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arts and culture
A trio of film reviews, currently in theaters
KENDALL GRANT
Contributor
Efficient, gorgeous, and thrilling, Gravity delivers exactly what it promises: a suspense tale in
space with dazzling visuals. Is it better than
2001: A Space Odyssey? Is it better than director Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También or
reproach. Yes, he should have won Academy
Awards for Children of Men and The Tree of Life.
But a win here would be well-deserved. You
feel as if you’ve taken a ride through the stars.
There are some heart-stopping stills.
The reason for the film’s lack of resonance,
compared to Cuarón’s previous Mexican roadtrip extravaganza and dystopian adaptation, is
the film’s fleeting impact. It grips you for every
second that it lasts, and then it lets you go. You
leave satisfied, but not challenged. You leave
invigorated, but not moved. The story and the
script are simplistic, almost window dressing
meant to prop up the brilliance of the effects.
Gravity is a rousing crowd-pleaser from
someone with serious filmmaking talent.
Everyone should see it in IMAX 3D. Lubezki
should probably win the Oscar. Just don’t go
calling it the best movie of the year.
Blue Jasmine (2013) 3/4
DELIGHTFUL, tonally sound, and uncomfortably hilarious, Blue Jasmine finds
Woody Allen back in fine form
after a schizophrenically inconsistent string of films that ran
the gamut between pleasantly
diverting (see: Midnight in Paris)
and maddeningly sketchy (see: To
Rome with Love).
Much of the film’s success
has to do with Cate Blanchett’s
marvelous performance as the
neurotic, Xanax-popping title
character. Fragile, anxious, infuriating, showy and vindictive,
her anti-hero makes the film
12 Years a Slave (2013) 3.5/4
mesmerizing even when Allen
GEORGE CLOONEY IN GRAVITY
Excruciatingly brutal yet undeniably powerful,
loses his focus. Undeniably, she
12 Years a Slave is a soul-splintering descent
sets a new standard for dysinto hell, a harrowing journey through the
functional people. Blanchett’s work is OscarChildren of Men? No and no. But is a roaring
inner workings of an institution that robbed
calibre, and may snag her the golden statue
good time. A short running time of less than
people of freedom, family, and dignity.
itself.
90 minutes and a series of (slightly) implausible
Chiwetel Eijofor gives an astonishing perforEach member of the supporting cast has the
narrative twists ratchets up the tension until it’s
mance, following up his fine work in Children of
opportunity to do something memorable, and
nearly unbearable, holding most audience memMen by embodying Solomon Northup to heartestablished talents and new faces rise to the
bers on the edge of their seats until the credits.
breaking effect. The man is persistent, hardoccasion. They are wonderful almost without
It will wind you up and wring you out.
working, committed, sure, but he is also angry
exception: Michael Stuhlbarg as the leering
George Clooney and Sandra Bullock do
and broken and torn between survival and how
dentist, Peter Sarsgaard as the aspiring
far to push a
politician, Sally Hawkins as the frumpy
system that
sister, Louis C.K. as the doting lover.
const a nt ly
The lovely and dynamic surprises are the
works against
unknowns that jump off the screen: Alden
him. With
Ehrenreich as the estranged son, Andrew
unparalleled
Dice Clay as the divorced husband, and
rage, malice,
Bobby Cannavale as the eternal target of
and obsession,
Jasmine’s biting attacks.
Michael FassRestructuring Tennessee Williams’
bender distimeless “A Streetcar Named Desire” someappears into
what problematically, Allen nevertheless
Edwin Epps
pulls off an impressive screenplay laced
and handles
with dark, scathing humour and compelthe toughling characters. The film also acts as the
est scenes
most effective and naturalistic ode to San
in the film
Francisco as anything Allen has done on
(the dehuhis “world tour.”
manization
CHIWETEL EIJOFOR IN 12 YEARS A SLAVE
If it remains partially saddled with
of
Eijo typical Allen flourishes and shortcomfor, Lupita
ings (a lack of refinement, some clunky
more than solid work, although Clooney dab- N’yongo, and others through rape, lashing, and
narrative unevenness, a hard-to-swallow dose
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