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SPARKLE 1976 vs. SPARKLE 2012
For anyone unfamiliar, Sparkle can easily be confused with DreamGirls, or even, Mariah Carey's 2001 bomb at the box office, Glitter. But Sparkle came first. It is the story of 3 choir singing sisters (siblings) who for a brief period of time become singing sensations in Harlem (1958), but are brought low by an abusive gangster and the pitfalls of reaching for a dream...
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Just a Taste: People Like Us
Writer/Director Alex Kurtzman is known for writing high-tech, extraterrestrial, action flicks like Transformers, Star Trek, Cowboys and Aliens and TV shows like Fringe and Alias, so a family drama like his latest movie People Like Us, is quite a departure. But it’s the fact that this story was inspired by Kurtzman and writing partner Roberto Orci’s own life experiences with long lost siblings, that keeps them from being out of their depth. Sam (Chris Pine) is a fast talking, ambitious young man who in the initial scenes seems to be cocksure and on top of everything. All this comes crashing down around him when he makes a big oversight at…
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Commentary – BEGINNERS
Tinsel & Tine’s Look at Mike Mill’s BEGINNERS Beginners is a love story: love between a father and son / son and mother / a man and woman / a man and his father’s dog. Oliver (Ewan McGregor) is a handsome, talented commercial artist, who has recently lost his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer) to cancer. The story is told in a timeline that jumps around between Oliver’s present in which he’s falling in love with a winsome, French actress, Anna (Mélanie Laurent from Inglourious Basterds), his childhood memories of a slightly off kilter mother (Mary Page Keller), and a time of about 3-5 years ago, when his 75 year old…
