By Clarence Yu
Contributor

SOMETIME ago when I heard that Oliver Stone was making a biopic of President George W. Bush, something just didn’t feel right inside my stomach. After all, what else can you expect from the director extraordinaire who brought us Nixon, JFK and Platoon, among other films? Then maybe I thought he had a conspiracy theory thing going on, which would shed light on what really happened these past eight years.

Then I read initial reviews about the film–it was indeed a true-to-life biopic, so how could one get serious with it? Turns out, there are plenty of reasons.

History will probably judge George W. Bush as one of the worst presidents ever, and, at best, one of the most controversial. Stone however, doesn’t want us to have any more of that. We know it. We’ve been seeing the news, reading the papers, and watching all the comedians. Instead, he gives us George W., the frat and party boy, the alcoholic turned born-again Christian, the man who for the most part of his life stood in his father’s shadow.

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By Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net

WHEN time ticks counterclockwise, how would life be?

This is the challenge faced by Benjamin Button as his life unfolds in reverse. In the middle of World War I, Benjamin is born in an 80-year-old man’s physique. His shocking condition leads his father Thomas Button (Jason Flemyng) to leave him outside a home for the aged. In the caring hands of Queenie (Taraji Henson), Benjamin finds a home among the elderly. There, he finds the love that makes him “grow” young.

Brad Pitt plays the protagonist’s role of Button in David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Fincher’s film is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1920s short story. In the film, Benjamin Button was physically old but mentally young. But in Fitzgerald’s story, he is physically old and mentally old as he is capable of talking right after being born.

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By Clarence Yu

MILK tells the real-life story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man ever elected to public office. Based on actual events, the premise of the movie seems inspiring: the struggle of a man representing a hated, minority community who overcomes all obstacles to win representation in government.

Looks can be deceiving, however. The movie’s running time just doesn’t give enough to build on Harvey Milk’s character, aptly portrayed by Sean Penn in a fine performance.

The film, directed by Gus Van Sant, covers Milk’s life from 1970 to 1978, the time in which he begins his rapid ascent from a down-and-out, 40-year-old insurance executive to his final years as a gay-civil rights activist and eventually, an elected public official, serving as a City Supervisor of San Francisco.

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By Clarence Yu

CLINT Eastwood proves that he is at the top of his game with his latest effort, Gran Torino.

Revolving around the story of Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood), a retired Ford employee and decorated Korean War vet, the movie explores themes of loss, coming to terms, friendship, and ultimately, sacrifice and redemption.

Here’s a trailer of the movie:

Set in the present day, the film begins with Walt burying his wife of many years. His grown-up children have strained relations with him, and he sets to living out the rest of his years wandering about in his home, tinkering around in his garden, sitting on his porch drinking beer and taking care of his prized possession, a 1972 Ford Gran Torino. He refuses to fulfill his wife’s dying wish, to confess to a “27-year-old, over-educated, virgin priest.”

He is bitter about many things, mainly about how the world has changed from his viewpoint, and how his neighborhood has slowly been encroached upon by a group of Asians known as “Hmongs.” He has a fast and dirty mouth, and isn’t the type of guy who would waste a second of his remaining days on anything sentimental.

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By Clarence Yu

WHEN Clint Eastwood uttered the now famous lines, “Do you feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?” in the polarizing landmark 1971 cop drama Dirty Harry, he might as well have been talking to himself, minus punk, as he enters another interesting phase of his storied career.

Gran Torino, which opens this December in limited release and wider in January, has been receiving mostly positive reviews as it makes its premiere rounds with the usual critics. The particular emphasis now is on Eastwood the actor, in his first starring role since 2004’s Million Dollar Baby and also rumored to be his last thespian effort.

Eastwood’s acclaim owes much to his directorial efforts: Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004) won him two Oscar awards for Best Director and Best Picture and Mystic River (2005) and Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) garnered Best Picture and Director nominations as well. He is reputed never to shout or disrupt his actors when directing, keeps his set relatively calm and focused, and delivers his films under budget and with great speed.

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