Tag Archives: 2007

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My Kid Could Paint That (2007)

Abstract art is something very subjective as some people can go crazy for it and others will not understand what the fuss is about. They think it’s something their kid could do. This documentary looks at 4-year-old Marla, who makes paintings on big canvases. When some of them were displayed in a bar people were interested in buying them and once an article was written about her it was a story that was picked up everywhere, even internationally. The result was that people were willing to pay thousands of dollars to get their hands on one of her paintings.

Marla is considered as a prodigy and documentary maker Amir Bar-Lev follows Marla and her parents during their journey. It seems like Marla will have a succesful career, but when the program 60 minutes start asking questions about the authenticity of her paintings (did she really paint them herself), all the admiration starts to transform into disbelief and people start to question the family. Continue reading →

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Tropa de Elite (2007)

Just like the excellent City of God, this Brazilian film (also known as Elite Squad) is set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. It’s 1997 and police captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura) and his special team called BOPE are very busy with tracking down criminals in preparation of the pope’s visit. Nascimento wants to stop working, but first needs to find a good replacement. Continue reading →

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Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

It’s not often that movies based on someone’s life are funny. I Love you Philip Morris is one example I can think of, but so is Charlie Wilson’s War, despite the serious subject of the tension that was brewing in Afghanistan between the local people and the invading Russian army.

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is a politician from Texas who lives a very luxurious life while he has his seat in the American Congress. He likes his women, booze and drugs and really has fun with it all. When he sees the situation in Afghanistan on TV something changes. He decides to do something about it and finds out that America is hardly spending any money on getting the Russians out of Afghanistan.

He’s helped by Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) who, although she’s not a politician, does know the right people to get things done. There is also help from CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who really doesn’t care what the people within the CIA think of him. Together they try to make some money available for Afghanistan. Continue reading →

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Grace is Gone (2007)

Countless movies have been made about war, whether it’s about soldiers (e.g. Green Zone or The Hurt Locker), war photographers (The Hunting Party or Triage) or informing loved ones about the loss of a family member (The Messenger), they are usually movies that have a lot of impact on the viewer.
Grace is Gone tells the story of Stanley Philips (John Cusack) and his two daughters. When a “messenger” appears on Stanley’s doorstep to inform him about the loss of his wife he really doesn’t know how to handle this information. Continue reading →

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The Pixar Story (2007)

At the moment Pixar is the leading company when it comes to succesful computer animated movies. With the combination of stunning graphics en extremely well written stories they have managed to build an impressive movie portfolio. This documentary shows how the company was founded and evolved. Steve Jobs, John Lasseter, Brad Bird and George Lucas are all interviewed and tell about its history and growth. Before Toy Story was made the company didn’t make any money and lost millions each year. Continue reading →

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Hot Rod (2007)

The Lonely Island have made their name with performances in Saturday Night Live and their music. Examples are Jizz in my pants, Like a Boss, Dick in a Box and the Grammy nominated I’m on a boat (the video is just comedy gold). The titles of these number probably say a lot about the expectations you will have about third first movie, Hot Rod. Continue reading →

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Superbad (2007)

In the last couple of years Judd Apaptow managed to change the face of the comedy genre.
With the humor in movies like 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall he has shown that that kind of humor, which is more oriented to older watcher is a very succesful formula. There have been a lot of movies that tried to copy it, but not all have managed to follow the success. Apatow was also involved with Superbad and you can clearly see. The movie shows a couple of teenagers who promise their fellow students they will buy booze for a party. It’s a big chance for them to be very popular at school. There is only one slight problem and it’s that they don’t have the legal age to buy alcohol yet. Continue reading →