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Fish Tank'
Mia is 15, all elbows and anger, going at her life in a rundown apartment complex in Essex as if it were one long skirmish in British filmmaker Andrea Arnold's exceptionally well-crafted drama, "Fish Tank."
Featuring newcomer Katie Jarvis, whom the director first spotted fighting with her boyfriend on a train station platform, the 17-year-old so completely captures the innocence, cynicism and rage of a child of poverty and divorce on the edge of adulthood that it feels as if you are spying on Mia, so achingly real, so tangible does her world seem here.
"Fish Tank" has some of the same strains as "Precious," the dark fable of a pregnant, abused and obese Harlem teenager on the current Oscar circuit, but without any of the operatics. Arnold's style is far more verite, giving us a precisely rendered look at the experience of growing up in a British housing project, with Mia's issues emerging out of neglect and ignorance rather than incest and violence, and the brilliant power of the film coming from the gritty
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Zellweger's 'New in Town' role made her shiver
LOS ANGELES -- The wardrobe department saved Renee Zellweger's life during the filming of the romantic comedy "New in Town." It was so cold while filming in Canada that she needed extra help to keep warm.
"I never imagined that I would rejoice at the pantyhose laid out on the bed by wardrobe every morning. They were essential. I would not be here today without the Hanes," Zellweger says during an interview at the W Hotel to promote the film. She accents the comment with a soft giggle.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, was the city stand-in for New Ulm, Minn. And pantyhose provided her another layer of clothing to help fight off the freezing weather. In the movie, New Ulm is the small community where her character, hot-shot business executive Lucy Hill, goes to make the town's big factory more profitable for the faceless owners in Miami. She's expected to lay off people.
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Temple Grandin'
At first glance, it might appear that Claire Danes and HBO are a little behind the curve with "Temple Grandin," a biopic about an early autistic advocate and educator. In the years since "Rain Man," autism has created something of a stock character in television and film. Indeed, when Danes was preparing for the role of Grandin, she had to look no further than her husband, Hugh Dancy, who recently starred in "Adam."
But you can't be behind the curve when there is no curve, and there is no longer any curve on autism movies because Danes and the makers of "Temple Grandin" have blown it out of the water.
Utterly and gorgeously unsentimental, "Temple Grandin," arriving Saturday, clomps across the screen with all the wild-eyed grace of its main character, chronicling the life of a woman who not only overcame a host of physical, mental and social obstacles but actually used her autism to create a career for herself in animal husbandry. She is best known for designing a more humane method of herding cattle to
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Martina Hingis to play WTT; rules out full return
Martina Hingis can't help but contemplate yet another comeback when she sees the success Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin are having after being away from tennis.
"There's a spark," Hingis said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
But she also said she would rule out the possibility of a return to the tour "at this point," primarily because of all the travel.
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Director talks about pulling 'Precious' together
The moment director Lee Daniels read "Push" by Sapphire (born Ramona Lofton), he knew the story of an illiterate, pregnant, abused teen-age girl would make a powerful movie. All he had to do was persuade the author he was the right person to bring the book to the screen.
"She didn't want it to be a film. She thought that if I did a film of it and I screwed it up and it was not that good, it would be a reflection of the book," Daniels says. "I told her that no matter how bad a movie I make of your book, the book is going to remain genius."
After eight years, Sapphire finally agreed and Daniels got to make "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire."
Swedish director Jan Troell's "Everlasting Moments" is at once tremendous and banal, and I mean that as a high compliment. It's the kind of film that seeps into you slowly, and with reserve, rather than skipping right up and saying hello.
It manages this feat by depicting both the grand sweep of an era and the minuscule, almost arcane -- it's practically glacial -- life details of a working-class Swedish family at the turn of the 20th century. The great accomplishment of the film -- the perfect balancing act, if you will -- is that neither of these seemingly opposing themes crowd out the other. Instead, they happily co-exist in the kind of cinematic experience that can be all encompassing, if you let it.
As a monthly offering of Fresno Filmworks, it plays Friday only at The Tower Theatre.
Based on a real-life story, "Everlasting Moments" weaves the tale of Maria Larsson (a riveting and profound Maria Heiskanen), a Finnish immigrant married to a Swede, the strong and boisterous Sigfrid (a colorful Mikael Persbrandt). She is faced with two simultaneous and overwhelming challenges: caring for her four children in a time of poverty and unrest; and keeping tabs on her husband, who likes to get raging drunk and chase women all over town.
Maria is hard-headed and fierce, even grim, when it comes to protecting her children and trying to build a better life. But there's a side to her that is whimsical and wry. Every so often her hardened expression gives way to lightness and frivolity, and it's a joy to watch.
We learn about this side of her when she stumbles into a hidden passion for photography. Curious about a camera that she won in a contest before her marriage, she takes it to a local photo studio. The owner of the studio (Jesper Christensen) is enamored of her and encourages her to practice taking pictures. It turns out she has a knack.
Part of what makes the film so pungent -- and encompassing -- is the way that Troell saturates the audience in the era. From the harsh details of everyday life to oblique references to class struggle, this is no spiffy, upper-crust costume drama. Spousal abuse rears its ugly head. A muted color palette, heavy on browns and earth tones, suggests the sepia effect of an old photo.
The film is not bleak, however. Themes of female empowerment strongly resonate. Maria learns that her own creative impulses can't be ignored, even in the context of raising a large family. At the same time, there is a sense of nuance at work here. Choices are made in life, and to the outsider, they aren't always rational.
The result is a gently intriguing film that whispers of the complexities of life. "Everlasting Moments" won't satisfy an audience looking for summer blockbuster fare. But within its subtle borders you'll find an amazing world all its own.
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