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      <title>Film:Golden Door</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/films/Golden_Door/288515/default.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<table width='100%' style='font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><tr><td><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/u48558jqlsj.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' /></td>
<td>
<strong>Title:</strong> Golden Door<br/>
<strong>Year:</strong> 2007<br/>
<strong>Director:</strong> Emanuele Crialese<br/>
<strong>Plot:</strong> A family living in poverty leaves behind the world they know in hope of finding new opportunities in this historical drama from director Emanuele Crialese. The Mancusos are a family struggling to make ends meet in a small farming community in Sicily in 1913. Life has long been hard for the Mancuso Family, who have lived in the same village for generations, and one day they are visited by a man who claims to be from the United States. The man tells them of the wonder and plenty of life in America, an offers to make it possible for them to travel to the New World and find work there. The Mancusos cautiously accept the offer, but after a dangerous voyage aboard an ocean liner, the family arrives in New York to face a number of new challenges -- the humiliating examination at Ellis Island, and abandoning their old lives and ways as they struggle to assimilate in a massive city that is now their home. Starring <a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P____25539/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Charlotte Gainsbourg</a>, Francesco Casisa and Vincenzo Amato, <a href="http://www.spout.com/films/153394/detail.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>The Golden Door</a> (aka Nuovomondo) received its world premier at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide<br/>
<strong>Times Tagged:</strong> 6<br/>
<strong>Number of Lists:</strong> 3<br/>
<strong>Number of blog posts:</strong> 2<br/>
<strong>SpoutRating:</strong> 4<br/>
</td></tr></table>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:18:02 GMT</pubDate><spout:Title>Golden Door</spout:Title><spout:Year>2007</spout:Year><spout:Director>Emanuele Crialese</spout:Director><spout:Plot>A family living in poverty leaves behind the world they know in hope of finding new opportunities in this historical drama from director Emanuele Crialese. The Mancusos are a family struggling to make ends meet in a small farming community in Sicily in 1913. Life has long been hard for the Mancuso Family, who have lived in the same village for generations, and one day they are visited by a man who claims to be from the United States. The man tells them of the wonder and plenty of life in America, an offers to make it possible for them to travel to the New World and find work there. The Mancusos cautiously accept the offer, but after a dangerous voyage aboard an ocean liner, the family arrives in New York to face a number of new challenges -- the humiliating examination at Ellis Island, and abandoning their old lives and ways as they struggle to assimilate in a massive city that is now their home. Starring &lt;a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P____25539/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;Charlotte Gainsbourg&lt;/a&gt;, Francesco Casisa and Vincenzo Amato, &lt;a href="http://www.spout.com/films/153394/detail.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;The Golden Door&lt;/a&gt; (aka Nuovomondo) received its world premier at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide</spout:Plot><spout:TimesTagged>6</spout:TimesTagged><spout:taglevel>Taggedy Taggged (6-10)</spout:taglevel><spout:Numberoflists>3</spout:Numberoflists><spout:NumberOfBlogPosts>2</spout:NumberOfBlogPosts><spout:SpoutRating>4</spout:SpoutRating><spout:FilmCoverURL>http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/u48558jqlsj.jpg</spout:FilmCoverURL><spout:SpoutFilmDetailURL>http://www.spout.com/films/Golden_Door/288515/default.aspx</spout:SpoutFilmDetailURL><spout:type>Film</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Post: Golden Door </title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/blogs/moviebabe/archive/2007/7/25/16211.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/u48558jqlsj.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/7741/default.aspx'>MovieBabe</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/blogs/moviebabe/default.aspx'>MovieBabe Blog</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 7/25/2007 5:24:00 PM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong>  By Tricia Olszewski   Golden Door is a story of hope that&rsquo;s often freighted with a sense of hopelessness. Italian writer-director Emanuele Crialese&rsquo;s portrait of transatlantic emigration at the turn of the 20th century focuses on the journey rather than the arrival, depicting the bleak conditions that the Mancusos, a poor Sicilian family gambling on a move to the New World, must endure if they want their stab at the American dream. The problem is that some of them seem to be questioning whether they do in fact want it every step of the way: Transported on an overloaded wagon to the ship, they and their fellow Italians shiver against a ruthless wind. They&rsquo;re then herded through an assembly line of doctors while shrill charlatans try to force them to buy miraculousl all-purpose products. Then it&rsquo;s off to the boat&rsquo;s chambers, which are stacks of casket-size beds that guarantee you&rsquo;ll get to know your neighbor. Throughout the film, the masses are literally huddled.  Crialese doesn&rsquo;t completely rob these historical travels of their romance, though, and the charismatic characters and bits of fantasy he injects into the script are what keep Golden Door from becoming a slogging retro-reality check. The film begins with Salvatore (Vincenzo Amato), the widowed Mancuso patriarch, weighing the decision to head for the States the most logical way he knows how&mdash;by offering stones to God and asking for a sign. When one of his sons, the deaf-mute Pietro (Filippo Pucillo), approaches him with doctored photos of a giant onion and American trees blooming with coins, that&rsquo;s all Salvatore needs to pack up Pietro, his other son, Angelo (Francesco Casisa), his sharp-tongued healer mother, Fortunata (Aurora Quattrocchi), and two girls from the village (Federica de Cola and Isabella Ragonese) and leave his farmer&rsquo;s life behind. Salvatore is the only one certain about going and becomes exasperated with his misbehaving sons, especially when they goof around with clothing they&rsquo;ve been given for the trip. &ldquo;We have to arrive looking like princes!&rdquo; he tells them.  They may have new duds, but even at their splashiest, the Mancusos can&rsquo;t compare with Lucy (Charlotte Gainsbourg), an elegant Englishwoman who slips into the shot when the family is getting their photo taken for identification purposes. Lucy can&rsquo;t board alone and needs to be promised to a man in order to enter America. Her backstory is left a mystery, but the fact that she doesn&rsquo;t belong there is as clear as her fair skin. (The director makes a point of showing the gloves that protect her hands.) Men leer at Lucy and make indecent proposals; Salvatore, however, keeps an eye on her that&rsquo;s both protective and only mildly flirtatious. He, therefore, becomes the target of her red-tape-inspired affection.  Crialese&rsquo;s film&mdash;less an editorial on immigration than a reflection of what some of his ancestors endured&mdash;is at times stunningly spare, but it still manages to be a more substantial work than his previous effort, 2002&rsquo;s Respiro. The story doesn&rsquo;t require much dialogue (making the actors&rsquo; expressiveness that much more impressive) or effects to convey the difficulties the emigrants faced: A storm, for example, is never seen from the outside, and the carnage isn&rsquo;t spoken of during the nonetheless devastatingly quiet aftermath. The creaks of the ship are often the only soundtrack to scenes of the packed travelers as they wish the time away in their increasingly dirty clothes. Cinematographer Agn&egrave;s Godard manages to make some of this melancholy beautiful, however, particularly her lingering overhead shot of the ship leaving port, the gap between the throngs on deck and those left behind slowly widening. As the horn blows, every single passenger looks up, their faces tenderly taken in by the camera.  The challenges aren&rsquo;t over when the group arrives, either. Humiliating interrogations and tests await. (&ldquo;Lack of intelligence is genetic, and contagious in a way,&rdquo; an officer tells a questioning candidate.) And in one of the more compelling sequences, the women are raffled off&mdash;with naturally horrified expressions&mdash;to American men. But contrasting the grimness is Salvatore&rsquo;s unyielding grip on thoughts of the fantastic. Pleasantly surprising scenes of money falling from the sky or Salvatore swimming in a river of milk (which one passenger muses must exist in America) brighten the realism and bring a smile to Salvatore&rsquo;s face whenever his faith in his decision wavers. And, just like smarts were apparently once thought to be, these flights of fancy most definitely are contagious: There&rsquo;s a bit of sadness at Golden Door&rsquo;s end, but before it can seep in, a terrific closing shot once again shows that river of milk and all who happily end up partaking in it. <br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:24:00 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>MovieBabe</spout:postby><spout:postto>MovieBabe Blog</spout:postto><spout:postdate>7/25/2007 5:24:00 PM</spout:postdate><spout:body> By Tricia Olszewski   Golden Door is a story of hope that&amp;rsquo;s often freighted with a sense of hopelessness. Italian writer-director Emanuele Crialese&amp;rsquo;s portrait of transatlantic emigration at the turn of the 20th century focuses on the journey rather than the arrival, depicting the bleak conditions that the Mancusos, a poor Sicilian family gambling on a move to the New World, must endure if they want their stab at the American dream. The problem is that some of them seem to be questioning whether they do in fact want it every step of the way: Transported on an overloaded wagon to the ship, they and their fellow Italians shiver against a ruthless wind. They&amp;rsquo;re then herded through an assembly line of doctors while shrill charlatans try to force them to buy miraculousl all-purpose products. Then it&amp;rsquo;s off to the boat&amp;rsquo;s chambers, which are stacks of casket-size beds that guarantee you&amp;rsquo;ll get to know your neighbor. Throughout the film, the masses are literally huddled.  Crialese doesn&amp;rsquo;t completely rob these historical travels of their romance, though, and the charismatic characters and bits of fantasy he injects into the script are what keep Golden Door from becoming a slogging retro-reality check. The film begins with Salvatore (Vincenzo Amato), the widowed Mancuso patriarch, weighing the decision to head for the States the most logical way he knows how&amp;mdash;by offering stones to God and asking for a sign. When one of his sons, the deaf-mute Pietro (Filippo Pucillo), approaches him with doctored photos of a giant onion and American trees blooming with coins, that&amp;rsquo;s all Salvatore needs to pack up Pietro, his other son, Angelo (Francesco Casisa), his sharp-tongued healer mother, Fortunata (Aurora Quattrocchi), and two girls from the village (Federica de Cola and Isabella Ragonese) and leave his farmer&amp;rsquo;s life behind. Salvatore is the only one certain about going and becomes exasperated with his misbehaving sons, especially when they goof around with clothing they&amp;rsquo;ve been given for the trip. &amp;ldquo;We have to arrive looking like princes!&amp;rdquo; he tells them.  They may have new duds, but even at their splashiest, the Mancusos can&amp;rsquo;t compare with Lucy (Charlotte Gainsbourg), an elegant Englishwoman who slips into the shot when the family is getting their photo taken for identification purposes. Lucy can&amp;rsquo;t board alone and needs to be promised to a man in order to enter America. Her backstory is left a mystery, but the fact that she doesn&amp;rsquo;t belong there is as clear as her fair skin. (The director makes a point of showing the gloves that protect her hands.) Men leer at Lucy and make indecent proposals; Salvatore, however, keeps an eye on her that&amp;rsquo;s both protective and only mildly flirtatious. He, therefore, becomes the target of her red-tape-inspired affection.  Crialese&amp;rsquo;s film&amp;mdash;less an editorial on immigration than a reflection of what some of his ancestors endured&amp;mdash;is at times stunningly spare, but it still manages to be a more substantial work than his previous effort, 2002&amp;rsquo;s Respiro. The story doesn&amp;rsquo;t require much dialogue (making the actors&amp;rsquo; expressiveness that much more impressive) or effects to convey the difficulties the emigrants faced: A storm, for example, is never seen from the outside, and the carnage isn&amp;rsquo;t spoken of during the nonetheless devastatingly quiet aftermath. The creaks of the ship are often the only soundtrack to scenes of the packed travelers as they wish the time away in their increasingly dirty clothes. Cinematographer Agn&amp;egrave;s Godard manages to make some of this melancholy beautiful, however, particularly her lingering overhead shot of the ship leaving port, the gap between the throngs on deck and those left behind slowly widening. As the horn blows, every single passenger looks up, their faces tenderly taken in by the camera.  The challenges aren&amp;rsquo;t over when the group arrives, either. Humiliating interrogations and tests await. (&amp;ldquo;Lack of intelligence is genetic, and contagious in a way,&amp;rdquo; an officer tells a questioning candidate.) And in one of the more compelling sequences, the women are raffled off&amp;mdash;with naturally horrified expressions&amp;mdash;to American men. But contrasting the grimness is Salvatore&amp;rsquo;s unyielding grip on thoughts of the fantastic. Pleasantly surprising scenes of money falling from the sky or Salvatore swimming in a river of milk (which one passenger muses must exist in America) brighten the realism and bring a smile to Salvatore&amp;rsquo;s face whenever his faith in his decision wavers. And, just like smarts were apparently once thought to be, these flights of fancy most definitely are contagious: There&amp;rsquo;s a bit of sadness at Golden Door&amp;rsquo;s end, but before it can seep in, a terrific closing shot once again shows that river of milk and all who happily end up partaking in it. </spout:body></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Post: Golden Rules</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/blogs/thereeler/archive/2007/4/26/7651.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/u48558jqlsj.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/11756/default.aspx'>TheReeler</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/blogs/thereeler/default.aspx'>The Reeler on Spout</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 4/26/2007 8:24:24 AM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> Charlotte Gainsbourg in the poignant Golden Door

By Michelle Orange 

And so it begins. I can’t think of a better kick-off for both the festival and my review coverage than the Golden Door, Emanuele Crialese’s heartfelt and affecting look at the emigration process (the title refers to Emma’s Lazarus’ famous reference to the golden door at Ellis Island) over 20 million people went through between 1890 and 1930. Before making the short trip across the river (and almost directly into what is now the Tribeca neighborhood) new citizens went through an (often absurdly) rigorous protocol of exams, paperwork and acclimation while in limbo at Ellis Island. My great-grandfather (and very probably yours, as 40 percent of Americans can draw their ancestry directly through Ellis Island), a southern Italian, made the trip at around the same time as the Sicilian family in The Golden Door, and Crialese’s attention to both recreating the boat passage and Ellis Island itself is wondrous in its detail.  

Poor as dirt, widower Salvatore has had it with his peasant existence in Italy, and decides to take his two sons and his reluctant, witchy mother with him to the New World. On the passage he meets Lucy (Charlotte Gainsborough, perfectly cast), a mysterious redheaded Englishwoman with whom the whole ship is captivated; the two share a flirtation that results in a bargain once they reach the shore. Though Crialese, a Sicilian himself, exploits the stereotype that southerners are little more than the band of illiterate crazies you would expect from the ass-end of Italy, ultimately there is warmth and dignity in the dreams of Salvatore and his family, and some wonderfully poignant, surreal imagery to match. Emigration of a different sort is the subject of Blue State, Marshall Lewy’s surprisingly sharp-elbowed road trip flick about a Kerry campaigner who makes good on his vow (Unlike the rest of you! Chickens!!) to move to Canada should George W. Bush win in ’04. John Logue (Breckin Meyer) meets Chloe (Anna Paquin) in his search for a traveling companion; the blue-haired Chloe seems a little off, but she’s cute enough to get away with it. Paquin and Meyer develop an interesting, organic chemistry as they try to figure out just where they might be going. Chloe is the wild card, and it turns out that she is hiding something, a secret that emerges along with the appearance of the Canadian border.  

I can’t help but nitpick on the local details (especially since several of the people involved in the film, including Paquin, have Canadian ties) such as the border guard in what would logically be British Columbia being French Canadian, the mention of passports being checked (in 2004 Americans did not need passports to enter Canada), or the duo arriving in Winnipeg -- three provinces and maybe four days drive away -- shortly after crossing; I won’t even go into the accents and cult member demeanor of the Canadians. And now that I have done my own patriotic duty I can say that Blue State is an extremely likable film, with subtle and engrossing turns by its leads, along with a healthy dose of political currency. 

Both The Killing of John Lennon and Gardener of Eden owe a dubious debt to Taxi Driver, one (take a guess) more dubiously than the other. Writer/director Andrew Piddington’s first feature film chronicles the three months in the life of Mark David Chapman leading up to his murder of John Lennon in New York City. Newcomer Jonas Ball is uneasily magnetic in taking on the thankless role of Chapman, and provides the heavy voice over narration, which, along with most of the dialogue, is taken from actual Chapman writings or records. Piddington also shot on actual locations, including Hawaii, the Dakota, and through the smeared city lights as seen from the backseat of a yellow cab, which is where the Bickle-ness comes in. In case you didn’t catch on, Chapman goes ahead and quotes Bickle at one point, aligning his mission to eradicate the “phony” Lennon with the mohawked one’s invocation of the hard rain that’s gonna fall. It is extremely discomfiting being as close to Chapman’s experience of this period of near complete psychosis as Piddington seems to want us to be, and the graphic murder scene (with shadowy John and Yoko stand-ins) is heartbreaking. I don’t happen to believe that -- outside of the medical profession -- the sane have much to learn from the insane, and yet the case of Chapman is Exhibit A in what must be a new axis of insanity: that informed by and seeking a place in the popular culture. 

Riding the last (or, more probably, the latest) train to Bickleton is Gardener of Eden, Entourage star Kevin Connolly’s second film. That would be Bickleton (you thought I was kidding), New Jersey, where Adam Harris (Lukas Haas, glowering with all his might) attempts to escape his dead end life and that of his friends (including Jerry Ferrara and a repugnantly excellent Giovanni Ribisi) when he apprehends a rapist during an asinine incident of random violence. Adam also randomly meets one of the rapist’s victims (Erika Christensen, finding some unlikely grace) and the two begin dating. Thinking he has found his calling as a self-styled avenger, greasy hothead Adam goes into training, though his brain -- along with the trumped up, superhero ethos of this movie -- remains as flabby as a South Jersey soccer mom.  

When Susan and Patti, two Boston women, both having lost husbands on September 11, and both pregnant at the time, met in 2002 and decided to form a coalition to help aid the widows of Afghanistan, director Beth Murphy began documenting their plight. In Beyond Belief, Murphy finds some striking narrative traction in the domestic lives of her subjects, but sometimes loses footing ( and direction) with long passages of charity bike rides, or talks given to cadets. The film finds it heart particularly in a blissfully mundane scene of some late night envelope stuffing, as the two friends speak frankly about their roles and their lives. “I hate Saturday mornings!” Patti exclaims, almost despite herself, and the anguish of loss and loneliness in that one sentence speaks multitudes. Murphy follows the women to Afghanistan as they seek to meet the women they are trying to help, and even while risking the triteness of such a scenario, the interplay between the cultures is striking and overwhelming. Murphy is careful not to overexpose many of the delicate angles in play, and her subjects are rendered as deeply human, and deeply sincere. 

While, as The Golden Door illustrates, Italy is well-versed in the art of emigration, it is a country notoriously inhospitable to its own immigrants. Agostino Ferrente had a vision for the Piazza Vittorio, the run down area around Rome’s train station that those in the know will tell visitors to avoid. It also happens to have a large (and hotly contested) immigrant population. When a local “sexy movie” theatre was slated to be turned into a bingo hall, Ferrente and Mario Tronco attempted to assemble an international orchestra of local, immigrant musicians, and petitioned the city to make the theatre their home. L' Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio takes an ultra lo-fi, loose and good-natured documentary approach to the backstage musical, though it slackens occasionally and the political undercurrents of Italy’s election and immigration protests in Rome are given uneven and unsatisfying attention.

Discuss these and other Tribeca titles at Spout:

Golden Door 
Blue State   
The Killing of John Lennon  
Gardener of Eden   
Beyond Belief
L' Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio  Syndicated Feed From:The Reeler<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:24:24 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>TheReeler</spout:postby><spout:postto>The Reeler on Spout</spout:postto><spout:postdate>4/26/2007 8:24:24 AM</spout:postdate><spout:body>Charlotte Gainsbourg in the poignant Golden Door

By Michelle Orange 

And so it begins. I can’t think of a better kick-off for both the festival and my review coverage than the Golden Door, Emanuele Crialese’s heartfelt and affecting look at the emigration process (the title refers to Emma’s Lazarus’ famous reference to the golden door at Ellis Island) over 20 million people went through between 1890 and 1930. Before making the short trip across the river (and almost directly into what is now the Tribeca neighborhood) new citizens went through an (often absurdly) rigorous protocol of exams, paperwork and acclimation while in limbo at Ellis Island. My great-grandfather (and very probably yours, as 40 percent of Americans can draw their ancestry directly through Ellis Island), a southern Italian, made the trip at around the same time as the Sicilian family in The Golden Door, and Crialese’s attention to both recreating the boat passage and Ellis Island itself is wondrous in its detail.  

Poor as dirt, widower Salvatore has had it with his peasant existence in Italy, and decides to take his two sons and his reluctant, witchy mother with him to the New World. On the passage he meets Lucy (Charlotte Gainsborough, perfectly cast), a mysterious redheaded Englishwoman with whom the whole ship is captivated; the two share a flirtation that results in a bargain once they reach the shore. Though Crialese, a Sicilian himself, exploits the stereotype that southerners are little more than the band of illiterate crazies you would expect from the ass-end of Italy, ultimately there is warmth and dignity in the dreams of Salvatore and his family, and some wonderfully poignant, surreal imagery to match. Emigration of a different sort is the subject of Blue State, Marshall Lewy’s surprisingly sharp-elbowed road trip flick about a Kerry campaigner who makes good on his vow (Unlike the rest of you! Chickens!!) to move to Canada should George W. Bush win in ’04. John Logue (Breckin Meyer) meets Chloe (Anna Paquin) in his search for a traveling companion; the blue-haired Chloe seems a little off, but she’s cute enough to get away with it. Paquin and Meyer develop an interesting, organic chemistry as they try to figure out just where they might be going. Chloe is the wild card, and it turns out that she is hiding something, a secret that emerges along with the appearance of the Canadian border.  

I can’t help but nitpick on the local details (especially since several of the people involved in the film, including Paquin, have Canadian ties) such as the border guard in what would logically be British Columbia being French Canadian, the mention of passports being checked (in 2004 Americans did not need passports to enter Canada), or the duo arriving in Winnipeg -- three provinces and maybe four days drive away -- shortly after crossing; I won’t even go into the accents and cult member demeanor of the Canadians. And now that I have done my own patriotic duty I can say that Blue State is an extremely likable film, with subtle and engrossing turns by its leads, along with a healthy dose of political currency. 

Both The Killing of John Lennon and Gardener of Eden owe a dubious debt to Taxi Driver, one (take a guess) more dubiously than the other. Writer/director Andrew Piddington’s first feature film chronicles the three months in the life of Mark David Chapman leading up to his murder of John Lennon in New York City. Newcomer Jonas Ball is uneasily magnetic in taking on the thankless role of Chapman, and provides the heavy voice over narration, which, along with most of the dialogue, is taken from actual Chapman writings or records. Piddington also shot on actual locations, including Hawaii, the Dakota, and through the smeared city lights as seen from the backseat of a yellow cab, which is where the Bickle-ness comes in. In case you didn’t catch on, Chapman goes ahead and quotes Bickle at one point, aligning his mission to eradicate the “phony” Lennon with the mohawked one’s invocation of the hard rain that’s gonna fall. It is extremely discomfiting being as close to Chapman’s experience of this period of near complete psychosis as Piddington seems to want us to be, and the graphic murder scene (with shadowy John and Yoko stand-ins) is heartbreaking. I don’t happen to believe that -- outside of the medical profession -- the sane have much to learn from the insane, and yet the case of Chapman is Exhibit A in what must be a new axis of insanity: that informed by and seeking a place in the popular culture. 

Riding the last (or, more probably, the latest) train to Bickleton is Gardener of Eden, Entourage star Kevin Connolly’s second film. That would be Bickleton (you thought I was kidding), New Jersey, where Adam Harris (Lukas Haas, glowering with all his might) attempts to escape his dead end life and that of his friends (including Jerry Ferrara and a repugnantly excellent Giovanni Ribisi) when he apprehends a rapist during an asinine incident of random violence. Adam also randomly meets one of the rapist’s victims (Erika Christensen, finding some unlikely grace) and the two begin dating. Thinking he has found his calling as a self-styled avenger, greasy hothead Adam goes into training, though his brain -- along with the trumped up, superhero ethos of this movie -- remains as flabby as a South Jersey soccer mom.  

When Susan and Patti, two Boston women, both having lost husbands on September 11, and both pregnant at the time, met in 2002 and decided to form a coalition to help aid the widows of Afghanistan, director Beth Murphy began documenting their plight. In Beyond Belief, Murphy finds some striking narrative traction in the domestic lives of her subjects, but sometimes loses footing ( and direction) with long passages of charity bike rides, or talks given to cadets. The film finds it heart particularly in a blissfully mundane scene of some late night envelope stuffing, as the two friends speak frankly about their roles and their lives. “I hate Saturday mornings!” Patti exclaims, almost despite herself, and the anguish of loss and loneliness in that one sentence speaks multitudes. Murphy follows the women to Afghanistan as they seek to meet the women they are trying to help, and even while risking the triteness of such a scenario, the interplay between the cultures is striking and overwhelming. Murphy is careful not to overexpose many of the delicate angles in play, and her subjects are rendered as deeply human, and deeply sincere. 

While, as The Golden Door illustrates, Italy is well-versed in the art of emigration, it is a country notoriously inhospitable to its own immigrants. Agostino Ferrente had a vision for the Piazza Vittorio, the run down area around Rome’s train station that those in the know will tell visitors to avoid. It also happens to have a large (and hotly contested) immigrant population. When a local “sexy movie” theatre was slated to be turned into a bingo hall, Ferrente and Mario Tronco attempted to assemble an international orchestra of local, immigrant musicians, and petitioned the city to make the theatre their home. L' Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio takes an ultra lo-fi, loose and good-natured documentary approach to the backstage musical, though it slackens occasionally and the political undercurrents of Italy’s election and immigration protests in Rome are given uneven and unsatisfying attention.

Discuss these and other Tribeca titles at Spout:

Golden Door 
Blue State   
The Killing of John Lennon  
Gardener of Eden   
Beyond Belief
L' Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio  Syndicated Feed From:The Reeler</spout:body></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:family</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/family/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/family/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>family</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 6288</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 226</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 1138</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:09:21 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>6288</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>226</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>1138</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:poverty</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/poverty/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/poverty/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>poverty</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 1505</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 38</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 70</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:28:37 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>1505</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>38</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>70</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:ship</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/ship/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/ship/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>ship</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 319</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 17</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 32</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 14 May 2009 13:03:14 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>319</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>17</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>32</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:immigration</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/immigration/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/immigration/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>immigration</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 239</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 11</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 28</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:04:22 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>239</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>11</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>28</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:emigration</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/emigration/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/emigration/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>emigration</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 2</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 2</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 2</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:49:01 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>2</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>2</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>2</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:redhair</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/redhair/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/redhair/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>redhair</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 2</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 2</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 2</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:55:54 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>2</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>2</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>2</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:tribeca2007</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/tribeca2007/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/tribeca2007/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>tribeca2007</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 114</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 2</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 115</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 23 Nov 2007 05:53:45 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>114</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>2</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>115</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:ellis-island</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/ellis-island/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/ellis-island/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>ellis-island</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 1</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 1</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 1</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:55:54 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>1</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>1</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>1</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:sicilian</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/sicilian/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/sicilian/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>sicilian</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 32</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 1</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 1</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:01:54 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>32</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>1</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>1</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:thereeler</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/thereeler/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/thereeler/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>thereeler</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 116</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 1</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 116</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 07 May 2007 13:42:31 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>116</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>1</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>116</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
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