« Previous Entries

Entertainment

Entertainment
Thank You For Smoking
10.26.06 | Permalink | Comment?

“Thank You For Smoking” stars Aaron Eckhart as Nick Naylor, a lobbyist for the tobacco industry who not only makes a living from downplaying the ill-effects of smoking in public and thinking of ways to encourage people to take up smoking - including a hilarious trip to Hollywood where he seeks the support of a producer, wonderfully played by Rob Lowe, for product placement - but who also relishes his unpopular and challenging role. As he tells his son: “That’s the beauty of argument, if you argue correctly, you’re never wrong.”

Every week he lunches with the M.O.D. Squad (or Merchants Of Death), two friends from the equally embattled alcohol and gun lobbies, as they trade war stories and compare death tolls caused by their respective industries. In between, he tries to build a relationship with his son - who is in the custody of Nick’s ex-wife - and a female newspaper reporter who is doing a feature article on him, while ducking and weaving to avoid his enemies and critics.
Entertainment, North America, People, War on Drugs
Cocaine Cowboys: interview with producer Alfred Spellman
10.14.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Cocaine Cowboys, a documentary about the effect the ’80s cocaine business had on Miami, is due for its U.S release on the 27th of October. It was directed by Billy Corben and produced by Alfred Spellman of rakontur productions. Producer Alfred Spellman kindly agreed to answer some questions submitted by e-mail. Here are his responses:

A major theme you explore in Cocaine Cowboys is whether Miami is the town that cocaine made. What was Miami like before cocaine made such an impact and what do you think Miami would have been like today without the cocaine business?

Miami was essentially a small sleepy southern town prior to the cocaine trade. It had flourished in the 50s as a middle-class family getaway, with the Rat Pack holding court at the Fountainbleu. Once jet travel became mainstream, families went off to other destinations, leaving Miami behind. By the 70s, Miami’s best days were behind it. Regarding where Miami is today, the cocaine wars certainly accelerated the gentrification of the city — it hit rock bottom real quick! Once it hit bottom, it was easier to climb out. Miami was just slowly fading away — the cocaine wars were a stimulus for redevelopment.

How divided is opinion amongst Miamians about the image ’80s Miami had in the rest of the United States (and indeed the world)? On the one hand there was all the glitz, glamour and money while on the other there were drugs, murders and Sonny Crockett’s suits. What’s your take?

I don’t think it’s divided at all. Most in Miami accept and even embrace our old Wild West image.

You interviewed people who were heavily involved in the cocaine business, including a hit man for a particular infamous drug dealer. Tell us a bit about some of the more colourful characters you spoke to, if it was difficult to get them to talk, and what kinds of ingenious methods they had for smuggling and distributing cocaine.
Entertainment, North America, War on Drugs, Websites
More internet material on Cocaine Cowboys
09.13.06 | Permalink | Comment?

With the date swiftly approaching for the late October release of “Cocaine Cowboys”, the documentary about the impact the cocaine trade had on Miami in the ’80s and beyond, more and more promotional and background material is becoming available on the internet.

At the website of Rakontur, the production company of director/producer Billy Corben and producer Alfred Spellman, is archived a bunch of reviews, news articles and features on the acclaimed film, as well as links to several relevant blogs. (You can also find out about their first film, the controversial “Raw Deal: A Question Of Consent”, about an alleged rape at a University of Miami fraternity party captured on videotape, which is due to be released on DVD in October.)
Entertainment, North America, War on Drugs
“The Wire” begins its fourth season
09.07.06 | Permalink | Comment?

The fourth season of HBO’s great show “The Wire” is about to kick off in the U.S. and the critics continue to sing its praises. If you had to pigeon-hole this Baltimore-set show, you would call it a police procedural drama. But you don’t. It’s too audacious and compelling for that.

Created by David Simon and Ed Burns, the drama for its latest season takes place in the crumbling and, by the sound of it, woeful Baltimore school system. And by all accounts, the show’s ability to weave in compelling stories, a disparate array of characters and a damning indictment of institutions and the War on Drugs, is still as strong as ever.
Entertainment, North America
Miami Vice
08.24.06 | Permalink | 1 Comment

I saw Miami Vice a few days ago. What a disappointment. While ostensibly a big screen version of the hit 80s TV series, the only real similarities are with the title, its main location, the fast and slick vehicles and the names of the main characters. While this isn’t a problem in itself - Miami is a different place compared to then and what is the point of an exact remake anyway - I think it was a lazy and mainly commercial decision by Michael Mann to trade on the name.
Entertainment, North America
Half Nelson
08.15.06 | Permalink | Comment?

A white high-school teacher, political by day and a crack addict by night, tries to help a black 13-year-old student from Brooklyn whose family deals drugs. Oh the contradictions. Gets decent reviews, though. Variety assesses the results and here’s the official website.
Entertainment, Latin America, People
Favela Rising
08.01.06 | Permalink | Comment?

While “Favela Rising” is an absorbing documentary about a crime-ridden slum in Rio de Janeiro and a former inhabitant who, through the use of music and dance, inspirationally rises above his surroundings to help turn kids away from drug dealing and gangs, it can’t quite transcend its material they way its hero has.

The film opens with the disturbing statistic that 3,937 children were murdered in Rio between 1987 and 2001, also right away introducing someone who could so easily have been one of those unfortunate kids: Anderson Sa, who grew up in the slum of Vigário Geral.

He describes the first murder he ever saw when, as a 10-year-old, a man nearby was shot in the head as a result of yet another gang-related dispute, the noises of which he heard every night as he went to sleep. As he grew older he himself moved closer to this world, actively involved “on the edge” of the drug scene, while never actually selling drugs themselves.
Entertainment, North America
Cocaine Cowboys - release date and clip previews
07.31.06 | Permalink | Comment?

“Cocaine Cowboys“, the documentary about the 1980s Miami cocaine business that its distributors, Magnolia Pictures, are positioning as the “Real Miami Vice”, will be released in selected cities of the United States on the 27th of October.

If you can stand to live in cold and wet Melbourne, Australia, it will have two showings at the forthcoming Melbourne Film Festival, on the second and eighth of August.

In the warmer surroundings of Miami, Florida, locally-based director Billy Corben and producer Alfred Spellman spoke this past weekend at the Rewind/Fast Forward Film & Video Festival, showing clips of their film. Here is an interview they had with the Miami Herald before the festival.

Two clips from the film that have been posted on Youtube are below.
Entertainment, Latin America
City of God
07.18.06 | Permalink | 2 Comments

“City of God“, the 1997 Brazilian novel from which the remarkable 2002 film of the same name was adapted, will become available as an English-language translation in September from Grove Press.

Authored by Paulo Lins, a former resident of the Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood of Cidade de Deus where his novel was set and where its title was derived, it delved into the seemingly permament poverty and ubiquitous violence that made up the lives of its residents, in particular the young.

Lins moved into the favela - or slum - as a seven-year-old and lived long enough to not only get out but also tell the tale, unlike many others who have been cut down by violent drug gangs or brutal police. As Alex Bellos notes in his Guardian review of the translated version by Alison Entrekin, more people were killed during the 1982 “war” between drug gangs in the area than in the official war going on at the same time over in the Falklands.
Entertainment, North America
More Miami Vice
07.16.06 | Permalink | Comment?

Love or hate the idea, its getting closer to the release of the movie version of the 80s hit television series. Directed by Michael Mann and starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell, Miami Vice will be released on the 28th of this month. Set in present day Miami, it is said to be a darker work than the culturally influential series that starred Don Johnson. The production of the film was not without its troubles, as this article from Slate explains.