Takers
Anything worth doing is worth doing well.  On that note, Takers can rightfully take its place among the best bank heist movies.     The film centers around a group of high level thieves that meticulously plan out sporadic heists, do the job, hibernate for a year or so until things cool off and so on.  This is until they get an offer from their newly freed partner Ghost (Tip "T.I" Harris), who brings them a chance for another, bigger score.  However, this one has to be done real soon, as in less than a week.  He feels the crew owes him at least that much since he kept his mouth shut while doing time.      First time writer,... READ MORE >>>

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
I’ll be honest with you; I think most modern art is pure rubbish.  The last time I went to the museum I was with my mom for her birthday to see a Yoko Ono exhibit.  As I explored the museum, I found 3 blank canvases, a painting with some squiggly lines that you would see in a day care and a toilet in a glass maze, which were all being debated by young people wearing sweaters that their grandparents gave them.   Why do I start off a review telling you about my opinion of modern art?  I’m telling you because Jean Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child is a journey into the modern art community and basically reinforces... READ MORE >>>

Eat, Pray, Love
In the film adaption of Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir “Eat Pray Love”, Liz (Julia Roberts) is a writer in search of a word that defines her. “Daughter” is not quite sufficient and “wife” even worse since she is recently divorced. She is, at the very least, admittedly under-inspired and sets out to find herself in her travels, first to enjoy the food of Italy, then to meditate in India. She ends her voyage in Bali, where she comes into a true psychic gravity and stumbles on love again. Sultry and charismatic, Javier Bardem plays a younger looking version of Gilbert’s real life husband, Phillipe.     Directed by Ryan Murphy (“Running with Scissors”), “Eat Pray Love” is like... READ MORE >>>

Te Extrano (I Miss You)
I had hoped to be blown away by Fabian Hoffman’s film “Te Extraño”. Hofman’s semi-autobiographical story, shown as part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, has all of the makings of a story that should pull me in: a government-“disappeared” older brother and an out of touch grandmother; a chronicling of political dissidence; and a coming of age tale.      The Moishes are Argentinian Jews living in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War of the 1970s. Javi (Fermin Volcoff) is the younger, more reclusive brother of Adrian Moish (Martin Slipak), who when the story opens has just been let out of military prison for his involvement in the Peronist guerrilla group, the Monteneros. Screenwriter Diana Cardozo and Hofman chose to play down the Moishes’... READ MORE >>>

Ilusiones Ópticas
Because of the opening scenes of blurry shapes and fuzzy colors, I expected “Ilusiones Ópticas” to be muddled and confusing.  I was happily surprised to find a darkly funny film that was smart and pleasantly offbeat during the 30th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.     “Ilusiones Ópticas” takes a voyeuristic approach to follow four main characters, showing how each is enmeshed in one another’s lives.  Juan (Ivan Alvarez de Araya) has been blind since he was two years old.  He received an operation that restored a fraction of his sight and is trying to adjust to life with limited vision.  Manuela (Paola Lattus) lives with her brother Rafa (Eduardo Paxeco) and works in a dead-end job ... READ MORE >>>