Go for Sisters
Film Review by Kam Williams
Bernice Stokes (LisaGay Hamilton) is a parole officer in Los Angeles where her job routinely places her in close proximity with the dregs of society. She normally has no reason to associate with such miscreants after hours, being very straitlaced and coming from a solid, middle class background.
However, everything changes the day the single-mom’s only child (McKinley Belcher, III) suddenly vanishes without a trace. Rodney, an Iraq War veteran hadn’t been the same since serving overseas.
Bernice was aware that he’d been hanging out with some unsavory characters recently, including a suspected drug dealer who was just murdered. Desperate to find her son, she strikes an unspoken bargain with Fontayne Scott (Yolonda Ross), a new client who has just flunked a urine test.
Rather than report Fontayne to her superior, Bernice enlists the streetwise addict’s assistance in the search. Complicating matters a bit is the fact that the two had been close friends back in high school. So, while unearthing clues pointing to Tijuana, the former BFFs are afforded an opportunity to deconstruct the events leading to their falling out over a boy they both wanted.
Besides Fontayne’s help, Bernice also retains the services of Freddy Suarez (Edward James Olmos), a disgraced, LAPD detective whose investigative experience and fluent Spanish are likely to come in handy south of the border. Packing a guitar and singing in the car, the unlikely trio heads for Mexico, posing as a musical group in order to not arouse suspicion.
Written and directed by two-time, academy Award-nominee John Sayles (for Passion Fish and Lone Star), Go for Sisters is a deliberately-paced crime drama which benefits as much from absorbing character development as from the intrigue surrounding solving the underlying whodunit. Credit charismatic Edward James Olmos for keeping the movie compelling, although Yolonda Ross and LisaGay Hamilton manage to fold their own opposite the Oscar-nominated thespian (for Stand and Deliver).
A dangerous border town as no country for old men or middle-aged sisters either.
Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 122 minutes
Distributor: Variance Films
Last Vegas
Film Review by Kam Williams
Billy (Michael Douglas), Paddy (Robert De Niro), Archie (Morgan Freeman) and Sam (Kevin Kline), inseparable since growing up in Flatbush back in the Fifties, have managed to remain close over the years despite the demands of families and careers. That’s why, when never-married Billy finally decides to tie the knot, the others agree to throw him a bawdy bachelor party in Las Vegas, hoping to rekindle a little of the macho magic of their glory days.
But even before arriving in Sin City, the long-in-the-tooth senior citizens are forced to face up to the fact that they’re no spring chickens. After all, Archie is still recovering from a mild stroke, and has to tell his son (Michael Ealy) he’s attending a church retreat to sneak out of the house.
Meanwhile, Sam, who suffers from a futile case of erectile dysfunction, packs Viagra and condoms for the trip with his frustrated wife’s (Joanna Gleason) blessing. And recently-widowed Paddy has entirely lost his zest for life since the passing of his childhood sweetheart (Olivia Stuck).
Even groom-to-be Billy seems to be having second thoughts about walking down the aisle with a woman half his age (Bre Blair), especially after his head is turned at first sight by the hotel’s sultry, lounge singer (Mary Steenburgen). Consequently, the reassembled Rat Pack’s highly-anticipated reunion turns out to be less a licentious last hurrah than a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane. For the guys end up spending more of their time reminiscing and teasing each other than in pursuit of potential sexual conquests.
Directed by Dan Turtletaub (National Treasure 1, 2 and 3), Last Vegas is a laff-a-minute comedy, with most of the humor coming at the expense of members of this self-effacing quartet as they grudgingly make concessions to old age. They remain good sports, whether being the butt of jokes about hair transplants, hair color, medications, looking old or mistakenly flirting with transvestites.
Not surprisingly, the principal cast (featuring four Academy Award-winners in Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline) has no trouble generating a convincing sense of camaraderie onscreen. What is more remarkable is how another Oscar-winner, Mary Steenburgen, makes the most of her support role, upstaging he male co-stars by exhibiting an endearing vulnerability in a most memorable performance.
The Hangover, geezer style!
Excellent (3.5 stars)
PG-13 for profanity and sexuality
Running time: 105 minutes
Distributor: CBS Films
Jeremy Lin
The “Linsanity” Interview
with Kam Williams
Oh, the Linsanity!
Jeremy Lin was born in Los Angeles, California on August 23, 1988 to Taiwanese immigrant parents. Encouraged by his father, he developed a love of basketball at an early age.
Raised in a Christian family, Jeremy’s faith guided and supported him as he chased his hoop dream of playing basketball in the NBA. Known for his relentless work off court and on, the young phenom led his Palo Alto high school team to a state title against nationally-ranked Mater Dei, an overwhelming favorite.
Despite his All-State level play, however, no Division 1 college recruited Jeremy. So, he enrolled at Harvard University, which does not offer athletic scholarships.
Undrafted by the NBA out of college, he nevertheless impressed scouts in the summer league going up against the No. 1 draft pick. He was eventually signed—but later cut—by the Golden State Warriors.
A brief stint in Houston ended unceremoniously on Christmas Day, 2011. Jeremy was subsequently picked up by the New York Knicks. In early 2012, on the verge of being cut again, he rose to prominence as a starter, unlikely team leader and improbable NBA sensation.
“Linsanity” was born! He’s been the Houston Rockets’ starting point guard since landing a three-year, $25 million deal. Whether facing racial taunts as a child, or being underestimated on the court, Jeremy Lin consistently points to his faith as his means of dealing with both disappointment and success.
Here, he talks about Linsanity, the new documentary chronicling both his commitment to Christ and his meteoric rise to superstardom.
Rwandan Reconciliation Documentary Chronicles Feats of Remarkable Female Drumming TroupeSweet Dreams
Film Review by Kam Williams
The 1994 Civil War left the beleaguered African nation of Rwanda a bloody mess, both literally and figuratively. Not only had the warring tribes, the Hutus and the Tutsis, hacked each other to death with machetes to the tune of about a million bodies scattered across the countryside, but to this day many of the survivors of the ethnic cleansing remain totally traumatized by the slaughter they’d witnessed.
Consequently, much of the populace still walks around in a daze sporting blank, 1,000 yard stares some refer to as battle fatigue or shell shock which shrinks refer to clinically as post-traumatic stress syndrome. For, it is understandable that it might hard to get over a conflict which pitted neighbor against neighbor, and even relative against relative.
One survivor, theater director Kiki Katese, determined to do something to alleviate the suffering, asked, “How do you rebuild a human being?” So, she founded Ingoma Nshya (meaning “new drum, new kingdom”), an all-female drumming troupe comprised of both Tutsis and Hutus, with admission being conditioned on checking ones tribal allegiance at the door. Besides affording the 60-strong membership an opportunity to pound rhythmically on congas, the gathering simultaneously served as a support group offering healing and reconciliation.
In 2010, Kiki came up with another innovative idea, namely, opening Rwanda’s first ice cream parlor. This time, she enlisted the support of Jennie Dundas and Alexis Miesen, proprietors of a place located half a world away in Brooklyn called Blue Marble Ice Cream.
The game New Yorkers answered the call, traveling to Rwanda to help Kiki realize that dream. Together they created Sweet Dreams, a shop owned and operated cooperatively by a number of the women from Ingoma Nshya.
All of the above is affectionately recounted in Sweet Dreams, an uplifting documentary co-directed by Lisa and Rob Fruchtman. Kiki and her companions cut a sharp contrast to the bulk of their fellow countrymen peppering the desolate background, lost souls who seem broken in spirit between mourning murdered kin and facing bleak prospects for a better tomorrow.
A female empowerment flick featuring a blend of ice cream and drumming as a viable path to rehabilitation and reconciliation.
Very Good (3 stars)
Unrated
In English and Kinyarwanda with subtitles
Running time: 84 minutes
Distributor: International Film Circuit / Liro Films
To see a trailer for Sweet Dreams, visit
The Counselor
Film Review by Kam Williams
It’s easy to see why this crime thriller got greenlit by Hollywood. First of all, it was written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Cormac McCarthy whose relatively-riveting “No Country for Old Men” won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Secondly, Oscar-nominated director Ridley Scott (for Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Thelma & Louise) was brought aboard, as well as an A-list cast topped by Academy Award-winners Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, nominees Brad Pitt and Rosie Perez, and versatile character actors Michael Fassbender and Goran Visnjic.
Furthermore, since the story is set in Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas, it made sense to sign several leading Latino thespians in Cameron Diaz, Edgar Ramirez, John Leguizamo and Ruben Blades. Nevertheless, The Counselor turned out to be one of those curious head scratchers that somehow adds up to way less than the sum of its parts.
The film is crippled primarily by a pair of fatal flaws, namely, a glacial pace and a talky script laced with awkward dialogue. For, while it waits for something, anything of consequence to transpire, the audience is force fed lots of inexplicably stilted lines like, “You are a man of impeccable taste” and “I intend to love you ‘til the day I die.”
Worse, these corny quips are generally delivered with so little conviction that you never know whether you’re supposed to laugh or take them seriously. The actors’ inscrutably-flat affect invariably comes off as tongue-in-cheek impersonations of characters right out of a typical Damon Runyon yarn.
The picture’s farfetched plot revolves around a nameless lawyer, referred to only as “The Counselor” (Fassbender), a guy whose greed is getting the better of him. At the point of departure, we find the avaricious attorney head-over-heels in love with Laura (Cruz), an exotic beauty he plans to propose to with an expensive diamond ring he can’t really afford.
For reasons that never quite make sense, this man of few words soon seeks to supplement his income by getting mixed up in a dangerous Mexican drug trade known for its ever-escalating body count. He’s offered a start in the business by Reiner (Bardem), a flamboyant dealer with a flashier girlfriend (Diaz).
Ignoring repeated warnings from a low-key middleman (Pitt) that entering the narcotics underworld is akin to stepping in quicksand, the Counselor decides that the extra cash is worth a one-time risk. The game plan is to deliver a sewage truck with over 20,000 ounces of coke across the border and North to Chicago in return for a big payday.
But the pivotal question remains: will he be able to avoid becoming a statistic in a bloody turf war where ruthless gangs don’t give a second thought about beheading a rival? A highly-stylized borefest featuring blasé individuals overindulging in gratuitous violence and a coarse brand of casual sensuality.
Fair (1.5 stars)
Rated R for profanity, sexuality, graphic violence and grisly images
Running time: 111 minutes
Distributor: 20th Century Fox