Word: van
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...early scene, Harvey shares a long, loving kiss with his future lover, Scott Smith (James Franco in a finely tuned turn). The kiss is director Gus Van Sant's declaration that, yes, this will be a gay movie. But there's no shock value, except in the tenderness of the passion - when was the last time you saw a great movie kiss...
...Van Sant emerged as an indie filmmaker with pictures like Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho. These were set in the lower depths, populated with hookers and victims, sometimes ending in death. Those elements are here, mostly personified in Harvey's troubled lover Jack Lira (Diego Luna), as are Van Sant's old camera tropes of slo-mo and unsteady focus. But they aren't at the foreground, In the dichotomy between his audience-pleasing big movies (To Die For, Good Will Hunting) and his audience-resistant art films (Gerry, Elephant, Last Days, Paranoid Park), Milk...
...paranoia was simply common sense; the preceding 10 years had seen the murders of King and Robert Kennedy and assassination attempts on Gerald Ford and George Wallace. The movie is faithful to that grungy time, but it downplays the riots that followed its hero's assassination; Black and Van Sant don't want Milk to leave a sour taste. They've made a picture that is frankly celebratory, forthrightly inspirational. It's no less determined to get its message across than Harvey Milk...
...original version of this article, Gus van Sant's movie was incorrectly named. The title is Paranoid Park, not Punishment Park...
Outside, a van stocked with apple-cider doughnuts was waiting to take them to the Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Va. While all the students were Christian, it would be their first Mass at a Catholic monastery. The trip marked the end of a 10-week series of visits to different churches--from Baptist to Quaker--sponsored by Shenandoah's spiritual-life team, which oversees religious activities on campus, to help students find a good religious match. "In terms of looking at churches," says the group's co-leader, the Rev. Don VanDyke Colby, "it's speed-dating...