Review: Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Reviews

Review: Cherry Blossoms

Well-crafted and sincere, but ultimately tiresome

By GERALD PEARY | February 12, 2009

2.5 Stars

VIDEO: The trailer for Cherry Blossoms

In Doris Dörrie's emotionally loaded melodrama Kirschblüten — Hanami, an aging German couple, Trudi (Hannelore Eisner) and Rudi (Elmer Wrapper), grow tighter than ever as they perceive their alienation from their two elder children, Klaus (Felix Eitner) and Karo (Birgit Minichmayr). Their only hope is their youngest, Karl (Maximilian Brückner), who lives in Tokyo.

After Trudi dies in her sleep, Rudi goes to be with Karl, less because he wants to than because his wife had dreamed of visiting Japan: Mount Fuji, butoh dancing, cherry blossoms in spring. Some may find Rudi's journey moving, even transcendent.

I can appreciate Dörrie's craft, and her sincerity, but the two-hour story of Rudi's evolution, which includes his unlikely friendship with a tiresome white-faced butoh performer (Aya Irizuki), meant nothing to me.

Review: Inside Hana's Suitcase
When Fumiko Ishioka, the director of the Holocaust Education Centre in Tokyo, is given charge of a child's suitcase found in the rubble of Auschwitz — a rarity, as most such belongings were lost — it piques her interest. She and her students decide to find out who Hana Brady — the name painted on the suitcase — was.
Review: Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Eighty-five-year-old Jiro, with his unchanging expression and bald pate, resembles a wizened turtle. Leaving home at age 9 and forced to fend for himself, he would become the world's greatest sushi chef.
Review: My Bloody Valentine 3-D
Back in the early '80s, before Michael, Jason, and Freddy took off as slasher all-stars, there were other less famous genre seedlings, like the homonymous source for this pedestrian hack-'em-up about a pickax-wielding wonk gone berserk in a sleepy mining town.
Review: Paul Blart: Mall Cop
If you find the sight of a grown man rolling around the mall on a Segway hilarious, this is the movie for you.
Review: Scenes from a Parish
James Rutenbeck's modest, old-fashioned, simply shot documentary is exactly the right way to tell a story of old-time verities and virtues, daily life in a Catholic parish in Lawrence
Tiga | Ciao!
This Montreal-based electro-house dude made his name with slyly straight-faced covers of Nelly's "Hot in Herre" and Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night," and on his second studio disc, he doesn't appear hugely concerned that his original material should sound all that original.
Review: Aliens in the Attic
As a kid, I was absurdly unpicky about my entertainment: shoddy '80s anime , reruns of This Old House , staring cross-eyed at our basement's pegboard wall to achieve a Magic Eye 3-D effect — these were all totally acceptable ways of whiling away an afternoon.
Review: Waiting for Dublin
Director Roger Tucker fills the emerald hills with snoozing priests, bumbling alcoholic policemen, ruddy-faced children, and grizzled fiddle players who say, "Top o' the mornin' to yeh!"
Review: Tokyo!
Together, idiosyncratic directors Michel Gondry ( Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ), Leos Carax ( The Lovers on the Bridge ), and Bong Joon-ho ( The Host ) have crafted a bento box of delectable shorts.
Various artists | Spiritual Jazz: Esoteric, Modal, and Deep Jazz from the Underground, 1968-1977
Apple-pie Mormon missionaries the Millers travel through Iran to spread the gospel of Joseph Smith among Muslims and Zoroastrians, and their kid discovers the glorious sound of the santur.
Review: The Unborn
'Tis the season of the Hollywood dumps.
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Topics: Reviews , Culture and Lifestyle, Tokyo, Doris Dorrie, More

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ARTICLES BY GERALD PEARY

REVIEW: I WISH | May 22, 2012
Two elementary school brothers living in southern Japan are forced to live in different cities due to the estrangement of their parents.

REVIEW: SURVIVING PROGRESS | May 15, 2012
Despite prestigious talking heads like Margaret Atwood, Jane Goodall, and Stephen Hawking, there is nothing new here beyond what every conscientious liberal already knows is wrong with the world.

REVIEW: HEADHUNTERS | May 08, 2012
Roger (Aksel Hennie) is an Oslo yuppie with a gorgeous, blonde wife, a top-drawer job as a corporate headhunter, and a lucrative side employment stealing fancy paintings.

REVIEW: ELLES | May 08, 2012
How did the Polish filmmaker Malgoska Szumowska dupe the classy Juliette Binoche to participate in such a dubious, exploitative film?

REVIEW: THIS IS NOT A FILM | May 01, 2012
It can't be a film, because the acclaimed director Jafar Panahi ( The Circle , etc.) has been ordered not to make any by the Iranian theocrats who have also sentenced the dissident filmmaker to an upcoming jail sentence.