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All Quotes by author - Elvis Mitchell
" '8 Mile' could do without an unnecessary class swipe. In a final throwdown, Rabbit clowns a competitor by revealing that the guy went to suburban Detroit Cranbrook, one of the finest private schools in the country. "
Country
Class
Clowns
" Adapted from the novel by L. Ron Hubbard, who cranked out sci-fi pulp by the cubic ton, 'Battlefield Earth' has the musty feel of the days when the genre's highlight was Flash Gordon. "
Out
Days
Earth
" 'Ali' is a breakthrough for its director, Michael Mann. The film, based on the life of Muhammad Ali, is Mr. Mann's first movie with feeling; his overwhelming love of its subject will turn audiences into exuberant, thrilled fight crowds. "
Feeling
Life
Fight
" 'Ali' offers stunning re-creations of bouts Ali fought. In the second Liston fight, the auditorium is underlighted and clouded with fetid cigar smoke, which was why the famous picture of a snarling Ali standing over Liston was so dramatic; indoor arenas are now bright enough to be spotted from Alpha Centauri. "
Famous
Picture
Fight
" A little of the sketch character Pootie Tang went a long way on HBO's now late, probably soon to be lamented 'Chris Rock Show.' So it's surprising how much fun the character's film debut, 'Pootie Tang,' is. "
Way
Character
Fun
" Ali was the African-American who exulted in saying exactly what he was capable of, and the bouncing-boy braggadocio of hip-hop is impossible to imagine without him. So it makes sense that one of his spiritual children, the sunny-dispositioned rapper turned actor Will Smith, would play him. "
Children
Saying
Impossible
" A lot of the time, you see all this ambition from these black actors, and it's just pouring off the screen. Because they don't often get a chance to work, and when they do, they don't usually get a chance to work with other black people. "
Black
People
Time
" A stand-up comedian who's assaultive and decent and has managed a career that has spanned over five decades deserves a documentary. "
Over
Decent
Career
" Before he became 'a working actor,' as he now proudly calls himself, Jamie Dornan initially caught the public's attention as a model - you may remember him from those greasy underwear ads with Eva Mendes, among many others. "
You
Remember
Attention
" Berry was a transitional and, to my mind, revolutionary black figure who had to find a place for the rage that the crucible of racism created. "
Find
Mind
Black
" 'Black Hawk Down' wants to be about something, and in the midst of the meticulously staged gunfire, the picture seems to choose futility arbitrarily. "
Black
Choose
Down
" Can you sue yourself for plagiarism? If so, then 'Old School' has presented Ivan Reitman with a case. "
Old
Plagiarism
School
" 'Certifiably Jonathan' contrives crises for its subject - a bid to get his paintings into MOMA, among others. "
Subject
His
Crises
" Do you remember where you were when Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died? "
Michael Jackson
Remember
Where
" Duncan Jones has skills; he's an architect of emotional dislocation. "
Architect
Skills
He
" Each country has its own way of communicating a narrative and, through that, expressing family experiences in emotional stories. "
Country
Way
Own
" Establishing mood through pictorial means is the director Ridley Scott's most notable talent. There may be no working director more accomplished at wringing texture out of the color blue than the prodigious and now prolific Mr. Scott; you'd swear that with his dazzling washes of blues and sand tones, he was inventing additional hues on the spot. "
Color
Blues
Blue
" For those not so taken by the star power, this new 'Ocean's Eleven' is the equivalent of a domineering team you can't stand that enters the Super Bowl. Even if you don't like the players, the odds are so good that it's tough to bet against them. "
Tough
Team
Good
" For years, Ono's work - musical and otherwise - was, in large part, dismissed and derided; at best, it was often misunderstood. "
Best
Large
Misunderstood
" Given how unflinching his productions have been, the 44-year-old McQueen is remarkably gentle and thoughtful - so much so that he will request a moment to consider a question, and turn it around in his head to get the shape and weight of it, before answering, occasionally with an excited rush of words in response. "
Moment
Question
Thoughtful
" Given the knee-jerk patriotism of recent war movies, it's discouraging to see 'Windtalkers' evade pertinent facts that could have recast the doubled-edged issues of racism and loyalty and made them relevant to contemporary times. "
Patriotism
Racism
War
" His work isn't all glower. Even though he hasn't smiled in a movie since the underrated 'Proof' in the early 1990s, Mr. Crowe is given to a hurt swallow when he's uncomfortable and to a look of suffering in his eyes. "
Hurt
Work
Suffering
" Ice Cube went straight outta Compton to hearing, 'Are we there yet?' Eddie Murphy blew up striding across the stage in a red leather ensemble that would have made Elvis Presley chuckle, yet is probably best known to anyone born in the 21st century as the overly chatty donkey from 'Shrek.' "
Donkey
Best
Born
" I dress well. I travel; I seem to be relatively glamorous for a film guy - which, to me, is like being the fastest midget in the circus. "
Like
Travel
Me
" If a movie requires the lead actor to spend a good chunk of his onscreen time talking to himself, and Popeye is unavailable because of contractual disputes, it's hard to do better than Johnny Depp. "
Actor
Good
Better
" If Mr. Chan ever makes another movie like 'The Tuxedo,' it's American audiences that will see him in court. With 'Shanghai Knights,' he has come through with one of his best. This time, it's personable. "
American
Best
Time
" If somebody wants to attack my work, that's one thing - that, I'll respond to. "
Work
One Thing
Attack
" If you start off as a fearsome figure in pop culture, it's almost axiomatic that at some point, years under the lights softens you into a cuddly family figure. "
Off
Lights
Start
" I love the Museum of the Moving Image, and I like the idea of bringing artifacts of the cinema into a museum. "
Love
Moving
Museum
" I'm honored to be asked by Stephanie Allain - whom I've long admired - to add to the scope of my programming purview at Film Independent. I salute David Ansen for his work with the festival and look forward to continuing to follow his example. "
Film
Work
Look
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