Two Lovers in Gomorrah X (Weekly Links)

Movies I reviewed for the Herald this week:

Two Lovers. “Fierce concentration on a tiny piece of emotional turf.”

Gomorrah. “No warm-hearted godfathers blathering on about the proper amount of garlic in the marinara sauce.”

Ben X. “You might wonder whether anybody’s in charge at this school.”

Ballerina. “But what a surface.”

Also, an interview I did with actress-auteur Julia Sweeney is included this week on ArtZone in Studio; watch here for the story of Sweeney’s new film Letting Go of God, a one-woman show that manages to be completely bright, disarming, and convincing about what its title says.

Movie Diary 2/4/2009

Gomorrah (Matteo Gorrone, 2008). The storyline makes Syriana look like a children’s book, but there’s undeniably a lot of accumulating power in this Italian expose. (full review 2/27)

Back to Normandy (Nicolas Philibert, 2007). A look back at the shooting of another film, made 30 years earlier, from the director of the superb To Be and To Have.  A worthy experiment, if a come-down from that film. (full review 2/6)

Push (Paul McGuigan, 2009). The what now? Bleeders and Watchers and Pushers? Are these Arena Football teams? (full review 2/6)