Just like her first feature, Hamri’s third movie uses romance to break prejudices – this time against non-canon forms of beauty / More formulaic than her first feature / Good performance by Queen Latifah / Same fatherly figure as in her previous two movies 🙂
Cast: Queen Latifah, Common, Paula Patton, James Pickens Jr., Phylicia Rashad, Pam Grier
Directed by Sanaa Hamri
Written by Michael Elliot
Music by Lisa Coleman, Wendy Melvoin
Cinematography by Terry Stacey
Film Editing by Melissa Kent
Weak scenario and messy direction
It’s not easy to understand why Metascore, Rotten Tomatoes, and Slant rate this movie and Something New similarly!!!
Cast: Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrara, Alexis Bledel, Blake Lively, Blythe Danner
Directed by Sanaa Hamri
Written by Elizabeth Chandler
Music by Rachel Portman
Cinematography by Jim Denault
Film Editing by Melissa Kent
“The boy is just white, he’s not a martian!”
Romantic comedy built around the racial divide: a black woman does not accept her feelings towards a white man / great performance by Sanaa Lathan / nice choregraphy
The rom-com part of the movie is handled in the first half hour, which allows Sanaa Hamri an hour time to dig deeper and create tensions by showing subtly how prejudices, family values, differences in humor, etc. interfere in this mixed-race relationship.
“”Something New” delivers all the usual pleasures of a love story, and something more.” [Roger Ebert]
Cast: Sanaa Lathan, Simon Baker, Mike Epps, Donald Faison, Alfre Woodard, Blair Underwood, Golden Brooks, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Taraji P. Henson, Earl Billings
Directed by Sanaa Hamri
Written by Kriss Turner
Music by Lisa Coleman, Wendy Melvoin
Cinematography by Shane Hurlbut
Film Editing by Melissa Kent
Ambitious but never really takes off
Cast: Rebecca Ferguson, Charles Dance, Antje Traue
Director: Shamim Sarif
Writer: Shamim Sarif
Music by Rachel Portman
Cinematography by David Johnson
Film Editing by Masahiro Hirakubo
Excellent original music, great personages
Cast: Illeana Douglas, John Turturro, Eric Stoltz, Matt Dillon, Patsy Kensit
Written and Directed by Allison Anders
Music by Larry Klein
Cinematography by Jean-Yves Escoffier
Film Editing by James Y. Kwei, Harvey Rosenstock, Thelma Schoonmaker
Surprising, great personages
Cast: Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, Fairuza Balk
Director: Allison Anders
Writers: Richard Peck (novel), Allison Anders (screenplay)
Music by J. Mascis
Cinematography by Dean Lent
Film Editing by Tracy Granger
Sex and relationships in the eyes of a teenage girl and a woman in her late 40’s.
Stages 3 women in a finely-tuned coming-of-age and out-of-the-closet story, with balanced personages, multi-faceted sexual identities, and an healthy racial distribution.
“You may look at Miranda, and think immediately, ‘Oh, okay, I know who that woman is’. You would be wrong. The same for Cyd. ‘Oh, okay. Bored teenager sunbathing in a bikini. I know who that is’. Again, you would be wrong.” writes Sheila O’Malley.
Cast: Rebecca Spence, Jessie Pinnick, Malic White, James Vincent Meredith, Tyler Ross, Matthew Quattrocki
Director: Stephen Cone
Writer: Stephen Cone
Editor: Christopher Gotschall
Director of Photography: Zoe White
Original Music Composer: Heather McIntosh
A girl succeeds at accepting her sexual identity by resisting the religious constraints imposed on her
Cast: Eili Harboe, Kaya Wilkins, Henrik Rafaelsen. Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Grethe Eltervåg
Director: Joachim Trier
Writer: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt
Cinematographer: Jakob Ihre
Editor: Olivier Bugge Coutté
Composer: Ola Fløttum
Heavily sexualized approach, missing intimacy / Great lead personage / Could have been 60 min. shorter
Cast: Adèle Exarchopoulos, Léa Seydoux, Catherine Salée, Jeremie Laheurte, Aurélien Recoing, Sandor Funtek, Salim Kechiouche, Mona Walravens
Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
Screenplay: Abdellatif Kechiche, Ghalia Lacroix
Cinematography by Sofian El Fani
Film Editing by Sophie Brunet, Ghalia Lacroix, Albertine Lastera, Jean-Marie Lengelle, Camille Toubkis
Fantasy over two women who fall in love for one night / physical without much intimacy / beautiful images mired in superficiality
Cast: Elena Anaya, Natasha Yarovenko, Enrico Lo Verso
Director: Julio Medem
Writers: Julio Rojas, Julio Medem
Music by Jocelyn Pook
Cinematography by Alex Catalán
Film Editing by Julio Medem