Movie Review Black Los Angeles

BlackNLA Movie Reviews

*****THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*****

by Edwardo Jackson

BIASES: 30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare

THE NEW WORLD (PG-13)

MOVIE BIASES: Historical fiction with and artsy eye = pre-sold.

MAJOR PLAYERS: Colin Farrell (Alexander), Q'Orianka Kilcher, Christian Bale (Batman Begins), and writer/director Terrence Malick

In 1607, English explorers attempt to settle on the Virginia coast in a colony they name after their king called Jamestown. Originally dragged over in chains for insubordination, Captain John Smith (Farrell) is pardoned, given a fresh start in this new world. Sent upriver in search of supplies for the starving colony, Smith is
captured by a tribe of "Naturals," who are ready to kill him until the beautiful, young tribal princess history names as Pocahontas (Kilcher) spares his life. As a willing captive of the natives, Smith falls in love with the girl, and she with him, to the point where his conscience eventually drives him away from her. Clinging to a love that carries the weight on her back of peaceful co-existence between the settlers and natives, Pocahontas goes to live among the English, learning their ways, their manner of dress, their speech. All the while harboring a love for the enigmatic, emotionally unavailable Smith, Pocahontas reluctantly finds herself being squired by the gentle, widowed Englishman John Rolfe (Bale).

A true cultural exchange rarely seen in mainstream Hollywood today, "The New World" is as peaceful as elevator Muzak yet as evocative, educational, and heartwarming as the best movies of the year. No surprise, Terrence Malick's naturalist, artisan eye has a full, widescreen canvas here, every frame a Degas, a Monet's "Waterlillies" of cinematic expression and emotion. With a script crafted to his artistic sensibilities, this movie is a love letter to Nature, and to the unbridled nature of love itself. Whereas we're taught as screenwriters that voiceover is a crutch designed to mask weak narrative storytelling ability, here it saves Malick's "World," nay, informs it. It's as if you're going through a museum of images where
the artwork blooms more beautiful in your mind's eye because it has been fully explained. When matched with Malick's peerless lens, Smith's inner monologue flows gently over us, like the waters at the edge of an infinity pool: "Love. Shall we deny it when it visits us…There is only this. All else is unreal."

Adding to the throbbing, beating, poetic soul of "The New World" is the exquisite, massaging, flute-laden score. There are probably more images set to music than actual frames involving dialogue in this movie, voiceover or spoken. The lyrical mood of music affects you so much, you see this untapped land through John Smith's eyes, with the same wonder, curiosity, and hope – hope for salvation, for redemption, perhaps for even unspoiled, vanity-free love. It's as if National
Geographic meets "Romeo & Juliet," scored by the New York Philharmonic.

Easily his most complex, affecting role since his underseen American debut in "Tigerland," Farrell, bad boy, pub-crawling persona and all, is wonderfully nuanced and restrained as the internally tumultuous Captain John Smith. He constantly fears exposing his past self to Pocahontas, as if it would invalidate his reborn present. His performance, and Malick's piano-tuned script, raises the all-important question: Are you defined by your past, your present, or your potential future? And even so, who does the defining? Farrell's Smith fears the actualization of the love of a good woman because it almost doesn't feel real; or if it is real, he feels as if he hasn't deserved such unconditional, pure love. His Captain Smith is always searching
for something beyond himself - an explorer of the world, but not a true explorer of his heart. Unafraid to bathe in the still waters of Malick's trademark long, poignant silences, Farrell's turbulent dark eyes and tortured, conflicted voiceovers practically repudiate this new world and the affects of his stay with the Naturals, as a dream,
like a man who wasn't careful for what he wished. Upon his return to the settlement, Farrell's Smith is cursed with visions of the promised land (kind of like my first few weeks in LA whenever I return from Atlanta) and of a love he never accepts that he has earned.

Although you have an accomplished, if not largely backgrounded cast (including the venerable, fearsome Wes Studi of "Last of the Mohicans" Magwa fame), fifteen year-old Q'Orianka Kilcher stands out in her a heartfelt, unmannered, refreshingly gentle performance as Pocahontas (go ahead and get the "ews!" outta your system, as the thought of 29 year old Colin Farrell macking on the teenage Kilcher courses through your mind; deal with it – it's a sign of those historical times). While Malick goes the extra mile to ensure that the Naturals are just as varied, complicated, and layered as the colonists, his vision of Pocahontas is one with a nature that "can turn trouble into good." Naively trusting, wildly curious, and with a heart as open as all outdoors, Kilcher's Pocahontas could make any man fall for her, saying things like "I will find joy in all I see" without a hint of cynicism. I mean, really, where ARE the women who still say things like "I belong to you" with the stainless earnestness of a nun devoting herself to God – and actually MEAN it? What really astonishes,
however, is Pocahontas' staunch, simple determination to love someone enough to turn her back on her own community to be the bridge to his – then watch her innocent eyes try to deal with the intense difficulty of trying to love someone who cannot love themselves (oo, that hurts! Believe me, I've been there). Christian Bale, as good guy John Rolfe, throws his sincere affections into the mix, confusing Kilcher's Pocahontas, yet raising my appreciation even more for her challenging,
affecting onscreen debut (artfully managed, I might add, by the notoriously thorough Malick).

With its bittersweet, yet romantically realistic end, "The New World" is a symphony of imagery, reminding us the power of love can still make our world new, or even great, if we let it. This movie will leave you feeling relentlessly peaceful. When Pocahontas asks John Smith very plainly, with a tinge of wounded bird in her voice, "Why have you not come to me?" I wanted to break down and answer for him. True
discovery comes from the inside out, being open to what this and other worlds may bring. So I ask you: Are you ready to discover "The New World?"

@@@@ REELS
(FOUR REELS)
An urban legend/instant classic.

Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com!

Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com




			BlackNLA Movie Reviews ***THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*** by Edwardo Jackson BIASES: 30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare THE NEW WORLD (PG-13) MOVIE BIASES: Historical fiction with and artsy eye = pre-sold. MAJOR PLAYERS: Colin Farrell (Alexander), Q'Orianka Kilcher, Christian Bale (Batman Begins), and writer/director Terrence Malick In 1607, English explorers attempt to settle on the Virginia coast in a colony they name after their king called Jamestown. Originally dragged over in chains for insubordination, Captain John Smith (Farrell) is pardoned, given a fresh start in this new world. Sent upriver in search of supplies for the starving colony, Smith is captured by a tribe of "Naturals," who are ready to kill him until the beautiful, young tribal princess history names as Pocahontas (Kilcher) spares his life. As a willing captive of the natives, Smith falls in love with the girl, and she with him, to the point where his conscience eventually drives him away from her. Clinging to a love that carries the weight on her back of peaceful co-existence between the settlers and natives, Pocahontas goes to live among the English, learning their ways, their manner of dress, their speech. All the while harboring a love for the enigmatic, emotionally unavailable Smith, Pocahontas reluctantly finds herself being squired by the gentle, widowed Englishman John Rolfe (Bale). A true cultural exchange rarely seen in mainstream Hollywood today, "The New World" is as peaceful as elevator Muzak yet as evocative, educational, and heartwarming as the best movies of the year. No surprise, Terrence Malick's naturalist, artisan eye has a full, widescreen canvas here, every frame a Degas, a Monet's "Waterlillies" of cinematic expression and emotion. With a script crafted to his artistic sensibilities, this movie is a love letter to Nature, and to the unbridled nature of love itself. Whereas we're taught as screenwriters that voiceover is a crutch designed to mask weak narrative storytelling ability, here it saves Malick's "World," nay, informs it. It's as if you're going through a museum of images where the artwork blooms more beautiful in your mind's eye because it has been fully explained. When matched with Malick's peerless lens, Smith's inner monologue flows gently over us, like the waters at the edge of an infinity pool: "Love. Shall we deny it when it visits us…There is only this. All else is unreal." Adding to the throbbing, beating, poetic soul of "The New World" is the exquisite, massaging, flute-laden score. There are probably more images set to music than actual frames involving dialogue in this movie, voiceover or spoken. The lyrical mood of music affects you so much, you see this untapped land through John Smith's eyes, with the same wonder, curiosity, and hope – hope for salvation, for redemption, perhaps for even unspoiled, vanity-free love. It's as if National Geographic meets "Romeo & Juliet," scored by the New York Philharmonic. Easily his most complex, affecting role since his underseen American debut in "Tigerland," Farrell, bad boy, pub-crawling persona and all, is wonderfully nuanced and restrained as the internally tumultuous Captain John Smith. He constantly fears exposing his past self to Pocahontas, as if it would invalidate his reborn present. His performance, and Malick's piano-tuned script, raises the all-important question: Are you defined by your past, your present, or your potential future? And even so, who does the defining? Farrell's Smith fears the actualization of the love of a good woman because it almost doesn't feel real; or if it is real, he feels as if he hasn't deserved such unconditional, pure love. His Captain Smith is always searching for something beyond himself - an explorer of the world, but not a true explorer of his heart. Unafraid to bathe in the still waters of Malick's trademark long, poignant silences, Farrell's turbulent dark eyes and tortured, conflicted voiceovers practically repudiate this new world and the affects of his stay with the Naturals, as a dream, like a man who wasn't careful for what he wished. Upon his return to the settlement, Farrell's Smith is cursed with visions of the promised land (kind of like my first few weeks in LA whenever I return from Atlanta) and of a love he never accepts that he has earned. Although you have an accomplished, if not largely backgrounded cast (including the venerable, fearsome Wes Studi of "Last of the Mohicans" Magwa fame), fifteen year-old Q'Orianka Kilcher stands out in her a heartfelt, unmannered, refreshingly gentle performance as Pocahontas (go ahead and get the "ews!" outta your system, as the thought of 29 year old Colin Farrell macking on the teenage Kilcher courses through your mind; deal with it – it's a sign of those historical times). While Malick goes the extra mile to ensure that the Naturals are just as varied, complicated, and layered as the colonists, his vision of Pocahontas is one with a nature that "can turn trouble into good." Naively trusting, wildly curious, and with a heart as open as all outdoors, Kilcher's Pocahontas could make any man fall for her, saying things like "I will find joy in all I see" without a hint of cynicism. I mean, really, where ARE the women who still say things like "I belong to you" with the stainless earnestness of a nun devoting herself to God – and actually MEAN it? What really astonishes, however, is Pocahontas' staunch, simple determination to love someone enough to turn her back on her own community to be the bridge to his – then watch her innocent eyes try to deal with the intense difficulty of trying to love someone who cannot love themselves (oo, that hurts! Believe me, I've been there). Christian Bale, as good guy John Rolfe, throws his sincere affections into the mix, confusing Kilcher's Pocahontas, yet raising my appreciation even more for her challenging, affecting onscreen debut (artfully managed, I might add, by the notoriously thorough Malick). With its bittersweet, yet romantically realistic end, "The New World" is a symphony of imagery, reminding us the power of love can still make our world new, or even great, if we let it. This movie will leave you feeling relentlessly peaceful. When Pocahontas asks John Smith very plainly, with a tinge of wounded bird in her voice, "Why have you not come to me?" I wanted to break down and answer for him. True discovery comes from the inside out, being open to what this and other worlds may bring. So I ask you: Are you ready to discover "The New World?" @@@@ REELS (FOUR REELS) An urban legend/instant classic. Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com! Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com Â© 2004, Edwardo Jackson