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)

Upcoming

July 2

Hancock

July 3

The Whackness

July 4

Diminished Capacity

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson

Holding Trevor

Kabluey

We are Together

July 9

Full Battle Rattle

July 11

A Man Named Pearl

August

Eight Miles High

Garden Party

Harold

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Meet Dave

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

The Stone Angel

July 18

A Very British Gangster

Before I Forget

The Dark Knight

The Doorman

Felon

Lou Reed's Berlin

Transsiberian

July 22

Two Tickets to Paradise

July 23

Boy A

"Once" is catching

email this story
read comments (19)
post a comment

"Will Once, the recently released Irish film, turn into this summer's indie hit? It's showing early promise. Starring Glen Hansard, the lead singer of Dublin's the Frames rock band, as an Irish street singer and his sometime musical collaborator, Marketa Irglova, as a classically trained pianist who sells roses on the street, the film opened May 18 on just two screens, both in L.A., to an abnormally high $30,000-per-screen average. An unvarnished ode to musical discovery, Once expanded to 20 screens in 13 cities over the Memorial Day weekend, averaging $21,626 per screen." -- from Sheigh Crabtree's L.A.Times piece, which is actually more about the music.

°Barry Lyndon° reconsidered<< previous | next >> Adams' "Becket" DVD review

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on May 31, 2007 at 09:30 AM

comment #1

SHR says ...

You were right on the money when you raved about this one Jeff. Terrific performances and music and a very satisfying conclusion. Easily the best film I've seen this year.

Posted by SHR at May 31, 2007 09:53 AM

comment #2

Monument says ...

I'm curious about this one, don't know much about it. But as a side note, the Frames are a band well worth checking out. A couple albums back, Glen Hansard wrote a song called Fitzcarraldo, inspired by the great Werner Herzog film.

Posted by Monument at May 31, 2007 09:58 AM

comment #3

cjKennedy says ...

Monument, if you like The Frames, you should definitely check out Once. I've only sampled The Frames and they feel different from the music in the movie (the Frames sound more polished), but the music in Once is great if you go for that indie-folkie kind of thing.

Posted by cjKennedy at May 31, 2007 11:06 AM

comment #4

Jayne Gacey says ...

THIS YEAR'S LITTLE MISS ONCE!

Posted by Jayne Gacey at May 31, 2007 12:10 PM

comment #5

MiraJeffAICN says ...

Jeff, I owe you one buddy. I went to see Bug at Arclight and got there 5 minutes late so they wouldn't sell me a ticket. So I went to see this instead. Completely blew me away. I've been listening to the sdtk. non-stop all week. A gift of a film. Absolutely lovely. Do whatever you can to see it.

Posted by MiraJeffAICN at May 31, 2007 01:13 PM

comment #6

sardine says ...

once IS lovely. much better than little miss sunshine.

Posted by sardine at May 31, 2007 01:22 PM

comment #7

thezipper says ...

Once is great but Waitress is already the breakout indie hit of the summer.

Posted by thezipper at May 31, 2007 01:40 PM

comment #8

cjKennedy says ...

Similar to LMS, I'm afraid Once will be crushed by expectation if it ends up getting too much praise. It's a simple, lovely film that really doesn't need a lot of hype.

Posted by cjKennedy at May 31, 2007 02:06 PM

comment #9

Circumvrent says ...

I hate to be the Ugly American here, but I want to see this movie this weekend, and I have to know...how thick are the accents? Am I going to be able to understands the sons of bitches without that digital subtitling they offer the hearing impaired?

Posted by Circumvrent at May 31, 2007 09:08 PM

comment #10

cjKennedy says ...

I missed a word or a line here and there but it wasn't too bad.

Posted by cjKennedy at May 31, 2007 11:16 PM

comment #11

Joe B. says ...

I couldn't undestand much of anything in the opening daytime scene on the street, but was ok for 99% of the rest of the film. (And I usually have no problem with accents; the opening scene was a head-scratcher for me though)

Posted by Joe B. at June 1, 2007 08:08 AM

comment #12

Mike Schaefer says ...

Joe B: I had the same problem with the opening scene -- subtitles would've been a good idea, there's clearly jokes there that most people will not get. After that, though, it's fine. A sweet, small film that I hope will not suffer from being overhyped.

Posted by Mike Schaefer at June 1, 2007 09:05 AM

comment #13

Larry says ...

This movie is painfully dull. Even at an hour and a half it wears out its welcome.

It's not the accents, it's the music--bad Cat Stevens (and I don't even like good Cat Stevens). And believe me, there's a lot of music in this film--if you don't like it, it feels like being stuck at a concert you didn't want to go to.

Posted by Larry at June 1, 2007 09:39 AM

comment #14

otakuhouse says ...

I remember when you first wrote about this film which put it on my radar, and I do believe it's one of the year's best. I'd advise anyone seeing it to sample the soundtrack, though, as you'll have to be ok with it. Early on I used to shoot a lot of documentary material of musicians and I lived in Cork, Ireland for about five years so I'm a little biased... But that said it's pitch perfect in capturing those experiences and that country. In a sad way i think it's about the ireland of ten years ago and not now, and I'm surprised not one single critic has mentioned the fact that it has a benevolent attitude towards eastern european and other exile immigrants in Ireland... Something which the culturally homogenous country is not doing well with I hear.

Posted by otakuhouse at June 1, 2007 06:21 PM

comment #15

The Hoyk says ...

It's that damned good. I can't wait to watch again.

Posted by The Hoyk at June 1, 2007 07:37 PM

comment #16

Jayne Gacey says ...

The Hoyk is clearly Larry King.

Posted by Jayne Gacey at June 2, 2007 05:37 AM

comment #17

The Hoyk says ...

No, but I did have a TV show, dare I say it, once.

Jayne Gacey is clearly another troll using the tired template of taking a pseudonym carefully crafted from hipster icons (Ooh, look - Jayne County crossed with John Wayne Gacy, and I'll even change the spelling to pwn it) and then quickly making themself the gadfly of the moment, believing themselves speaking truth to power when they are just shrilly spewing bile for 15 minutes of internet fame.

This is the only time I'll ever bother replying to you directly, Jayne; henceforth, you're on the pay-no-mind list with D.Z. Hope you enjoyed the rebuke to which you've no doubt got some frightfully catty reply already planned.

Posted by The Hoyk at June 2, 2007 07:17 PM

comment #18

grener says ...

tna
4z2
nes
63a
l6a
k8i
so0
yif
12o
5v5
7uq
v13
nz9
dxj
st7
aj7
t2h
hg5
h26
kuc
1e6
mqa
8rf

Posted by grener at June 13, 2007 12:04 PM

comment #19

kimi98 says ...

Hollywood Elsewhere

Upcoming

"Once" is catching

SHR says ...

Monument says ...

cjKennedy says ...

Jayne Gacey says ...

MiraJeffAICN says ...

sardine says ...

thezipper says ...

cjKennedy says ...

Circumvrent says ...

cjKennedy says ...

Joe B. says ...

Mike Schaefer says ...

Larry says ...

otakuhouse says ...

The Hoyk says ...

Jayne Gacey says ...

The Hoyk says ...

grener says ...

kimi98 says ...