

As the conniving Curtis in JMTC’s less-than-spectacular Dreamgirls, Maurice Bryan deftly displayed a balance of acting range and singing ability, which made his performance all the more enjoyable and compelling. More to the point,
Playing Marilyn, a successful 50-year-old career woman who falls for a young stud in Aston Cooke’s Me and Mi Chapsie, Dahlia Harris proved once again that she is a courageous and committed actress. She adds a fiery jolt of pure comic bliss to the production, while giving a lip-smacking lesson to her younger counterparts on how to savour every ounce of flavour a role may offer. Having won two Actor Boy Awards (supporting and lead) in the past for Ras Noah & The Hawk and Concubine?, this season Harris could very well end up in the race for Actor Boy gold for her excellent performance.
Look out for more Actor Boy Watch features on TALLAWAH.
Artiste: Norah Jones
Tyrone’s Verdict: A-
I am a Norah Jones loyalist. So, after her last album – 2007’s Not Too Late – failed to win the acclaim that her two previous smash releases had achieved, I was worried that her new effort, The Fall, might suffer a similar fate. And, with a title like that, who could blame me? Quite extraordinarily though, Jones has managed to shrug off the 2007 slump, re-emerging with a masterful set of folk-pop, jazz and blues tracks that is sure to astound both critics and fans.
With The Fall, Jones enacts a sort of musical magic. It’s a beautiful, echoing collection, and a demonstration of her near-faultless and unflinching form. Jones also seizes the opportunity to venture into new territory, bringing music that delivers traces of rock and other genres that give her an edgier sound. It works, as her genius is all over this latest project, her fourth studio release. Yet, Jones doesn’t wander too far away from the formula that imbued the multi-Grammy-winning Come Away With Me and Feels Like Home with eminence and that repeat-worthy factor.
These are songs about heartache, people, places and circumstances, made vividly palpable by the empathy and nuance and Jones’ enchanting singing. Beneath the surface of these tracks, lies pain and desolation (“I Wouldn’t Need You,” “You’ve Ruined Me”) but also the power of love (“Light As A Feather”), which makes The Fall eerily more compelling than anything I’ve ever heard before from the folksy singer-songwriter.
On each of her four albums, Norah Jones sings a lot about reveries and fantasies (the excellent “Chasing Pirates”), journeys (“Back To Manhattan”), embracing change (“December”) and the peaks and vales of love and human relationships (the candid “Tell Your Mama” and “Man of the Hour”). It’s almost impossible to describe their effortless exactness and their unhurried economy. Simply captivating stuff.
Like on Come Away With Me, Jones reveals her aptitude for evoking a peculiar atmosphere of life and human connections, expressing their unspoken pressures (“It’s Gonna Be,” “Even Though”) and expectations (“Waiting”). And they are made all the more glorious by the sparse and sometimes sweeping production, coupled with poetically sensitive and skilled songwriting, including contributions from Jesse Harris, who penned Jones’ 2003 Record of the Year-winning hit “Don’t Know Why.”
The Fall proves that Norah Jones is one of most consistently true singer-songwriters of her generation, nothing more and nothing less than an artist who speaks to the human condition and the ways of the world.
BEST TRACKS: “Light As A Feather,” “Tell Your Mama,” “Chasing Pirates” and “I Wouldn’t Need You”
Director: Lee Daniels
Cast: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton and Mariah Carey
Running Time: 1hr 49 mins
Tyrone’s Verdict: B+
Precious is not for the faint of heart. It’s a raw and gritty but ultimately uplifting film that explores the bowels of poverty, misery and abuse, as well as the human spirit and its ability to rise above the most trying of circumstances. The film is drenched in pain, hardship and despair, but by the end it guarantees emotional uplift and a reminder that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.
Directed with sharp focus and relentless ambition by Lee Daniels (Monster’s Ball), with the novel Push by Sapphire providing source material, the buzzworthy film shares the story of Claireece ‘Precious’ Jones (terrific newcomer Gabourey Sidibe), an obese and illiterate Black teenager living in 1980s Harlem. Sixteen and pregnant with her father’s second child, Precious lives in a dingy and dimly lit apartment with her bitter and cruel unemployed mother (comedienne Mo’Nique in a chilling performance) and is abused in almost every way imaginable.
Through her engaging voice-over narration, which provides a contrasting layer of warmth to the movie, we hear her thoughts like (“Sometimes I wish I was dead, but there’s always something in the way.”) To cope with her pain she fantasizes about a glamorous life in the spotlight, completed by a “light-skinned boyfriend,” red carpets, high fashion and flashing lights. Understandably, she longs to escape from the trap of poverty, abuse and illiteracy that threatens to destroy her soul.
Expulsion from school offers a blessing in disguise as she is led to an alternative education programme, where she meets Miss Raine (Paula Patton), a good-natured and compassionate teacher, who provides the ray of light Precious has been seeking. Mariah Carey, in a startlingly subtle yet effective performance, appears as a welfare officer seeking answers about Precious’ dysfunctional home life and relationship with her mother.
Precious captures how a lost and damaged girl picks herself up from the most horrific circumstances and steps into the light. Daniels shows courage as a director by treading deep into the pathologies of life in impoverished households and communities, while eliciting award-worthy turns from his cast. Mo’Nique is a clear standout; her performance as the wretched mother is so captivating that she steals every scene she appears in.
Deeply disturbing and provocative, yet well-wrought and superbly acted, Precious is a gem of a movie that could emerge as the darling of the imminent awards season. You know
Whip It (Fox Searchlight)
Director: Drew Barrymore
Cast: Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig and Drew Barrymore
Running Time: 1hr 51 mins
Tyrone’s Verdict: B
Ellen Page returns to her comfort zone in the offbeat indie comedy-drama, Whip It, a frolicking and funny film about roller derby, family, and self-discovery. Directed by Drew Barrymore, who also co-stars in the picture, Whip It is unevenly paced for the first quarter, but thankfully the film grows less leaden as the actors sink their teeth deeper into the roles, some more sizable than others. So by the time the credits start rolling, that little quibble becomes almost immaterial.
Page, who landed an Oscar nod for her remarkable turn in Juno, is Bliss Cavendar, a 17-year-old high school misfit living in Bodeen, a small
There she encounters wild tomboy chicks in short shorts and fishnet tights beating the crap out of each other on roller skates before a screaming, blood-thirsty crowd. With names like Smashley Simpson (Barrymore), Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig), Rosa Sparks (rapper Eve), Bloody Holly, and Eva Destruction, you know this is no sport for the fainthearted girl next door. In fact, roller derby is a grueling sport that calls for sturdiness, speed, and skill on skates. At least from my vantage point, beneath this veneer lurks a desultory lesbian undercurrent.
Desperate to leave a world of Stepford-style pageants, mind-numbing tradition, and archaic viewpoints on class and beauty behind, Bliss tries out for the Hurl Scouts, coached by a hothead named Razor (Andrew Wilson). She impressively makes the team, adopts the name Babe Ruthless and quickly becomes one of the best in the league. But to get to the top, she has to get past Iron Maven (convincingly played by Juliette Lewis), the cocky star player of their main rivals, the High Rollers. Another plot point involves Bliss falling for a cute musician, Oliver (Landon Pigg), who she meets at The Warehouse.
Pulling on her Juno chops, Page is wonderful as Bliss, bringing a mix of gracefulness and brawn to the role. She is the sweet schoolgirl, the tough athletic competitor and the caring daughter who really wants to make her mother and father happy and proud.
You can tell that Drew Barrymore is a sucker for a quirky indie that makes you both laugh and reflect on your own life. With Shauna Cross’ appealing novel and screenplay as source material, the director brings that same understanding of life, coupled with her enthusiasm, to her work behind the camera.
Minor, forgivable flaws aside, Whip It is charming and amusing, a satisfying and enjoyable look at small-town ideology, individuality and the search of passion and pleasure.
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The top writers in the 2009 Jamaica Creative Writing Competition, organized by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), were awarded with medals and other prizes at a ceremony held at the Rex Nettleford Hall, UWI Mona last Thursday.
Other major awards included ‘Most Outstanding Writer’, which was copped by Malachi Smith; ‘Special Writer’, won by Christine Marshall; ‘Noteworthy Writer’ which was presented to Joy Campbell, while ‘Choice Writer’ went to Haneefah Seid, Julene Vanhorne, Shane Shaw, Sharon Hare and Verone Johnson in a tie. A total of ten gold medals, fifteen silver and seventeen bronze medals were presented across the categories of poems, short stories, novels and plays.
An exhibition of the awarded works will be mounted in collaboration with the Jamaica Library Service at parish libraries across the island over the next six months.
Yendi Phillipps is heading to the Motherland. The beauty queen, Miss
“This is a dream come true for me.
Phillips left the island last week to begin a six month tenure at the agency and said she is prepared to dive head first into the very pressuring and competitive world of modeling. Phillips has been actively modeling both locally and internationally since she was sixteen years old but considers this move, the biggest in her career as a model. She also hopes to do commercial modeling and eventually sign contracts with major international companies.
The Base Model Agency was founded in 1999 by Neal Vincent and is recognized in the modelling industry as a very prominent agency on both the local and international circuits.
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