MOVIES
Captivating, hypnotic and deeply disturbing in “Under The Skin”
By Jenny Alvarez
Photos By Alfonso De Elias
From visionary director Jonathan Glazer comes a stunning career transformation, a masterpiece of existential science fiction that journeys to the heart of what it means to be human, extraterrestrial — or something in between. A voluptuous woman of unknown origin (Scarlett Johansson) combs the highways in search of isolated or forsaken men, luring this succession of lost souls into an otherworldly lair. They are seduced, stripped of their humanity, and never heard from again. Based on the novel by Michel Faber (The Crimson Petal and the White), Under The Skin is a bizarre movie with a character who examines the human beings with her borrowed skin, until she is abducted into humanity with devastating results. Definitely is very provocative, intense, and intriguing hypnotically without any special effects. Scarlett Johansson performs a pattern full of female sexuality or empowerment which lures to a completely dark location, tempts her victims to strip naked with the promise of sex, and then the man sinks into a dark abyss. At the end of the story as a reviewer, this is a character full of obstacles and painful journey because this woman set her eyes on our chaotic planet or culture, crowd noise and as humanity is shown as creatures in a wild habitat. Eventually her tragic end doesn’t have a clear goal or a mission in a borrowed skin with a gorgeous but false surface. Definitely is a great movie with transformation and transfiguration.
A spectacular overkill in The Raid 2
By Jenny Alvarez
Photo Courtesy
Written & Directed by: Gareth Evans, The Raid 2 with a great cast Iko Uwais, Arifin Putra, Tio Pakusadewo, Oka Antara, Julie Estelle, Ryuhei Matsuda, Kenichi Endo, Kazuki Kitamura involves a fury fighting with Rama and his way out of a building filled with gangsters and madmen – a fight that left the bodies of police and gangsters alike piled in the halls – rookie Jakarta cop Rama thought it was done and he could resume a normal life. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
Rama’s opponents in that fateful building were nothing more than small fish swimming in a pond much larger than he ever dreamed possible. And his triumph over the small fry has attracted the attention of the predators farther up the food chain. His family at risk, Rama has only one choice to protect his infant son and wife: He must go undercover to enter the criminal underworld himself and climb through the hierarchy of competing forces until it leads him to the corrupt politicians and police pulling the strings at the top of the heap.
A great sequel of action and a new odyssey of violence, bone-crunching force him to set aside his own life and history and take on a new identity as the violent offender “Yuda.” In prison he must gain the confidence of Uco – the son of a prominent gang kingpin – to join the gang himself, laying his own life on the line in a desperate all-or-nothing gambit to bring the whole rotten enterprise to an end. For all fight fans should brace themselves for a bruising, blistering ride even the plot is not the best the main characters show their best fighting skills faster, and more lethal than ever. The most curious characters were the Hammer Girl and Baseball Bat Man deserve a spin-off especially with their fights that are full of dynamite but at the end this movie has to contrasts: a beauty in a modern martial-arts epic and brutality, capturing the art of violence with a great style in all the characters involved. Definitely is an awesome movie full of entertainment and fun which suffers from too much potential.
A forbidden love becomes “Breath In” a seductive melodrama
By Jenny Alvarez
Photos Courtesy
From the Writer/director Drake Doremus works with Felicity Jones a soulful and musical British exchange student Sophie Williams (Jones) comes to New York in search of inspiration. On the surface, Sophie’s host family seems happy enough, but with her arrival to the Reynolds’ Upstate New York home, the private struggles of each family member begin to bubble. In particular, frustrated musician-turned-piano- teacher Keith Reynolds (Guy Pearce) finds long suppressed dreams and desires reignited by Sophie’s talent and inquisitive nature. While Keith’s wife, Megan (Amy Ryan) and daughter, Lauren (breakout talent, Mackenzie Davis) focus on Lauren’s final year of high school, Sophie and Keith are drawn ever closer by their mutual longing for creative expression. Ultimately, Sophie and Keith must confront how much they are willing to sacrifice and what they truly want out of life. The main characters were improvising their dialogue and many times are halting verbal exchanges, half-smiles creating a seductive atmosphere. Innocence, maturity makes a relationship a love affair completely without fireworks due is a prohibited love when Pearce and Jones (both brilliant) when they start to get too close but the big dilemma is if both recognize the dangers ahead. Meanwhile, Jones plays a young woman who seems both fragile and incredibly poised beyond her years, a lethal combination that’s been the downfall of many a married man. Director is at building up the intensity of a scene until the air becomes charged with all the words not being said and the romantic impulses not being acted on. Definitely is a reflect of the lack of sincerity in a fake and unhappy marriage in which both lovers are desperate to believe that neither space, time nor the interferences of others will rupture their bottled passion.
It was a very controlled, well-executed picture in which the flash of passion with great music background which keeps any spectator on the seat without breath.
Andy García is part of “Rob The Mob”
By GalaTView staff
Photos by Alfonso De Elías
TOMMY (Pitt) and ROSIE (Arianda) have two things in common: a crazy-passionate love for one another and—after they’re caught robbing a florist on Valentine’s Day—prison records. Trying to go straight, Rosie lands a job at a debt-collection agency and persuades Tommy to join her. But soon Tommy is skipping his shifts to do something much more interesting—attend the landmark trial of Gambino-family boss John Gotti where Mafia hit man Sammy “The Bull” Gravano provides graphic testimony that could finally bring him down.Tommy’s fascination with the mob is deeply personal; when he was a boy, he saw his father suffer a brutal beating beat at the hands of local gangsters. So when he hears Sammy name a Mafia-owned social club where no guns are permitted.They also draw the attention of the FBI and veteran mob reporter CARDOZO (Romano), who splashes their unlikely story across the front page of the paper. But while the attacks enrage the mob, Bonanno crime family head BIG AL (Garcia) orders his men only to scare the couple.
It’s a decision Big Al will come to regret. During one of their heists in New York City, 1991 Tommy and Rosie stumble upon a Mafia secret so closely guarded that rank-and-file mobsters don’t even know it exists. To the Feds, it’s the smoking gun they’ve been looking for—a key to finally dismantling New York’s already-faltering crime syndicate. To Big Al, it’s the high cost of his earlier leniency—a mistake he quickly moves to correct.
For Tommy and Rosie, caught between the law and a mob contract, the future all depends on who gets to them first. A film with great casting and the crazy couple (Tommy and his girlfriend) targets of the mafia and the FBI. The mafia guys were perfect, even with having to walk the fine line of being scary, yet likable and comical all at the same time. All these are chasing this couple for some type of list that they stole. However Andy Garcia reflects certain wisdom in his character but a strong temperament and this makes him to fail in his organization. As a film fan you will see some great acting and everyone looks appropriately casts.
Andy Garcia talked about his character: “This guy was covering for long time. I saw pictures of him and his fascination has gone and many pictures of him were away, lost and try to find him but his attorney took all his pictures especially for his wife. I guess this guy was struggling with his real life against he wishes more. This kind of work was disgusting for the story of this couple. My performance was the closest personality, acting each moment was tough sometimes but at the end was important to everybody that this kind of guy would have been behind the bars.”
'Avengers: Age of Ultron' begins will surprise with big characters
By GalaTView Staff
Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye in fighting form and new addition Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver. Captain America (Chris Evans) may return to his past and Scarlett Johansson who will reprise her role as Black Widow assured there would be some strong female characters in the sequel. In few words the artwork looks very interesting and the whole movie as well.
Andy García is part of “Rob The Mob”
By GalaTView staff
Photos By: Alfonso De Elías
Tommy (Pitt) and Rosie (Arianda) have two things in common: a crazy-passionate love for one another and—after they’re caught robbing a florist on Valentine’s Day—prison records. Trying to go straight, Rosie lands a job at a debt-collection agency and persuades Tommy to join her. But soon Tommy is skipping his shifts to do something much more interesting—attend the landmark trial of Gambino-family boss John Gotti where Mafia hit man Sammy “The Bull” Gravano provides graphic testimony that could finally bring him down.Tommy’s fascination with the mob is deeply personal; when he was a boy, he saw his father suffer a brutal beating beat at the hands of local gangsters. So when he hears Sammy name a Mafia-owned social club where no guns are permitted.They also draw the attention of the FBI and veteran mob reporter CARDOZO (Romano), who splashes their unlikely story across the front page of the paper. But while the attacks enrage the mob, Bonanno crime family head BIG AL (Garcia) orders his men only to scare the couple.
It’s a decision Big Al will come to regret. During one of their heists in New York City, 1991 Tommy and Rosie stumble upon a Mafia secret so closely guarded that rank-and-file mobsters don’t even know it exists. To the Feds, it’s the smoking gun they’ve been looking for—a key to finally dismantling New York’s already-faltering crime syndicate. To Big Al, it’s the high cost of his earlier leniency—a mistake he quickly moves to correct.
For Tommy and Rosie, caught between the law and a mob contract, the future all depends on who gets to them first. A film with great casting and the crazy couple (Tommy and his girlfriend) targets of the mafia and the FBI. The mafia guys were perfect, even with having to walk the fine line of being scary, yet likable and comical all at the same time. All these are chasing this couple for some type of list that they stole. However Andy Garcia reflects certain wisdom in his character but a strong temperament and this makes him to fail in his organization. As a film fan you will see some great acting and everyone looks appropriately casts.
Andy Garcia talked about his character: “This guy was covering for long time. I saw pictures of him and his fascination has gone and many pictures of him were away, lost and try to find him but his attorney took all his pictures especially for his wife. I guess this guy was struggling with his real life against he wishes more. This kind of work was disgusting for the story of this couple. My performance was the closest personality, acting each moment was tough sometimes but at the end was important to everybody that this kind of guy would have been behind the bars.”
An intriguing film with the best warriors of a Dune
Review by Jenny Alvarez
Photos Courtesy
Jodorowsky’s Dune is an American documentary film directed by Frank Pavich. The film explores Chilean-French director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s attempt to adapt and film Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel Dune in the mid-1970s. The director makes the story alive and full of passion that Jodorowsky uses to describe everything. It is a well structured master piece in his book but makes the case for this overblown epic as a legendary lost master piece in a film in which he didn’t participate. It would be around 12 hours long but the real time is 90 minutes and the documentary shows how some of the drawings were used for inspiration in Star Wars and other movies later on. Donald Rosenfeld, Stephen Scarlata, Michel Seydoux, and Travis Stevens also were part in an in-depth look at the doomed production and features a number of never-before-seen images and interviews where world-class surrealists, international rock stars, top-billed actors and artists were going to be part in Jodorowsky’s film but at the end all the melodrama and manipulation there was, instead, vision and ambition. From an artistic point of view, that generation was more honest and people from big film companies didn’t want to share with this visionary of the visual art in movement. This documentary will we open in Los Angeles on March 21st, 2014.
Scarlett Johansson will be aka Black Widow
By GalaTView Staff
Scarlett Johansson plays Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow in the new Capt. America movie. Her character is strong and full of sensuality. Even her role is really independent, as an intelligent woman who has seen the darkest places she keeps that mystery.
Elijah Wood returns as a pianist in Grand Piano
By Jenny Alvarez
Photo Courtesy
Elijah Wood plays Tom Selznick, the most talented pianist of his generation, who has stopped performing in public because of his stage fright. Years after a catastrophic performance, he reappears in public for a long awaited concert in Chicago. In a packed theater, in front of an expectant audience, Tom finds a message written on the score: “Play one wrong note and you die.” In the sights of an anonymous sniper (Cusack), Tom must get through the most difficult performance of his life and look for help without being detected. In 90 minutes this thriller plays with the viewers and compositions in an unusual hostage situation. The pianist will be killed if he fails to play a piece without a single mistake and this fact makes you to feel panic, mystery in an elegant style. It is a brilliant and fully plausible movie in which you will discover many clues keeping time on the piano while speaking with a maniac. Eugenio Mira reflects a well structured and suspense movie full of symbols but the most important one is whether the main character found the correct key. Grand Piano will open in theatres on March 7.
A complex storyline will get your attention in “Enemy”
By Alfonso De Elias
Photo: Courtesy
Enemy, adapted from Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago’s 2004 novel “The Double”, is about the power of the subconscious. In the end, only one man can survive. Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal) is a glum, disheveled history professor, who seems disinterested even in his beautiful girlfriend, Mary (Laurent). Watching a movie on the recommendation of a colleague, Adam spots his double, a bit-part actor named Anthony Clair, and decides to track him down. The identical men meet and their lives become bizarrely and irrevocably intertwined. Enemy is a mysterious and strangely atmospheric thriller but full of dominance and dark mood. Chaotic is the main element of manipulation in some parts of the film Even though the story is indecipherable, it remains enjoyable especially when 2 lead personalities are twins because they cover that in the story with one of guy’s mothers open to some sort of interpretation where you’re not supposed to know specifically what it is, but it leaves itself open to analysis. At 90 minutes you will enjoy a very odd, though. It is very much like a combination of David Lynch and Hitchcock. It is a cinematic nightmare and descent into a man’s psyche full of good scenes and camera movements.
