Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black" is probably the best album by a female vocalist since Alanis's "Jagged Little Pill." While Alanis's songs were a haul at your gut -- Amy definitely aims lower -- and succeeds in inflicting almost similar pleasure. A mixed bag of blues, Jazz, Motown horns and just general big-voice singing makes "Back to Black" one of the best sounding and best produced albums in a while.

While Alanis Morisette hid here profanity in plain sight guised by rueful anger, Amy Winehouse hides it plain. The almost sweet sounding giant voice, it is hard to image, coming from a 23 year old Jewish woman from England.

While Rehab is the radio favorite, songs like You know I'm no good and the title track Back to Black are the ones that hold the most weight.

Volver

Pedro Almodóvar has made some very passionate and moving films (Talk to her, in particular) that display Spanish rural life at its full visual splendor with sexually charged themes that are generally not easy to identify with specially if you've been on a strict Hollywood diet. Volver sort of teeters on the same path but is thoroughly unnecessary film that fails to gather any conspicuous energy. In reverse, it generally trivializes serious issues such as incest by making a lighthearted weak comedy around it. Penelope Cruz is OK but nothing to write home about. None of the characters demand any emotional energy from the film.

Volver is one of those failures that make a director very famous.

Notes On a Scandal

This acrid, dark tragi-comedy is one of the reasons why Judy Dench will be sorely missed. I cannot imagine anyone else who could've done this character of a lonely-to-the-point-of-evil school teacher who would stop at nothing to find somebody to love even if it took ruining the only person who cared for you. The script holds no punches and in its brutality makes one long for more.

A must.

Deja Vu

Another terrible movie. They just keep rolling them out! Denzel Washington's got to stop and take a serious look at his career and ask himself if this is really the best he can do. Hasn't he made enough money already? (or is there no such thing?)

Deja Vu is about this ATF agent who goes back in time to save the world! Wow! How's that for novelty? The thriller attempts very hard to have an emotional appeal and that's where it fails miserably. It should have just aimed to me the mindless action flick that it so badly wanted to avoid being and we would've been fine.

Shrek III

Most Hollywood animation films are based on the same premise, often a false one, that great humor can be produced merely by injecting modern pop-culture cliches into unlikely stories and mouths: Monsters, Fishes, Animals, Cars even. The characters are often overplayed to the point where they are obnoxious.

Shrek III is an absolute disappointment not just because it substantiates tall the stereotypes but because the original Shrek had its moments. This one is just a drag. It does not even bother with humor. The makers take a mild idea (Shrek's gonna be a dad!) and use it to milk money on the box-office. Unfortunately this is probably also going to be the end of the franchise.

Avoid this if you can.