Freedom Writers – A Review

July 13, 2007

Freedom Writers is a movie about inspiration. It is not inspirational.

I write those words with great disappointment, as I believe its writer/director Richard LaGravenese is capable of wonderful things. His script for The Fisher King – while unwieldy and overwrought and pulled in six different directions at the best of times – was and is a joy to watch. The Fisher King is a good place to start in saying what goes wrong with Freedom Writers because it offers an excellent example of a movie that, for all its faults, risks something. Freedom Writers fails because it’s cautious.

Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | American Film, Film Reviews | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by jtatham

Spanglish – A Review

July 13, 2007

You either forgive James L. Brooks his failings or you don’t. There’s no in-between. Accusations of schmaltz and Hollywood-endings are valid, shameless audience manipulation – fair. His characters do tend to go on journeys, have “arcs”, meet cute. There is never much to frighten the horses in his movies. If an f-word sneaks in, it isn’t the focus of anything (not a Mamet f-word). Bad language is like anger in Brooks’ movies, a little dark cloud before a month of sun. There would be no reason to review a movie like Spanglish, but for the fact that, besides the schmaltz, Brooks writes character like a Billy Wilder who believed in human beings.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | American Film, Film Reviews | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by jtatham

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 89 other followers