the plot suggests.
Tales of Halloween
Cramming 10 segments into 90 minutes, Tales of Halloween is a low-budget anthology of interrelated stories that take place in a small American town that is terrorized by all sorts of scary things one Halloween night. Horror fans will definitely recognize some of the directors — including Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw series), Neil Marshall (The Descent) and Mike Mendez (Big Ass Spider!) while enjoying cameos by the likes of John Landis (American Werewolf in London), Lin Shaye (Insidious) and Barry Bostwick (Rocky Horror Picture Show). The stories are strung together with the commentary of now 70-year-old Adrienne Barbeau, who reprises her radio DJ role from the 1980 film The Fog. We won’t reveal much of the plot since the segments are so short, but they should be fun and scary at the same time.
L’Oriana
This film, originally made for Italian TV, depicts the life of often controversial journalist Oriana Fallaci, who died in 2006. She was famous for her war and revolution coverage, and is known for interviews with world leaders such as Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), Indira Gandhi, Yasser Arafat and Henry Kissinger. Fallaci’s most famous interview probably was with Ayatollah Khomeini, where she took off her chador and called it a “stupid medieval rag.” The film also portrays Fallaci’s love affair with one of her subjects, Greek politician and poet Alexandros Panagoulis, who resisted the country’s dictatorship in the 1960s. The film does not cover her later years, where after the 9/11 attacks she wrote three books criticizing Islam.
The Nuremberg trials have inspired filmmakers before, from Stanley Kramer’s 1961 drama to the 2000 television miniseries with Alec Baldwin and Brian Cox. But for the latest take, Nuremberg, writer-director James Vanderbilt focuses on a lesser-known figure: The US Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who after the war was assigned to supervise and evaluate captured Nazi leaders to ensure they were fit for trial (and also keep them alive). But his is a name that had been largely forgotten: He wasn’t even a character in the miniseries. Kelley, portrayed in the film by Rami Malek, was an ambitious sort who saw in
It’s always a pleasure to see something one has long advocated slowly become reality. The late August visit of a delegation to the Philippines led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Huang Chao-ching (黃昭欽), Chair of Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) and US-Taiwan Business Council vice president, Lotta Danielsson, was yet another example of how the two nations are drawing closer together. The security threat from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), along with their complementary economies, is finally fostering growth in ties. Interestingly, officials from both sides often refer to a shared Austronesian heritage when arguing for
Among the Nazis who were prosecuted during the Nuremberg trials in 1945 and 1946 was Hitler’s second-in-command, Hermann Goring. Less widely known, though, is the involvement of the US psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who spent more than 80 hours interviewing and assessing Goring and 21 other Nazi officials prior to the trials. As described in Jack El-Hai’s 2013 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, Kelley was charmed by Goring but also haunted by his own conclusion that the Nazis’ atrocities were not specific to that time and place or to those people: they could in fact happen anywhere. He was ultimately
Even after years in business, weekend tables here can be booked out a month in advance. The price point far exceeds its competitors. Granted, expectations are soaringly high, but something here failed to hit the high notes. There are a few telltale signs that a restaurant relies solely on outstanding food to create the experience, no gimmicks or distractions needed. La Mole is such a restaurant. The atmosphere is food-forward, with an open kitchen center stage. Our tables are simple; no candles, no dim lighting, no ambient music. The menu is brief, and our waiter directs most
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