Film & BooksIssue: Virgo 07
Stardust
Director Matthew Vaughn brings off color humor and originality to the fairy tale/love story “Stardust.” Having worked on the English gangster movies “Layer Cake,” “Snatch,” and one of my personal favorites, “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” Vaughn is able to mix a sinister brew with some peppery English wit to make this a very entertaining film.
The story begins in an English countryside town that borders on a magical land. Tristan (Charlie Cox) is conceived after his dad crosses over into the forbidden land of “Stormhold” and has a liaison with a witch’s slave. Eighteen years later, Tristan crosses the wall himself to fetch a fallen star for his beloved. To his surprise, the fallen star has arrived in the form of a young woman, Yvaine (Claire Danes). Three wicked witches and three competitive princes are also compelled to capture Yvaine in order to use her magic to gain eternal beauty and ascension to the role of king.
This fantasy journey has the epic feel and special effects of a “Harry Potter” or “Lord of the Rings” movie with the off-beat humor of a subdued Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame) film. The product is surprisingly entertaining and refreshingly unpredictable − and very much worth seeing at the theater. In addition, Robert De Niro plays a cross-dressing ship’s captain, a role so far flung for him that even though it doesn’t quite work, it is a joy to watch!
And for those who love a love story, this one is nicely embedded into the sardonic tale with heart-felt sweetness. I saw several couples hug at the end of the film. 
Film & Books Archives (total entries: 29)
Capricorn 08 - The Career Issue
Sagittarius 08 & Honest Self Expression
Like real life-families who have a member struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, the focus of “Rachel Getting Married” isn’t on Rachel, even though it should be. It is on her narcissistic sister, Kym, who is out of rehab for the weekend to attend Rachel’s wedding.
Scorpio 08 - The Money Issue
At a time when our nation’s security is in question and our economy is in shambles “The Good Society: The Humane Agenda” by John Kenneth Galbraith has much to teach the abiding liberal as well as the dutiful conservative.
Honestly, I have never been one for self-help books, but what I liked most about "How We Choose to Be Happy" is that it celebrates the wisdom of a variety of literary greats balanced by the stories of ordinary people.
This book won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction for good reason. I started the “The Great Man” on Saturday morning and had to finish it by lunch the next day. When it started to rain I traded my lawn chair for the couch and kept on reading. This novel is fabulously funny, mischievous, and easy to read.
A quirky look at boyhood and film-making in the 1980s, “Son of Rambow” is a welcome diversion from the current deluge of blockbuster remakes and super hero epics in theaters this summer. Written and directed by Garth Jennings and produced by Nick Goldsmith, I like the way this film spins a standard, winning movie formula at a slightly awkward angle.
Although “The Maytrees” by Annie Dillard is marketed as a novel, it reads from beginning to end as a poem. Like body surfing, the poetry will move emotions in directions that the mind may not understand. When this wave brought me to shore, I needed air and I wasn’t quite certain where I had been or where I had landed, but I was, in the truest sense of the word, in awe of the experience I just had.
April and May are notoriously bad months to go to the movies. The Academy Award hopefuls of 2008 won't be released until the fall, and the summer blockbusters won't be out for a few months. So what is a film reviewer to do when all the movies in the theaters are lame? This reviewer is going to suggest that you catch up on the best movies of 2007!
After an unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, Greg Mortenson stumbled into the village of Korphe in Pakistan’s Karakoram Himalaya region. The generosity and hospitality of the Korphe villagers inspired Mortenson to establish the Central Asia Institute (CAI). Since the establishment of CAI ten years ago, the organization has built 55 schools serving Pakistan and Afghanistan’s poorest children, especially girls.
Based on Marjane Satrapi's books, the film “Persepolis” tells the poignant story of a young girl coming of age in Iran in the midst of revolution and war.
