I saw two movies in the past week worth noting. The first is "Igby Goes Down", written by R. Burr Steers, the nephew of writer Gore Vidal. Steers is featured in Pulp Fiction and is referred to as "flock of seagulls" by Jules Winfield. He is the one who tells Jules and Vincent where the briefcase is. "No , the one by your kn- knees." Steers directing debut is a fine one, he comes out kicking and screaming like the teenage character that the film centers around. "Igby Goes Down" is about a sardonic teenager, a la Holden Caulfield or Max Fischer, who is raised in an upper crust family in Manhattan, overpriveliged, spoiled, he uses drugs, and bounces from one private school to the next.(Sound familiar?EVERYBODY is saying that this is the closest to Catcher in The Rye that we will ever see on cinema). Igby goes incognito for a while and roams Manhattan, and like the title suggests, he hits new lows as he finds that life sucks no matter how rich you are. Igby, played by Kieran Culkin(thats right, another one) is so bitter and self-deficating and depressing, but somehow I felt for him the whole time. he is completely lost, and we all know how that stage of life feels. Kieran and Rory Culkin combine to play Igby at different ages.(the film opens with flashbacks from Igby's childhood exemplifying the life he has lived, his speed-addicted mother(Susan Sarandon), his snooty Columbia Grad brother(Ryan Phillipe), his unbelievably wealthy real estate mogul Godfather(Jeff Goldblum), and other characters , including performances by Amanda Peet and Claire Danes that were not all that bad. oh yeah and Bill Pullman plays the father who goes Schizo at age 40(probably after bottling up his emotions due to his crazy family) GO see Igby goes Down when it comes to your city, it is worth it. HOlden especially (I hope you read this) Now on to Barbershop. I thought it was great. In my opinion, it is not a traditional "African-American" film that tells the story of some guy in the ghetto. This is a wake up call to ALL Americans, it has alot of social commentary about Race Relations today, and one scene in particular is causing controversy among critics. The scene in question is about an old man telling how it was "back in his day". he is very matter-ofofact and says that BLack people need to realize 3 things 1.OJ did it. 2.Rodney King deserved what he got and 3. Rosa Parks was tired, so she sat her ass down. no more, no less. he then defends what he says(this a black man keep in mind) by saying that this kind of conversation is healthy and it is good for people to talk about this kind of stuff. I wholeheartedly agree. Now Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are condemning the film, demanding that MGM cut the scene from the film. DID THEY WATCH THE DAMN MOVIE? the scene is great, its hilarious, and it is honest. it is doing exactly what the character said, getting people to talk about it. Sharpton, lay off. its just a movie, a best-selling one at that. Ice Cube is pleasant and good-natured as a family man who contemplates selling the barbershop that his father owned and passed down to him. the shop, to him, is a burden, but over the film he realizes that it is part of Family, Neighborhood, and History. A good message and some brutal honesty about life in the city . and we'll see you..... at the movies 110
It sucks that a lot of the better movies like Igby Goes Down and Moonlight Mile come out in limited release while bombs like Stealing Harvard are all over the place. I really hate that about the movie industry. I agree with you about Barbershop. The scenes that Jesse Jackson is whining about brought an element of honesty and realism to the characters in the film that might not come across otherwise. There is one scene in the film by Cedric the Entertainer where he talks about the significance of the barbershop in the community that was just incredible. I was really surprised that Cedric could pull that one off, being a comedian really.
he was awesome. and the scenes could have been cheesy, like the scene where Ced's character tells how to give a guy the right shave. all the young guys gather around him while he tells this story and shaves the guy. sounds lame, right?somehow it is very moving. call me sentimental, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Eve and the West African had some great scenes, too. Timing, maybe it will come to theaters like Angelika, River Oaks, or Dobie in Austin.
Babershop was a very entertaining movie. Watched yesterday with a friend. Gotta say, they did get away with alot of things on getting the PG-13, especially the Jesse Jackson scene. I agree, Cedric did pulloff a great performance, half comedy, half on the drama side. Would strongly reccomend the movie to anybody.
I loved "Barbershop" it was hilarious. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton just need something to whine about.
I havn't seen it and I've heard about that scene. I have to check it out, but I don't think that scene in particular is social commentary, it's a joke. I read that the rest of the people in the Barbershop tell him to shut up and it is left at that. How is it honest and what important questions are raised? Did OJ do it? I think so as do lot's of black people. The only reason he isn't in prison now is because the LAPD fudged it up by tampering with the evidence. Rodney King deserved what he got? It's supposed to be a get tough on idiots joke. He was on drugs and drunk and needed a good ass kicking, but that doesn't mean he deserved to get a major beat down from 4 cops at once. And Rosa Parks was just tired??? Yeah, but look at the whole picture. If you believe that, you just don't understand the significance of it being illigal for a tired woman to sit down in the front and not stand on the bus. How many of you guys break laws just because you are tired? I think she had to know that she was going to get in somekind of trouble. By the way, she did work for the NAACP, had tried to register to vote before the bus incident and had actually been kicked off buses before. Apparently, in those days, black people had to pay the fair, then get off the bus and get on through the rear door which sometimes led to the buses taking off before they could get back on passengers could get on. So, she would just walk straight from the front to the back. Anyways, Sharpton and Jackson are blowing it out of proportion and I think people hearing about that has caused this whole "serious questions about race relations" talk.
Cedric the Entertainer is arguing that its no big deal that Rosa Parks got arrested for sitting at the front of the bus because she wasn't the first to do it, and in fact his character had done it before and got arrested. He then goes on to say that it only got made into a big deal because Rosa was a secretary for the NA-double C-P (as he says it) and tons of black people before her had done the same thing. And all of the other characters do argue with him, but he says that the Barbershop is the place where the black people can really express their views, and whether they agreed with him or not, if he can't voice his opinion there he can't do it anywhere.
I can't wait for Moonlight Mile. I'm going to go see Igby and Secretary this week sometime. I too thought Barbershop was good.
surprisingly, i thought barbershop was really good. ice cube came across very believable as a family man. the scene in question was done well. personally, i enjoyed the controversy in what he was saying.
