Although Massoud Amir Behrani (Sir Ben Kingsley), one of the main characters in “House of Sand and Fog,” and director/screenwriter Vadim Perelman have different backgrounds, they both pursue the same thing. “It deals with intolerance within ourselves,” said Jennifer Connelly, one of the film’s stars. “Who is entitled to live the American Dream?” The film, […]
Author Archives: Jake Tracer
Professor enjoys helping the hapless
Directing episodes of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” may seem like a difficult job, but for UCLA professor Becky Smith, it came naturally. “Just coincidentally, I’ve directed a lot of the recent gay programming,” said Smith, who chairs the UCLA School of Theater, Film, Television and Digital Media’s undergraduate film program and also teaches […]
Right movie can eat up time after all turkey’s gone
When the pumpkin pie is gone and the post-meal coffee has been drunk, it’s an awkward point in any Thanksgiving meal. Eventually the question will come, assuming everyone at your table hasn’t fallen asleep from eating too much turkey: Now what? The question of a post-meal activity is always a taxing one. In my family, […]
Teaching culture no easy task
While already successful, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” has some ironing to be done ““ with or without “fashion savant” Carson Kressley’s help. In fact, as the series began its second season Tuesday on Bravo, Jai Rodriguez, the “culture vulture” of the show’s “Fab Five” (the five gay men who make over a different […]
Girls night out actually lovely
The line at the Avco Cinema was long. Really long. It made sense, considering I was there on the Saturday night of the opening weekend of “Elf.” I was there on the Saturday night of the opening weekend of one of the biggest non-trilogy-related winter movies for college students. I was there to see “Love […]
Review: “˜Matrix Revolutions’ plot confusing, fails to satisfy
I’m pretty sure it was Aristotle who first wrote that every story must have a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s a seemingly simple concept, to be sure, but also a frequently forgotten one. As a trilogy, “The Matrix” should have the stuff of Aristotelian models. Andy and Larry Wachowski themselves even seemed to […]
Movie cliches trivialize complex personal feelings
When I went home to San Diego a few weekends ago, the sky literally seemed to be falling. Fires raged just a few miles from my house, and looking up revealed only a fog of smoke, a glowing red ball that used to be the sun and a steady stream of falling ash. Like snow, […]