Burnt
The movie poster for Burnt makes it look like Bradley Cooper started his own cooking show or something ... but this is actually a movie? You mean Jamie Oliver isn’t dramatic or funny enough? Guess not, but why would someone watch an actor pretend to cook while television is already saturated with real chefs cooking real good-looking grub? Surely it must be the ultra-innovative plot of a mercurial, foul-mouthed chef seeking redemption after falling out of grace by orchestrating the ultimate comeback — in this case, earning three Michelin stars. Yeah, there’s plenty of culinary eye candy to look at with Master Chef presenter Marcus Wareing as kitchen adviser and menu designer, but the most important question is ... can Cooper actually cook? Turns out, in preparation for the movie, he trained with Claire Smythe, executive chef of London’s Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, which, you guessed it, has three Michelin stars. The man did his homework. Give him a break.
A Walk in the Woods
Seems like there’s a movie based on a book every week. This time it’s author Bill Bryson’s humorous travelogue of the same name, written upon his return to the US after 20 years in the UK. Bryson decides to reconnect with his homeland by taking on the Appalachian Trail with his overweight, recovering alcoholic high school friend Stephen Katz, with whom he had backpacked in Europe in the 1970s. Unfortunately, they aren’t very prepared nor in shape, and the book pokes fun at their woes while educating the reader about the trail. Bryson and Katz were in their 40s when they took the trip, yet the film casts 79-year-old Robert Redford and 74-year-old Nick Nolte as the duo, presumably because out-of-shape geezers are much funnier than out-of-shape middle-aged men. It’ll take quite a bit of mastery to make such a sublime, light-hearted slice-of-life book into feature-film material, and it’ll be interesting see how romcom hitmaker Ken Kwapis handles it.
Straight Outta Compton
City of Compton, City of Compton… guess what this movie is about? Yes, that legendary hip-hop group, NWA. The title refers to the group’s 1988 album, which brought gangsta rap to the public consciousness, though they would have preferred the term “reality rap.” Director Gary Gray launched his career directing videos for NWA member Ice Cube, and is probably best known for the stoners-in-the-hood comedy Friday, also featuring Ice Cube. Speaking of Ice Cube, that’s his son playing him in Straight Outta Compton. The story follows the genesis of the group in the violent streets of Los Angeles and their rise to fame, and also touches on themes of race and police brutality, which are still hot topics in the US almost three decades later. The trailer shows all the traits of an epic biopic and promises fast-paced and energetic entertainment, and while the dialogue may be a little cheesy, the beats are good.
Sicario
Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro star as FBI agents in this Mexican drug thriller, and when you have US agents trying to stop the cartels, as in reality, things get messy and twisted. Evidence: “What’s our objective?” Blunt asks her boss, played by Josh Brolin. “To dramatically overreact,” he replies. Directed by French-Canadian Denis Villeneuve, this seems to be intense stuff as the trailer opens with Blunt’s character raiding a house to find dozens of rotting corpses hidden in the walls. She is then recruited to help nab the “men who are responsible,” but things get murky from the get go as they cross straight into Mexico. Del Toro is the grizzled and cynical silent-type counterpart to Blunt who is in on all the shadiness and will do anything to get the job done. Sicario means “hitman” in Spanish, but this looks like it’s going to be way more complicated than just identifying a target and taking him or her out.
Marshland
Marshland pretty much swept the Goya Awards in February, which basically means that it is by consensus the best Spanish film of last year. Critics say that it’s basically the Spanish version of the acclaimed HBO series True Detective, but there’s nothing wrong with that, as we can very much afford to have more productions of that caliber. Set in the swamps of Andalucia, the film is set in 1980, five years after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, and follows two mismatched homicide detectives with different personalities and political ideologies as they investigate a series of murders of two teenage sisters in a middle-of-nowhere town with its dark secrets. It’s gritty and brooding modern noir like its American counterpart, but feels just a bit more intense and fast paced.
Nine Taiwanese nervously stand on an observation platform at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport. It’s 9:20am on March 27, 1968, and they are awaiting the arrival of Liu Wen-ching (柳文卿), who is about to be deported back to Taiwan where he faces possible execution for his independence activities. As he is removed from a minibus, a tenth activist, Dai Tian-chao (戴天昭), jumps out of his hiding place and attacks the immigration officials — the nine other activists in tow — while urging Liu to make a run for it. But he’s pinned to the ground. Amid the commotion, Liu tries to
A dozen excited 10-year-olds are bouncing in their chairs. The small classroom’s walls are lined with racks of wetsuits and water equipment, and decorated with posters of turtles. But the students’ eyes are trained on their teacher, Tseng Ching-ming, describing the currents and sea conditions at nearby Banana Bay, where they’ll soon be going. “Today you have one mission: to take off your equipment and float in the water,” he says. Some of the kids grin, nervously. They don’t know it, but the students from Kenting-Eluan elementary school on Taiwan’s southernmost point, are rare among their peers and predecessors. Despite most of
A pig’s head sits atop a shelf, tufts of blonde hair sprouting from its taut scalp. Opposite, its chalky, wrinkled heart glows red in a bubbling vat of liquid, locks of thick dark hair and teeth scattered below. A giant screen shows the pig draped in a hospital gown. Is it dead? A surgeon inserts human teeth implants, then hair implants — beautifying the horrifyingly human-like animal. Chang Chen-shen (張辰申) calls Incarnation Project: Deviation Lovers “a satirical self-criticism, a critique on the fact that throughout our lives we’ve been instilled with ideas and things that don’t belong to us.” Chang
The resignation of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) co-founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as party chair on Jan. 1 has led to an interesting battle between two leading party figures, Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如). For years the party has been a one-man show, but with Ko being held incommunicado while on trial for corruption, the new chair’s leadership could be make or break for the young party. Not only are the two very different in style, their backgrounds are very different. Tsai is a co-founder of the TPP and has been with Ko from the very beginning. Huang has
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