Kimberly Peirce on the Power of a Plot | Newsweek Women and Leadership

Sharing the Silver Screen
Elisa Mala 10/8/2009 12:00:00 AM
Fade in on a typical day at the Tribeca Film Festival: dazzling images flash across the silver screen, while A-listers flash megawatt smiles for a sea of paparazzi. Skyscrapers loom over the cobblestoned streets of downtown Manhattan.
The Conflict Onscreen
Joanna Chen 10/2/2009 12:00:00 AM
A young Arab gasps for breath as he tears down the street, his feet pounding rhythmically on the asphalt. Omar, who comes from the downtrodden Jaffa neighborhood of Ajami, has just witnessed a killing and he is running for his life. It's early morning, and the streets around Tel Aviv's Court of Justice are deserted. It's an apt metaphor; there is no justice here, only a panicked teenager fleeing his own destiny. In his head, Omar hears the soothing voice of his younger brother, telling him to close his eyes and relax. His breath catches as he turns the corner and trips, falling hard on the pavement. "On the count of three you'll open your eyes," his brother's voice promises, "and find yourself in another place." But in the Middle East, there is no escape from the realities of hatred, violence, and oppression. Omar, who has been involved in a drug deal gone wrong, arrives at the getaway van, only to find it's locked and he's trapped. "One…two…three. Open your eyes!" his brother's voice says. On this somber note, Ajami, a hard-hitting new Israeli movie, draws to an end.
Score One for the Girls
Sarah Ball 10/2/2009 12:00:00 AM
That's why Whip It is so exciting. With any luck, it won't be dismissed like Blue Crush or the great Bend It Like Beckham as a bubblegum PSA for Title IX. It's relatable for both boys and girls (ooh! the brutality!), it's well acted, it's thrilling to watch, and it's one of the best directorial debuts of the year. Most important, it's the kind of movie that will live forever on DVD (or at least TBS). Let's hope Whip It's success is the beginning of a new Hollywood genre. A movie this adventuresome shouldn't just skate by.
Capitalism Is Evil
Nancy Cook 10/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
In what will surely become an infamous scene in his oeuvre, Michael Moore backs an armored truck onto the sidewalk outside several bailed-out New York City financial institutions and asks the banks (or at least their security guards) to give back the people's money. It's a guerrilla tactic that Moore has perfected and that's good for a laugh, but it hardly delves into the causes of the global economic collapse. Moore's thesis in his latest movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, is that our current economic system is bad, even evil. But what economic system would Moore prefer? The filmmaker recently spoke with NEWSWEEK's Nancy Cook about the way he invests his own money, the future of industrial towns and cities, and the people to blame for the Great Recession. Excerpts:
Fall TV Preview: EHarmony Edition
Joshua Alston 9/21/2009 12:00:00 AM
It would seem that these tough, uncertain times would be the perfect environment in which to debut escapist shows, but in fact it's been just the opposite. The new fall television slate—the most robust since the Hollywood writers' strike derailed the industry—is deeply rooted in what's going on right now, our anxiety, our fear, our toil. Last fall, the CW debuted the short-lived (and underrated) Privileged, a comedy about a young woman whisked, almost magically, from her life as a lower Manhattan plebe to a luxurious mansion in Palm Beach, where she serves as a live-in tutor for a rich family. Did I mention it was short-lived? The 2007 and 2008 shows that rooted themselves in trashy opulence (Dirty Sexy Money, Cane) or quirky otherworldliness (Pushing Daisies) are off the air, quality be damned.
Home Movies
Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop 9/11/2009 12:00:00 AM
A revolutionary runs through the busy streets of Hong Kong, pulling a rickshaw carrying Sun Yat-sen. He keeps glancing anxiously over his shoulder, on the lookout for assassins who plan to kill the future leader of the 1911 revolution. The 15-second scene, for the upcoming film Bodyguards and Assassins, is being shot not on location but on an elaborate set built on the outskirts of Shanghai. As big as 10 football fields, this full-scale replica of a section of the former British colony took a year to build, cost $5 million—a fifth of the film's budget—and includes the façades of about 200 shops and a near-exact copy of Pottinger (Stone Slab) Street.