MOVIE REVIEW
Sin Nombre (2009)
Eniac Martinez/Focus Features
Most filmmakers keep things on a small, personal scale when making their first feature. Such isn't the case for Cary Joji Fukunaga, the Oakland-born writer-director of “Sin Nombre.” He immersed himself in an unfamiliar culture, shot his film in a foreign language, and came away with a work of great raw power. An immigration drama in the grand tradition of movies like “El Norte,” the movie is alternately brutal and affecting, filled with big dreams and crushing realities.
Continue reading “Amores perros de hecho” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Milk (2008)
Phil Bray/Focus Features
The story of Harvey Milk has never seemed timelier than it does right now, with this month’s defeat of Proposition 8 in California and the ongoing war over equal rights for the American gay population. That particular bit of happenstance amplifies the considerable dramatic impact of Gus Van Sant’s “Milk,” which chronicles the activist period in its subject’s life. Brilliantly acted and laced with verisimilitude, the movie convincingly delves into the front lines of that war in its earliest stages.
Continue reading “Crying Over Slain Milk” »