By Roger Costa
GAUGUIN
A complete, versatile and internationally renowned actor, Vincent Cassel gives the most passionate performance of his career as the utopian, poetic, bohemian French painter who escaped the horrors of his home country in search of landscapes and faces worth of painting. Broke and hopeless, as everyone else in the 1890’s, he’s abandoned by his family and sets off to a paradisiac island on his own. In Tahini he finds shelter among the breathtaking landscapes, mountains, rivers and ordinary, tribal faces, as well as loads of inspirational romance with a teen girl named Tehura. Based on historical facts, this delicate drama is narrated as a piece of art, cautiously observed as the painter himself gives shapes and colors to his canvas creations with incredible dedication. Award-winning writer-director Edouard Deluc’s sophomore feature is a visually arresting experience that captures both the subtly eroticism and lyric relationship between artist and muse, and the taboos of sexual compulsion, cultural clashes, and artistic liberation with accuracy and perfect chemistry on its emotional tones. But despite any concerns with some omissions, the film belongs completely to Cassel, who’s present in every frame carrying a harmonious, irresistible, untamable force. (Cohen Media Group. 7/11. Quad Cinemas.)
SHOCK AND AWE
Continuing his White House investigations phase, amazing director Rob Reiner is back with another take on politics, corruption and the battle of a ‘few good men’ to defend righteousness. After depicting the civil rights struggles in last year’s “LBJ”, Reiner focuses here on matters mirroring the country’s current political crisis: government lies, injustice and the jeopardy of innocent lives. He gathers a stellar cast, including himself, Woody Harrelson, James Marsden, Jessica Biel, Tommy Lee Jones and the great Al Sapienza (Sopranos), to recreate the early days of the 9/11 attacks, its effects on civilians, authorities and soldiers, and the investigation of a group of journalists trying to prove the US real intentions with the Iraq war, leading to an efficiently dramatic, suspenseful and thrilling puzzle with political exposures and alarming confrontations. As each of the journalists put their own lives at risk, the screenplay, penned by Joey Hartstone, brilliantly interconnects the turmoils of the political conflicts with their personal affairs, giving it a slight lay of modern romanticism. A highly praised and awarded actor, comedian, producer and director who has done everything, from coming of age adventures to slapstick comedies, from courtroom military drama to cult horror, with the same commitment to the “movie-fun-experience”, Reiner proves his entertaining mastery power with this fast-paced, intriguing revolutionary true story. (Vertical Entertainment. 7/13. AMC Theaters, NYC.)
POOR BOY
A stylish, very intense, brutally violent, punk-anarchist road movie with unexpected twists and satisfying surprising performances. Structured as en enigmatic, dreamy journey, director Robert Scott Wildes’ impressive debut follows two outlaw-brothers as they commit various scams and other crimes along the American desert, while crossing paths with other outcasts, picking up some companions, leaving their marks and trying to clear up some fighting deals. Sundance Special Jury Prize-winning actor Lou Taylor Pucci is fantastic as Romeo, and Canadian export Dov Tiefenbach gives a breakthrough turn as his out-of-control brother. Dale Dickey also rounds the cast as the mysterious traveler on the hunt for the criminal pair under unknown reasons; and Michael Shannon, the respectable usual scene-stealer, hypnotizes and ravages the screen in a mind-bending appearance as a rodeo clown-entertainer connecting the pieces of this inventive, adventurous look on brotherhood and loneliness. (Indican Pictures. 7/13. NYC, LA.)
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