Filed under: Film reviews | Tags: Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, California, Californian wine, Chateau Montelena, Chris Pine, France, French wine, Napa Valley, Sideways, Wine
In 1976 there was a blind wine taste-testing held in France, where all the judges were French. The result of the contest? The wines of California’s Napa Valley defeated the best wines France had to offer – mon dieu! Bottle Shock is the fictionalized version of this true event, with the added story of the underdog winery deeply in debt, and a problematic relationship between a father and his slacker son who run the winery together.
Even as the outcome of the story is predictable, it is a charming film. The direction is solid, the cinematography picturesque, and the cast is good. Bill Pullman is believable as the tough and angry man who runs Chateau Montelena. Chris Pine is sympathetic as his lazy, long-haired son, Bo. And Alan Rickman as the British wine lover living in Paris who instigates the contest in the first place (thinking the French wines would win!) is quietly and wonderfully comic. “But did you know that it’s the struggling, thirsty vines that make the best wines? They can’t just sit there sipping water.” They must labor to thrive. These lines from the film sum up what makes this movie engaging – it’s about people who love their work and do it well. People who talk about it with passion and with knowledge. And people who are motivated to continue despite seemingly insurmountable odds.
Filed under: Film reviews | Tags: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Family films, Finding Dory, Finding Nemo, Hayden Rolence, Pixar
A year after Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) helped reunite Nemo (Hayden Rolence) and Marlin (Albert Brooks), she has settled happily into her new life with them. Then Dory suddenly gets flashbacks from her childhood, so she sets out to find her parents at the last place she remembers them being all together – the Monterey M
arine Life Institute.
Critics of this film have grumbled charges of “sequelitis” against Pixar (Toy Story, Cars). Yes, the set up is similar to Finding Nemo: Dory goes in search of her parents and, returning the faith shown by Dory in the first ocean-spanning escapade, Marlin and Nemo join her. And yes, as characters are repeatedly separated and reunited, the storyline arguably gets a bit tedious. However, despite a familiar formula, there are tragic undercurrents such as loss, confusion, disappointment and fear, which make for a very human story. Meanwhile, these motifs are delivered alongside funny dialogue, vivid imagery, technical prowess, great characters, and fantastic casting (voices).
As is the case with most great family films, there is something here for both adults and children. Finding Dory is an emotionally complex, beautifully constructed, and hopeful piece about friendship, perseverance, and facing your own personal inhibitions.
Filed under: Book reviews | Tags: American, Americana, heartlands, Kent Haruf, novel, poetry, popular fiction, prose
A small town community in the ‘heartlands’ is the setting for Plainsong and its rendering of the quintessentially American experience. Kent Haruf interweaves the stories of a lonely teacher, a pair of boys abandoned by their mother, a pregnant high school girl, and a couple of brittle old bachelor farmers as they undergo radical changes over the course of a year. With lyrical, eloquent prose that is richly nuanced, Haruf presents the steadfast courage of decent, troubled people getting on with their lives.
Weather and landscape set the quiet, observant mood of the narrative, while descriptions of rural existence are poetic invocations to the natural world. Haruf steers clear of sentimentality and melodrama, however. His beautifully imagined characters and the vivid depictions of their experiences, makes each of them seem non-fiction, which can evoke both heart-warming and heart-wrenching feelings (respectively) in the reader. Emotions that resonate long after one finishes the novel. This is a contemplative and compelling story about grief, loss, loneliness, and frustration, as well as kindness, love, benevolence, beauty, and what it means to be a family.
Victoria Jelinek 