minute movie review

[monkeymay]

I have been meaning to post this for awhile but my brain has been like a sieve - three very cool movies I have seen recently:

MONSOON WEDDING- one of my favorite filmmakers, Mira Nair,
(Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala, Kama Sutra) has made a great film about a Punjabi family in New Delhi. It's got this wild mix of languages, music, and incredible visuals, centering around the age old theme of love and its effects on the members of this family, as they come together for their daughter's wedding . Marigolds have never looked more beautiful (or appetising). SEE THIS MOVIE!

Two movies playing on the Sundance Channel-
THE GLEANERS AND I- Agnes Varda, who came out of the French New Wave,
at the age of 72 discovered digital cameras and made this amazing documentary on "gleaners", the people who pick up and use what others leave behind. She travels around France following "the invisible members of society", who harvest unused vineyards, vegetables considered below standard for commercial consumption and anything else our materially obssesed culture deems unusable. It's incredible to see what people think of as trash!

OFF THE MENU- THE LAST DAYS OF CHASEN"S
I actually saw this film in the theater when it came out a few years ago - Chasen's was an L.A. landmark for 60 years - the place where all the old school movie stars, presidents ( Ron proposed to Nancy there Liz had the chili flown in when she was making Cleopatra in Rome ) and gangsters hung out. It also had a style of cholesterol cooking that could seriously land you in Cedar-Sinai down the street. But a really interesting take on the way restaurants used to be run, and the people who committed themselves to serving the famous and hence became famous themselves.
Chasen's was supposed to be torn down to make way for a mall - a supermarket stands there now.

To me there few things better than to eat, drink, and watch great movies...

[chiffonade]

I tried watching Chasens and while I did glean some fun facts out of it, the filming and editing job made it a tiny bit hard to watch.

I'd love to know if anyone out there has seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The last day care giver I used in NY was a Greek woman. She had this uncanny ability to predict when I was coming down the block and would put on a pot of Greek coffee and break out wonderful cookies. I never saw someone so happy to be loading plates with goodies. The commercial looked hilarious with every other guy being named "Nick." It'll be a cold day in he11 before that movie gets to this little corner of the world.