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Three Seasons (1999) --> Tony Bui, the director, creates a beautiful movie with Three Seasons. Set in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City in the mid '90s, it tells three stories of which the redemption of a prostitute by a bicycle-taxi driver, who takes an interest in her welfare after giving her a ride, is the center. The second story surrounds Harvey Keitel (as James Hager) who is in the city to find his daughter. The third story tells of a relationship between a poet struck down with leprosy and an orphaned woman in his employ. Bui also gives insight into the life of street kids through the eyes of a child trinket-seller. Although the stories are interesting, it is the cinematography which will strike you first, mixing in the beauty of the country (especially the lotus plantation) and the dirt and rain of the city, Bui shows off his native Vietnam (he left at age two for California) with great aplomb.


Full Spectrum Staff

Bowling For Columbine (2002) --> This is Michael Moore's documentary surrounding the shootings at Columbine High School. Using it as a center, Moore investigates why Americans kill each other with guns on such a dramatic scale when compared to other advanced nations. Throwing aside the typical answers: access to guns, America's bloody history, and violent movies and video games, he ends up discovering other reasons. Mostly they involve American citizens living in a culture of fear. Fear of strangers, fear of neighbours and white America's fear of the black man. All of this fed en masse by the major television networks and newspapers.

A controversial film and I'll let you decide how much of it is truth. The section of the film where he interviews Charlton Heston, after getting past the obvious setup of the man, is quite informative. His statement that Canadians own over 7 million guns is a bit misleading as most of those guns are of the hunting variety. Most Canadians have seen rifles or even have used them at ranges or in the forest, but they have rarely seen or used a handgun or semi-automatic/automatic weapon.


Full Spectrum Staff

Treed Murray (2001) --> Canadian film has always been retarded by a lack of investment. But every once in a while a writer/director comes along, and with a reasonably small budget, puts out a gem of a movie. Like Blood and Donuts (another good Canadian film) or even Stephen King's Cugo, this movie is centered on one place. With Blood and Donuts it was a donut shop, with Cugo, a farmhouse, and with this movie, a tree. Placing the action in one location is a great way to save money. But it also has a secondary effect that many film makers forget: superb acting is needed as it becomes the sole focus of the film.

William Phillips' (director/writer) cast did a superb job. One of Canada's most known actors (famous for being Grant Jansky in the TV show Traders), David Hewlitt is the star. When he gets lost in a park in Toronto he is chased up a tree by five teen hoodlums. They can't get him down as they have no gun to shoot him with. So they decide to wait until David (or Murray as he is called in the film), through time, must come down. Murray uses his intelligence to turn criminal against criminal. As the film proceeds a rapport comes about between the bad guys and their victim. The ending I won't give away.


Scott D. Brown

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) --> Another film by a Coen that shows the Americans can produce great product in spite of the glut that is Hollywood. Based on The Odyssey by Homer (the second oldest poem in western literature behind Homer's The Iliad) it tells of three bumbling jail-breakers on a journey to a stash of money that they must retrieve before the whole area is flooded because of the construction of a massive hydroelectric dam. George Clooney is spectacular as Everett, an intellectual wannabe who worries more about his hair than his own safety. The music for the film is great as it harkens back to the blues and bluegrass of the Mississippi delta. There are other treats in the movie but I let you see them when you rent the film.


Full Spectrum Staff

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