edited by Jonathan Doyle

Mafioso (The Criterion Collection, 3.18.2008) Nino Badalamenti is a supervisor in a car manufacturing plant who hasn't taken a vacation in over two years. On his way out the door to visit his beloved childhood hometown of Sicily -- with his blonde wife and daughters -- Nino is handed a package by his boss and asked to deliver it to a powerful and influential Sicilian gangster named Don Vincenzo. Once in Sicily, Nino has a hoot seeing friends and family, but his wife has trouble fitting in and is unfairly dismissed as a snob by Nino's family. Even more worrisome, Nino finds himself entangled in an intricate web of secret mafioso dealings and is eventually sent on an unexpectedly... elaborate errand. (continued)

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Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson

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Berlin Film Festival sked

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For anyone heading to the 57th Berlin International Film Festival (February 8 thru 18), here's a programming rundown. One note of concern ; Gregory Nava's Bordertown, the Jennifer Lopez drama about the scores of unsolved Juarez-El Paso female murders, is skedded to be shown. This turkey has been looking for a distributor for eons and finding no love. Lopez movies are almost always mawkish, straining, off-balance. Didn't she say she was looking to quit movies a while back? That awful Bronx accent she accentuates in the trailer for El Cantante is beyond grating -- it rivals Lorraine Bracco's in Medicine Man.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on January 30, 2007 at 11:24 AM

comment #1

VedaPierce says ...

It's too bad. She showed genuine movie star charisma in "Selena" and "Out of Sight" (and even "Anaconda"!), but then the manufactured popstar persona took over. I'm sure folks on here don't take her seriously, but she's one of the few female movie stars nowadays who has that soft, unapologetically romantic (and refreshingly unneurotic) persona of yesteryear --like Liz Taylor or something. Don't know how else to describe it, I just always enjoy her presence on screen.

Posted by VedaPierce at January 30, 2007 11:57 AM

comment #2

storymark says ...

Jennifer Lopez was a good actress in Selena and Out of Sight (sorry, I skipped Anaconda).

Too bad J-Lo took her out behind the shed and shot her.

Posted by storymark at January 30, 2007 12:16 PM

comment #3

cjKennedy says ...

I saw the trailer for El Cantante and people booed. I sensed it was more a response to their personal feelings for Lopez than for anything in the trailer itself including her accent.

I just rewatched Out of Sight about a week ago. She was superb and had a lot of chemistry with Clooney. She's beautiful and can be great in the right role. I haven't seen her in much else, is she awful? Or does she just make bad choices? Or do people just hate the impression of her they get from the tabloids?

Posted by cjKennedy at January 30, 2007 12:31 PM

comment #4

facls says ...

The Brazilian film, O ano em que meus pais saíram de férias (The Year My Parents Went On Vacation), is a very good movie. It takes place in 1970, during the toughest period of Brazil's dictatorship, and just before the World Cup in Mexico. It tells the story of a young kid, a soccer fanatic, who is sent by his parents to live with his grandfather, while they "go on vacation", meaning they are escaping from the military. It's a very well told story, which manages to be emotional without sentimentality.

Posted by facls at January 30, 2007 12:35 PM

comment #5

VedaPierce says ...

I haven't seen everything she's done, but even in crap like "Monster-in-Law", "Angel Eyes", and "Enough" she can be touching and likeable. I don't think she's ever been truly awful in the way that, say, Madonna has. Miscast, perhaps.

Whatever. The potential is there, but right now her legacy is that of a woman who is mediocre at many things and great at nothing (except working the red carpet).

Posted by VedaPierce at January 30, 2007 01:02 PM

comment #6

cjKennedy says ...

I think the off-screen persona she projects turns people off. It kind of seemed to start along with her singing career and was magnified by the whole Ben Affleck thing.

He's another guy that gets a lot of hate that seems to transcend doubts about his talent. He's not Brando exactly, but he's never killed a movie for me the way say Keanu Reeves has.

Posted by cjKennedy at January 30, 2007 01:08 PM

comment #7

Howlingman says ...

"That awful Bronx accent she accentuates in the trailer for El Cantante" is particularly disturbing in that Jenny's actually FROM The Bronx. Which means that the "Jennifer Lopez" accent's actually an accent.

It's very Kaufman-esque, isn't it?

Posted by Howlingman at January 30, 2007 01:09 PM

comment #8

nola says ...

I don't know what happened to J.LO. The camera does love her and while she is not the best singer, the girl can dance her ass off. I find her much more engaging than some of the other American actresses in her age range.

Posted by nola at January 30, 2007 01:17 PM

comment #9

cjKennedy says ...

Wow, I've now officially spent more time thinking about Jennifer Lopez than I have in...well...forever.

So this is my last comment then seriously I'm going back to work: I was thinking along the same lines as Howlingman in regard to her accent. I assumed that's close to how she would normally talk if she didn't try not to because she's a movie star. It may have been exaggerated, but it's not like she was pulling a Meryl Streep or something.

Posted by cjKennedy at January 30, 2007 01:22 PM

comment #10

VedaPierce says ...

"I find her much more engaging than some of the other American actresses in her age range."

If one-trick ponies like Halle Berry, Charlize Theron, Gwyneth Paltrow, and the colossally dull Jennifer Connelly can win Oscars, then there's no reason that with a little career guidance and some distance from "J.Lo", Jennifer Lopez can't as well.

Posted by VedaPierce at January 30, 2007 01:42 PM

comment #11

LYTrules says ...

Lopez was pretty good early in her career. In more recent movies, she's too much of an obvious diva, concerned primarily with having perfect make-up and looking good than what is actually required for the part.

Best I can say for her lately is that ENOUGH wasn't as bad as it looked. She was way wrong for that Lasse Hallstrom movie with Robert Redford, though.

Posted by LYTrules at January 30, 2007 07:09 PM

comment #12

MoroccoMole says ...

People rarely believe me when I say this, but Lopez was extraordinary in Kevin Smith's director's cut of Jersey Girl, which he's screened a few times at various "Vulgarthon" events. It's the funniest, sexiest, and most freewheeling she's been in a movie since Out of Sight. Smith says he'll release the long cut on DVD after ten years -- so, 2014? -- and I hope she gets the recognition due her when that happens. In the meantime, if you live somewhere where Smith screens the Jersey Girl director's cut, trust me, you need to see it. (And I say that as someone who hated the choppy version that Miramax released theatrically.)

Posted by MoroccoMole at January 31, 2007 01:07 PM

comment #13

Circumvrent says ...

MoroccoMole, total agreement. I haven't seen any of the Vulgarthon cuts. But I saw one of the first test-screenings of the film ever. It came in at 2:20, and was pretty good. If it had been released, I think everybody would have a different opinion of Smith as a filmmaker, writer, etc.

Posted by Circumvrent at January 31, 2007 02:37 PM

comment #14

Breedlove says ...

agreed that lopez had a chance to be a genuine movie star, long remembered,and pissed it away. i mean people will be watching 'out of sight' for decades, and she was a big part of that film's brilliance. i doubt she cares, though. she made a ton of money with the perfume and the clothes and the music and everything. agree with the knocks on gwyneth and halle, but not charlize, who is basically meryl streep in a supermodel's body. even in the studio shit from early in her career you could tell that she was a really good actress. and she is, to borrow a jeff wells phrase, pistol-hot.

Posted by Breedlove at January 31, 2007 04:15 PM

comment #15

david says ...

Hollywood Elsewhere

Upcoming

Berlin Film Festival sked

VedaPierce says ...

storymark says ...

cjKennedy says ...

facls says ...

VedaPierce says ...

cjKennedy says ...

Howlingman says ...

nola says ...

cjKennedy says ...

VedaPierce says ...

LYTrules says ...

MoroccoMole says ...

Circumvrent says ...

Breedlove says ...

david says ...