Viva Les Amis: 2005, dir. Nancy Higgins. Seen at Alamo Downtown (May 4).
Hey, did you know that Austin was a haven of peace and love and groovy local hangouts and wonderfulness until 1990 when bam! overnight, it became an Evil Corporate Monstrosity?
If you saw Viva Les Amis, that’s what you might think.
Since I moved to Austin in 1991, I guess I missed all the good stuff. Maybe I should just leave for Dallas or Houston and get it over with.
All right, all right. I did like Viva Les Amis, a documentary about the crazy little cafe near the UT campus that was open from 1970-1997. Les Amis Cafe is one of the settings featured in the movie Slacker. The documentary was less than an hour long and it was a lot of fun at times. I wish it had been less heavy-handed with its anti-development message, though.
Month: May 2005
The Interpreter (2005)
The Interpreter: 2005, dir. Sydney Pollack. Seen at Alamo Lake Creek (April 23).
I wasn’t all that wild to see The Interpreter. I’d read reviews that were lukewarm at best about it. I heard that it was disappointing, slow, predictable, badly cast, and silly.
I was pleasantly surprised. The Interpreter is a solidly entertaining little thriller with a good cast, well-paced and not at all dull or irritating.
It is true that there are no major surprises, and that the movie adds nothing new or innovative to the action/suspense genre, but that’s all right. Every film cannot be innovative. The Interpreter still provided us with a good afternoon’s enjoyment.