Day: February 3, 2006

The World’s Fastest Indian

The names John Cobb, Malcolm Campbell, Mickey Thomas, Craig Breedlove and Richard Noble mean so much to so few people. Perhaps even fewer know of Burt Munro, who in 1967 set a class speed record for motorcycles under 1000cc at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. Munro’s accomplishments are notable, but at the height of the space program were quite possibly overshadowed by the test pilots of Edwards Air Force Base, and…

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Who is Melquiades Estrada? Is he the sum of his parts? Is one man’s memory of this migrant worker true to who he really was? There are a number of films that examine the differences between seeming and being, but this one handles its subject in a style similar to Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill,” Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” and Gaspar…

Something New

Kenya (Sanaa Lathan) wakes up to a world of, from her point of view, numerous couples immersed in the amorous splendor of Valentine’s Day. This could be a film about how the minority female power-businesswoman needs to take a long vacation from her dry, corporate existence, and wind up somewhere in the Caribbean with some smoldering hot…

Transamerica

Bree Osborne (Felicity Huffman) is the kind of woman who, well, isn’t entirely a woman… yet. “This is the voice I want to use,” she says, repeating words from an instructional cassette, but in a quivering male voice — attempting to sound more feminine. She works as a telemarketer for Home Shopping Club, and regularly seeks the counsel and encouragement of her therapist and friend…