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Reviews
The House of Mirth (2000)
Merchant-Ivory in darker, deeper hues
From the moment she steps out of the smoke at a train station, Gillian Anderson is amazing as Lily Bart, a woman torn between being true to herself and securing a place in her world. Althought the movie is set in the early 1900's, her struggle with making a life for herself while surrounded by treacherous friends with their own agendas feels completely relevant. Working from a terrific script, Anderson draws nuance, meaning and emotion from her lines and the circumstances in which she finds herself, as she puts it, "doing the wrong thing at the right time". The journey she took me through in this movie was invigorating, thought provoking, engrossing and ultimately heartbreaking. The supporting cast, including Day Akroyd, Anthony LaPaglia and Terry Kinney, hold their own and fill out the movie beautifully. But Laura Linney deserves special mention as Lily's cunning, manipulative rival posing as a friend. Although very much a period piece, the film goes beyond some of the best pictures of Merchant-Ivory in bringing to life Wharton's novel, presenting a darker movie about the consequences of choices and the cost of guilelessness in a ruthless world. It also pulls Scully out of her basement and into the spotlight where her talents deserve to have her.
Calle 54 (2000)
A real valentine for music lovers
I can't understand why Miramax isn't promoting this movie to the hilt. It's a wonderful concert film posing as a documentary about the history of latin jazz in the US. The director Fernando Trueba has an obvious jones for latin jazz and has chosen to focus on some of the genre's most influential performers and founders, keeping the narrative to a minimum and letting the music speak for itself. And that's where the movie really shines: over and over each artist gives a wonderful performance with lighting and simple set design to make them look their best. The film will probably draw inevitable comparisons to "Buena Vista Social Club", another film presenting latin artists making history through their music. However BVSC focused as much on Ry Cooder's involvement and the musicians' lives in Cuba as the music played. Here Trueba keeps the education brief, and when the performers play, you know why latin jazz changed his life. A terrific date film for anyone who loves music and the chance to see such giants as Tito Puente, Gato Barbieri, Paquito D'Rivera and historic moments shared by Bebo Valdes and his son Chucho as well as his lifelong friend Cachao.