Revolutionary Road: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Sam Mendes, director of American Beauty, seems to have a fascination with discontented suburbia. This time he adapts the book Revolutionary Road, a story about a husband and wife with grand ambitions that fall apart from settling down into the average life. It reunites Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in a very unromantic reunion after becoming very successful actors post-Titanic. Perhaps the reason they survived it because of their bold choices as actors, such as this one, to strip down the tragic lost love image that their last movie together provided, instead replacing it with a deteriorating passion. DiCaprio had to shed away his pretty boy image in order to make his career a much more solid one, and now he is far less glamourous. The two of them really are a couple of the finest actors of their generation and they shed their celebrity and become a relatively normal couple.

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Midnight in Paris: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - In many films, cities serve as little more than the background to a story, or perhaps even worse, the city or locale is not even learned by the viewer. Cities like New York City, Los Angeles, London, and Paris are the types of cities that many of us have preconceived notions about, or if we have been to them, we forever have memories that are stirred up when we revisit those cities in film, photo, or discussion. Woody Allen's most recent film (and his 41st film at that) focuses in on Paris, a city that I adore and have visited probably at least eight times now. I had my own ideas about Paris from my travels there and admittedly was a little curious to see how a revered American director would highlight the city.

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