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Anhoni Patel Administrator Besides being Managing Editor of SF Station, Anhoni Patel writes fiction and reviews. She is the author of "All Good Things Die in L.A." and is currently at work on her second novel. Her many passions include movies, food and books. But not necessarily in that order. |
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 | A True Story That Rings True Just like director Niki Caro's last feature, the widely acclaimed [i]Whale Rider[/i], [i]North Country[/i] also focuses on a small, patriarchal community that is forever changed by a female facing insurmountable odds. Although, in this case, an 11-year old Maori girl is replaced with a thirty-something mother in northern Minnesota, it is met with the same impressive results.More |  | Not Worth Visiting Directed and written by Cameron Crowe, [i]Elizabethtown[/i]is an indulgent venture that misses its intended mark, whatever that may be. Like the road trip its protagonist takes at the very end, the film is a meandering trek full of unscheduled pit stops and annoying traveling companions that do nothing but waste gas.More |  | The Story Behind the Man Behind the Story Many have heard of him. Even more have seen images of him in his signature dapper hat, sporting rounded spectacles with something flamboyant hanging off his neck (and not necessarily an item of clothing). But how many people [i]really[/i] know about Truman Capote? How many people have read the non-fiction novel that once made him the most famous writer in America?More |  | See It Now. This is one of the reasons I've waited all year for fall. I've weathered through the throng of insipid summer movies so I could get to see the Oscar-contender films. Which is exactly the kind of movie [i]Good Night, and Good Luck[/i] is.More |  | So Painful It Hurts Despite an intriguing title and a promising cast [i]A History of Violence[/i] is a jumbled mess of a movie. Directed by David Cronenberg ([i]Crash[/i], [i]The Fly[/i]), the movie listlessly follows the unraveling of a man's life after his violent past is exposed. As its title suggests, the movie is graphically violent in a very real way. There are no horror movie shenanigans or stylized gore fests to shield you from the punches and the blood.More |  | Better Than the Book Books have a way of engaging you differently from that of any other medium. It takes hours, weeks, and even months to finish a book. On the other hand, watching a movie takes an average of two hours, three on rare occasions. Plus, somebody else is already interpreting the material for you, removing you even further from it. Which is why when it comes to films based on novels (of which there are many), the book is usually better. As a writer, I would like to say the book is always better, but the celluloid version of author Jonathan Safran Foer's novel [i]Everything is Illuminated[/i] has barred me from ever saying something like that againMore |  | A Lovely Adaptation What happens when a failed filmmaker turns to literature, fictionalizes a part of his life only to become a best-selling author, and then returns back to filmmaking to adapt his own book? The chances are high that it would result in failure. Filmmaker cum writer cum filmmaker Dai Sijie's [i]Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress[/i] is the exception -- both the book and the movie are excellent.More |  | Land of Lost Memories 2046 is not a date. It is not a mysterious code. It is the means to a destination. 2046 is the number of an apartment that once belonged to an old friend of Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), a Hong Kong-based writer who creates a futuristic sci-fi novel in which 2046 is a perpetually running train which people board in order to relive their lost memories. For director/writer Wong Kar Wai, it is also the name of his latest film.More |  | Mama's Boys Director John Singleton (best known for his first film [i]Boyz n the Hood[/i]) brings you the tale of the Mercer brothers, an unruly yet unified foursome who were adopted by the saintly Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan) and raised as a family. The brothers -- tough guy Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), con man Tyrese (Tyrese Gibson), aspiring Volvo-driving yuppy Jeremiah (André 3000) and the youngest Jack (Garrett Hedlund), a punk -- once hardened, unruly juvenile delinquents roaming the streets of Detroit have blossomed, through the love and care of their mother, into criminals with a conscious.More |  | Suspenseful Futuristic Tale Thrills From the very beginning of [i]The Island[/i], you know something isn't quite right. It could be how all the residents of a mysterious outpost, survivors of a global environmental meltdown that has left every other place on earth uninhabitable, dress in similar fashion to a cult, identically in white athletic wear. Or it could be how the place is run like an exceedingly monitored utopian summer camp for gifted and talented children even though everyone is well above the legal age. Maybe it's the questions the protagonist Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) keeps incessantly asking. Whatever it is, you're hooked, and want to uncover the mystery.More |
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