Posts tagged spy
Broken Embraces – Movie Trailer
Feb 1st
A follow-up to Spanish enfant terrible Pedro Almodóvar’s 2006 arthouse sensation Volver, Los Abrazos Rotos finds the filmmaker re-teaming with actress Penelope Cruz and working on a canvas much broader than those of his previous outings, in terms of genres covered, narrative scope, and duration. Lluís Homar stars as the former Mateo Blanco, a screenwriter and ex-director who changed his name to Harry Caine after losing his sight in an automobile accident. A past scandal suddenly resurfaces when the news arrives that the producer of one of Harry’s old movies (“Girls and Suitcases”), a corrupt stockbroker named Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gómez), has died. For mysterious reasons, this makes Harry’s ex-production manager Judit (Blanca Portillo) nervous; then Ernesto’s son, Ray X (Ruben Ochandiano), turns up and asks Harry to help him write a vindictive script to get back at his vile father. The film subsequently flashes back to the early ’90s, when Martel became involved with his secretary, Lena (Cruz), but Mateo also began to develop feelings for her, and auditioned her for “Girls and Suitcases.” In response to Mateo’s interest in Lena (and her burgeoning interest in him), the jealous Martel commissioned Ray to make a documentary about the making of “Girls and Suitcases” as an excuse to spy on the director and star. This enabled him to watch Mateo spiriting off with Lena right under his nose, and set the stage for the wily producer’s elaborate revenge against Mateo. As this synopsis suggests, Almodóvar uses a tricky structure laden with flashbacks to both comment on and explain the events of the present; he also interweaves a noirish sensibility throughout the picture that marks something of a first for this director.
“The Informant!” More Twists Than a Drunken Snake
Sep 24th
More Twists Than a Drunken Snake
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE INFORMANT! is based on the true story of a whistle-blower in a giant corporation about an international price-fixing scheme, but it is much more than that.
It’s also a lough-out-loud comedy directed by Steven Soderbergh, who previously directed the 2000 ERIN BROKOVICH in all seriousness, but also directed the recent OCEAN’S movies as goofy crime capers.
Matt Damon stars as Mark “Corky” Whitacre, a high-level executive in Archer Daniels Midland, an Illinois-based agribusiness conglomerate. In 1992 a series of events leads him to believe that there is a “mole” in the company who is feeding information to the company’s Japanese competitors, thereby prompting the Japanese to request $10 million to reveal the identity of the mole and also correct another problem Corky’s company has with a virus.
Corky goes to the FBI, and when they question what his motive is, he says, “I’m trying to do the right thing here.”
The FBI is suspicious, because Corky is making $350,000 a year, and he becomes an informer on his own company. Again, he says, “Things are going on, I don’t approve of.”
Corky is only too happy to carry a concealed recorder to meetings in order to obtain evidence against his own company, because he believes that when all of this is over, he will be rewarded by being made the next president of the corporation.
No, Corky is not the smartest rung on the ladder, and he gives hilarious running commentary in internal monologues as the events unfold.
However, when the audience catches Corky in a lie to the FBI agents who are working with him, the audience thinks “Not so fast!” at this unusual and unexpected turn of events.
The FBI agents follow Corky to business meetings all over the world, and they become exasperated at Corky’s ineptness at being a spy, even though Corky brags that he is “Agent 0014,” because he is twice as smart as “007.”
Then something happens that causes the audience to think “Not so fast!” again.
So, hold onto your seats, because something else happens that causes a “Not so fast!” a third time.
In fact, as the film races to its conclusion, “Not so fast!” keeps coming again and again.
THE INFORMANT! takes more twists and turns than a drunken snake in a maze and is very rewarding.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”