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3/29/04 - Animal Farm: (Richard Harvey) --All
New Review-- "Once the technical ability was rendered in 1995's
Babe, it was inevitable that the most famous adult "talking
animal" story of all time would applied to live action. George
Orwell's 1945 novel Animal Farm is revered as a bleak, but
prophetic companion piece to his 1984 story. It is an allegory
for the Russian Revolution and the eventual pitfalls of communism to
follow, and in 1999, the TNT cable channel took most of Orwell's
story to the small screen. While much of Orwell's vision is darkly
dramatized in the farm setting, with the animals overthrowing their
British manor masters, some liberties were taken at the end of the
story to update Orwell's tale to mirror modern events (mainly, the
fall of communism and tearing down of stone walls). Purists of the
story were horrified, and the film's depressing nature (before the
Americans save the day in an ending that defeats the purpose of the
story) makes it less suitable to the children's audience that would
otherwise be inclined to watch a film with talking and singing
animals...." ***** Read the entire
review.
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3/19/04 - The Emperor's Club: (James Newton Howard) --All
New Review-- "Audiences have probably had enough of the "college teacher
with underachieving students" formula in the past few decades, with
Stand and Deliver, Mr. Holland's Opus, and, most notably,
Dead Poet's Society building on a redundant idea. For The
Emperor's Club, actor Kevin Kline sheds the comedic light of his
teaching role in In & Out in favor of a Robin Williams-like
performance of inspiration at the Ivy League level. Director Michael
Hoffman's mirroring of many of the same moral dilemmas (as those of films
before), as well as a seemingly endless supply of misbehaving youth in
the classroom, caused the film to suffer the cold shoulder of many
audiences. With A Beautiful Mind also leaving an ill taste of Ivy
League campuses, The Emperor's Club, despite Kline's talents, fell
away from mainstream attention almost immediately. Everything seemed too
familiar about the project, including James Newton Howard's score. Howard's
mainstream scores were mostly action or horror oriented..." *** Read the entire
review.
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3/11/04 - The Statement: (Norman Corbeil) --All New
Review-- "Predicted to be an Academy Award powerhouse from the arthouse
film venues, The Statement turned out to be both a critical and
popular flop. A contemporary political thriller based on a novel by Brian
Moore, the story of an aged Nazi collaborator in modern day France, and the
chase to arrest and/or kill him, is loosely based on factual events. With
Michael Caine playing the war criminal on the run, utilizing his faith and
the Catholic structure in the south of France to protect himself, the film
advertised itself as a tense thriller with a message. Director Norman Jewison
has had his fair share of cinematic success, but with The Statement he
created a film universally criticized for its muddled message, poor plot
progression, and, worst of all, lack of truly convincing suspense. The
director was keen on producing an atmosphere of one prolonged chase, much in
the mold of a Hitchcock film, and the score was to understandably follow the
lead of some of Bernard Herrmann's best work for such thrillers...." ** Read the entire
review.
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3/7/04 - White Oleander: (Thomas Newman) --All New
Review-- "When Janet Fitch's best-selling novel became one of Oprah's
Book Club selections, you had the feeling that the sharp, troubled drama
would make its way onto the big screen. The tale of a troubled teen whose
single mother is jailed, White Oleander is a foster child's nightmare.
The teenage girl here is passed between hideous potential mothers before
finally finding a place, ironically, with a foster father. The film is an
exhibit of female behavior at its strongest and weakest, best and worst. It
was salvaged from the enormous pile of average tear-jerking arthouse dramas
by the strength of its own A-list cast. It was also the directorial debut for
British stage and television director Peter Kosminsky, who decided to
immediately jump on the popular arthouse scoring wagon by pursuing composer
Thomas Newman for a role in the production. As a project, White
Oleander is a perfect match for Newman, who is known for scoring heavy,
female-driven dramas in a range from Little Women to Erin
Brockovich...." ** Read the entire
review.
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3/4/04 - Used People: (Rachel Portman) --Expanded
Review-- "Before bursting into mainstream American attention with The
Joy Luck Club in 1993, Rachel Portman had already established herself as
rising star in the composing industry. By the time she continued her
collaboration with director Beeban Kidron for a third time with Used
People, Portman had already received numerous award nominations and wins
in Europe, including an encouraging award out of the U.K. announcing her as
the best new composer of the 1980's. Portman's partnership with Kidron would
continue after Used People, but this 1992 score marked one of
Portman's first large-scale projects for which recognition would be
established in America. Critics of Portman's consistent style state that the
composer is simply a one-dimensional artist, capable of only producing one
style of sound. If that's true --and you'd have quite a few angry Portman
fans debating that point-- then Used People is a refreshing glimpse of
Portman's work premiering its new styles before it was well known...." *** Read the entire
review.
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