Two Words, One Answer.
Tilda Swinton
 Julia $26.98 Tilda plays Julia, an alcoholic who manages to scrape by day-to-day. When she encounters her neighbor at a AA meeting, a plan is hatched between them to kidnap her neighbor's son, who lives with his rich grandfather for ransom. However, Julia has plans of her own and double-crosses her neighbor for more money. As you might expect, things don't go as Julia planned, and she gets deeper and deeper in legal trouble. Tilda accurately depicts the life of an alcoholic and the self-destruction and chaos that goes with that lifestyle. Swinton is one of this generation's best actors, and it is a lot of fun to watch her become rabid in this role. In this role she is at times extremely selfish, other times very tender in her interaction with her kidnapped victim. She is also great in "Young Adam".  Caravaggio (Special Edition) $29.99 Michelangelo Caravaggio was an important Italian painter who led a short, tumultuous life. He surrounded himself with earthy street people who became the models for his paintings. If you're looking for a biopic about the life of Caravaggio, look elsewhere. This chaotic and bizarre interpretation of his life by avant-garde director Derek Jarman is like seeing art history on a bad acid trip. The story opens well enough around the year 1600, but I thought I was seeing things when I saw a man in a tuxedo. I scratched my head at the calculator, but the motorbike and truck were too much. The use of anachronistic images and odd sound effects (trains, crashing ocean waves) was too jarring and distracting for me. There was little dialogue, the range of accents included cockney and Irish, and the narration made no sense. As a fan of Caravaggio's work, I did enjoy the scenes that showed models posing for his famous paintings, but the rest - a montage of unrelated scenes showing his depraved lifestyle - was just distasteful and speculative. I learned more about the director than the artist. Tilda Swinton made an impressive screen debut in the puzzling role of a street woman and a very young Sean Bean is interesting as her companion, but Nigel Terry was an off-putting Caravaggio. Not recommended. |
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