Daily Archives: February 18, 2005

Because Of Winn-dixie

In a small Florida town, the lonely ten-year-old daughter (AnnaSophia Robb) of a Baptist preacher (Jeff Daniels) adopts an unruly stray dog, which leads her to make friends with a few eccentric and equally lonely adultsa pet store clerk (rock star Dave Matthews), a librarian (Eva Marie Saint), and a reclusive alcoholic (Cicely Tyson). Wayne Wang (Smoke, The Joy Luck Club) directed this 2005 adaptation of Kate DiCamillo’s children’s book with a nice feeling for local color. Limiting the potential overripeness of the material (which periodically suggests Carson McCullers) with tact and sincerity, he generally makes the most of his resourceful cast; only the dog overacts. PG, 106 min. (JR) Read more

Sky Blue

In a kind of neocolonial concession to the character typology of the Star Wars movies, this attractively animated dystopian SF from South Korean director-cowriter Moon Sang Kim, set in the year 2142, concentrates mainly on Western characters, with Asians relegated to the slots of wizened elders and comic relief. Also borrowing liberally from Metropolis (Escher-like futurist cityscapes) and the Mad Max trilogy (heavy-metal action), this is generally better with settings than with people, at least in the English version put together by Korean-born Sunmin Park. But that’s partly because effects of space and scale are among the triumphs of the high-definition multilayered animation employed. 87 min. (JR) Read more