Release Date: March 27, 2007 Studio: Universal Studios
The year is 2027. Terrorism, mass deportations, disease and plagues of all sorts are common place. Perhaps, due to all this the human birthrate has dropped to zero since 2003. Simply put, the world is a bleak place.
No one symbolizes the dour mood more than Theo Faron (Clive Owen), a government employee who muddles through spiking his coffee and his life with alcohol to get each the day in this Orwellian incarnation of London.
An unexpected reunion with his former love (Julianne Moore) places Faron in a situation where he must risk life and limb to shepherd a young, refugee woman, Kei (Clare-Hope Ashtey) out of the country as she miraculously carries the hope of new life inside her.
This harrowing race against time and the odds is aided by a supporting cast that includes Academy Award winner Sir Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Charlie Hunnam. The story's stunningly choreographed camera shots and visual effects are utilized brilliantly by director Alfonso Cuarón.
The DVD includes behind-the-scenes features on the creation of the film's effects, and design, as well as a discussions with futurists and philosphers about what makes this film about a fictional future work so well and feels so oddly familar.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Damn Right, We're Angry
by Paul Waldman
We can't deny it any longer. There's no point in hiding it, no point in trying to explain it away. Yes, it's true: We progressives are angry. And we no longer care if the centrist, moderate guardians of the establishment scold us for it.
Our anger is not just some vague feeling whose source we can't put our finger on. It isn't based on absurd conspiracy theories and it isn't illogical.
We're angry because of what has happened to our country, because of how we've been treated, and because of the innumerable crimes the conservatives have committed. We're angry at the president, we're angry at the Congress, we're angry at the news media. And we have every right to be.
Studio: Weinstein Company DVD Release Date: February 20, 2007
By now everyone knows the Dixie Chicks as the group that "dissed George W. Bush", but two-time Academy-Award winning director Barbara Kopple shows us in the documentary, Shut Up and Sing that these women are also moms, wives and sisters who just happen to be in the best-selling female band of all-time.
The film weaves from 2003 to 2006 and back again in a way that may not be the chronological norm that we've come to expect, but serves to connect earlier events to the new Chicks path and album. Kopple covers a broad swath of time from the actual comment by lead singer Natalie Maines on the eve of the attack on Iraq, to the career-altering, life-threatening backlash, to the planning for the spectacular rise from the ashes.
Throughout the film, it is Maines whose instincts are right on point, leading bandmates and biological sisters, Emily Robison and Marti McGuire, as well as manager, Simon Renshaw, into the realization that a new direction is not only needed to survive the corporate-lead boycotts and blacklistings, but will take them to an even higher heights in their careers.
Based on the 5-Grammy response to "Taking The Long Way", the CD born out of the fire, platinum sales, and legions of new fans, once again, Natalie was right.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Rocky calls for Bush Impeachment
Rocky Anderson's status as a national anti-war figure continues to grow, and along with it, so do his convictions.
The Salt Lake mayor has spoken against President Bush and the war in Iraq at two Salt Lake protests and one in Washington, D.C. But this week, he isn't just calling for an end to the war: He's calling for an end to the Bush presidency.
