Word: cruz
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...doomed love, Barbara (Franka Potente from Run Lola Run), every female in George's life is a harpy with a vengeance. His meanspirited mom (played by a miscast Rachel Griffiths, who is five years younger than Depp) turns him in to the police. His shrill, selfish wife Mirtha (Penelope Cruz, who for once manages to be unlikable) tells the cops he's holding. Even his daughter Kristina (Emma Roberts), the only person he cares for, has inherited enough of Mirtha's spite to denounce George while he's in jail...
...Demme (Life, Beautiful Girls) answer is to use editing and camera effects to create a kind of hyperreality. As in Traffic, filtered lenses indicate time and mood, so scenes on Manhattan Beach in California appear sun-bleached, almost sepia-toned, while the sex scenes between Depp and Penelope Cruz (All About My Mother) are red-hued. (Steven Soderbergh may have started a trend in the drug-movie genre. Cheech and Chong might want take note.) Freeze frames indicate the passage of time...
...from mellow pot to frenetic coke, the movie pulls into high gear once Jung and Diego go into the cocaine-import business. (A second aside: Does the schizophrenic nature of the movie mean to imply “pot good, cocaine bad”?) Jung meets Mirtha, played by Cruz in thoroughly unsympathetic fashion, and the two begin a torrid relationship, all wild sex and drug binges. The money that accompanies the cocaine business causes a string of problems: betrayals occur left and right, friendships are broken and the now-married Jung and Mirtha fight constantly. The marriage does produce...
...fascinating life, and Demme coaxes strong performances out of a stellar ensemble cast. (He’s done this before: I’d be the first to admit that I find Beautiful Girls very moving.) Memories of The Ninth Gate notwithstanding, Depp is very good as always, while Cruz does her best with the flat character that is high-living Mirtha. Potente is sunshine and charm, even if her German accent does creep into one scene. Ray Liotta gives a performance of grace as Fred Jung, George’s father, a man who doesn’t necessarily...
Harvard then headed to the Golden State to face the University of California at Santa Cruz and California State University at Hayward. The women turned the good weather into wins against both teams, defeating the UCSC Banana Slugs 12-6 and the Hayward Pioneers...