Almost Famous

Mariela Quintuna
Reviewing the Arts
10/28/10
Movie Review

Almost Famous (Directed by: Cameron Crowe)

The film “Almost Famous” the autobiography of Cameron Crowe as how he came to be a rock writer in his early career as a teenage music journalist. Mr. Crowe devotes his time to this film to show the love he has for rock ‘n’ roll. In the film we follow the adventures of William Miller (Patrick Fugit) a 15 year-old teen from San Diego whose fairy tale of begins to be a nerdy schoolboy and then arises to be a reporter for the Rolling Stones which is how Mr. Crowe’s career started.
William Miller is seduced by the rock n’ roll band members of Stillwater as he travels on the road with them. This movie was very funny and filled with great music. In the beginning of the movie, Elaine Miller (Frances McDormand) plays the role of William’s mother who is overprotective and didn’t approve that his son and daughter Anita (Zooey Deschanel) to listen or think about rock n’ roll music, have sex, and do drugs. She left her brother William all her rock n’ roll records. It was then when William Miller was introduced to the world of rock music in the 1970s.
William miller was a young journalist and it was hard for his mother to let him go. But young William Miller, much as he tries to avoid the craziness that surrounds him, he is, however, too responsible to permit himself a full swallow. (''Don't take drugs!'' his mother shouts into the phone as he has a hard time to hear her through the commotion of hotel lobbies and dressing rooms. As far as we know, he obeys her.)
This movie is great because it shows how life back in the rock ‘n’ roll years. It showed how much influence Mr. Crowe got from it. This is not like any other ordinary film that is about being a rock star, but the truth about Rock ‘n’ Roll and how much love there is for the music.
William Miller meets his idol Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) becomes somewhat like a mentor to William because he inspired him to be a rock writer and William called all the time to ask for advice when the editor of Rolling Stones wanted to know how the story was going when there were times that William doesn’t get a chance to write because he was experiencing himself the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. He was being around all these groupies and the band members always liked to party. Throughout the road trip, William Miller tries to get a one-on-one interview with the bands lead singer Jason Lee (Jeff Bebe).
The movie had all these scenes about drugs and sex, when arriving in the hotel all the groupies would get promiscuous and Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) hooks up with the lead singer. It showed that in the life as a rock and roll artist, there could be drugs, such as the scene at almost the very end, when the band and William are at New York; William tries to find Penny Lane when she ran off because she saw Jason Lee with his girlfriend. When William arrived to her suite, he found her drinking and she then finally fainted due to her drinking pills and mixed it with alcohol.
This is a great work by Cameron Crowe and is an overpowering movie that makes you want to listen to that kind of music and be cool.

Music Review- Aventura- The Last

Mariela Quintuna       

Reviewing for the Arts

24 October 2010

Music Review

Artist: Aventura

Album: The Last

Released Date: 6/9/2009

Genre: Bachata

          

Mariela Quintuna       

Reviewing for the Arts

24 October 2010

Music Review

Artist: Aventura

Album: The Last

Released Date: 6/9/2009

Genre: Bachata

            The Latin Dominican boy band Aventura, also known as Kings of Bachata are back and once again has achieved their success from their new bachata release The Last in June 2009.  Their music has always been about having smooth hip-hop flavored slow jams, such as one of their songs in the album called “Spanish Fly” that has the collaboration of Ludacris and Wyclef Jean.  And there are additional artists that worked with Aventura in the album, such as Akon and Wisin y Yandel from the song “All Up 2 You.”  These songs are sung in Spanish and in Spanglish.  This is the way that makes their songs sound so energetic and powerful.  This album is great and recommended to those who love listening to bachata and reggaeton because it has a little of both as well as some other tropical genres.  This album is another great project of Aventura because it has much collaboration of different artists from different genres.  You have rap artists, reggaeton artists, and the legendary salsa artist Arturo Sandoval that is featured in the song “Soy Hombre” (I am a Man.)  The concept for the album being called “The Last” came from the group trying to go their separate ways and pursuing different careers as solo artists.  The first track “Intro-The Last” is about their careers, their previous albums and if you’re an Aventura fan you know what albums they are talking about.  “Love & Hate” , “God’s Project”, “K.O.B”, and “The Last”.     

            You can say that these guys are bachata artists that have tropical ballads of love songs, but these guys also had songs that are mixed with hip-hop and a little bit of reggaeton that are played a lot in the clubs for those bachata and reggaeton fanatics.  In the album the group members Romeo, Lenny, Max and Henry sing their heart out and give it their best to satisfy their fans.

            This album has slow bachata songs that takes your mind away and makes you want to sway or dance to the music.  The guitar-based Dominican folkloric music sometimes called the “Dominican blues”) with R & B, hip hop and other American pop and urban styles. The songs “Por Un Segundo” and “El Desprecio” are somewhat familiar songs from their previous album K.O.B “Los Infieles” and “Mi Corazoncito”.  In this album, you would fall in love with the vocals of the band members and with the album.  However, as you go down in the tracks of their album you will notice that they will have some genre of Salsa, such as the song “La Curita” and some Merengue, such as “Gracias”. 

            The songs “Su Veneno” and “Dile El Amor” have a popularity in the iTunes store where you can either buy the album or the song.  But the popularity meter measure these two songs as the best ones that are heard from iTune and bachata lovers.  The song “El Malo” is number seven in the Latin Songs, in Billboard.com.  Aventura needs the support of their fans to make their song number one in the chart.  

This album is considered to be filled with diversity and that is what Aventura fans would expect.     

    

Border Crossing

Border Crossing

Luis Jimenez- Working Class Heroes: Images from the Popular Culture

Reviewed by: Mariela Quintuna

This exhibit of the Border Crossing by Luis Jimenez and it is from the Mexican Fine Arts Museum and was created in 1989 from fiberglass. It is also displayed at other parts of the country such as Washington, D.C., New York and foreign countries such as Tokyo, France, and Belgium.  This is a great art work because Jimenez captured the emotions on these two persons of how tiring their journey is and that he made this art to teach people about people from Mexico migrating to the United States is really hard, but once reached the United States, it has a happy ending. 

           Jimenez is a proud Mexican artist and his collection shows the lives of Mexicans- from going to a party to crossing the border for a better life.  This exhibit shows how they migrated here in the United States to reach their destination.  The image shows a strong, tall, poor man carrying a woman on his shoulder when they are in the desert.  The woman is carrying an infant on her arms to protect her from the things around them.  They are sitting in some kind of rock and the man is not wearing any shoes.  From looking at this image, it looks like they have been traveling for a long time.

             They both look exhausted and it seems that the sun is making it hard because they probably are dehydrated.  The woman is covered by a red blanket as if she was cold.  She is also wearing a blue striped skirt and has a look on her face of a life that has been through a lot and cannot wait to reach her destination.  Jimenez applied emotion on the two persons to show the struggle and hope in their eyes.  The man holding this woman and is dressed in a poor way and you can tell by the rope that is tied around his blue jeans that is used as a belt.

 Although they look tired and exhausted, the clear blue skies probably gives them the strength to keep on going  They are in the desert and as you can imagine all you can do in a desert is just keep walking until there is something to eat or drink. 

            This art is related to what is happening now and that is the immigration issues we are having today.  This work of art is showing hope for the rest of the people in Mexico that if there is hope for one person, then there is hope for everybody.  This painting shows the real feelings and emotions of someone coming to a new world with nothing.    It show that they been walking for probably one week and that is the same way that everybody else migrates here.

This painting that Jimenez made is impressive because he really got the emotions on their face.  However, he took this concept from his personal history and the political issues that are and probably still are happening around the world.  It can be an inspiration not only for Mexicans but to other people in the world that have that dream to come to the land of opportunities.  This is what Jimenez is trying to make us understand, that coming into a new world is difficult but there are many dreams that could be accomplished here in the United States.  

Case 39

Movie Review: Case 39
10/02/10
Reviewed by: Mariela Quintuna

The horror film Case 39 with actress Renee Zelleweger who plays the role of Emily Jenkins as a social worker that saves the life a little girl Lilith (Jodelle Ferland) who was abused from her cruel parents. Emily thought she was an innocent little girl until she sees the evil in her and plays with people's minds by knowing their biggest fear.
Case 39
In the movie room it wasn't filled nor the moviegoers were interested. There were people that got up and left the room, people talking saying that "this movie is boring", or people yawning throughout the movie. Case 39 didn't catch the people's eyes and director Christian Alvart probably didn't think about a good plot for the movie because it had some suspense, but it also seemed like a mystery movie where you had to figure out how the murders were occurring. It was until the middle of the movie when it came to be about the little girl. Compared to the movie Paranormal Activity it had more horror and suspense at the same time.
This movie wasn’t filled with horror or a lot of suspense, so it wouldn’t be recommended. However, it depends on the person that sees it, but to my point of view it wasn’t that great of a movie.
is a scary movie, but not to the level of where you're going to have nightmares later in the night. The movie was dull and not interesting because all the horror scenes came in almost toward the end and wasn't scary at all. Renee Zelleweger didn't seem convincing that she was in horror when living with the evil little girl.