Friday, March 25, 2011

POA Interviews Haircare Visionary Vidal Sassoon


By: Lacey Bauman

Many of us dream to become successful. Nowadays with the help of a video camera and the internet, it isn't that hard to do. But what if you grew up without the help of technology? Or without money Or during the midst of a world war? What if all you had was a pair of scissors?
Vidal Sassoon is a legendary hairdresser known world wide. You can't walk down a shampoo aisle without seeing his hair products resting on the shelves. His documentary, "Vidal Sassoon: The Movie" is nothing but inspirational. Growing up in an orhpanage during War World II, Vidal Sassoon worked as a shampoo boy for a local barbor shop which, in time, led to becoming an iconic hairdresser and changing the world of hairdressing.

Vidal Sassoon lived in dramatically changing times with another world war and then the 60's revolution. If everything else was changing, why not hair? Sassoon created brand new haircuts that weren't just fasionable, but haircuts that were neatly molded to each intricate curve of a woman's face as if he was sculpting it out of clay. It's safe to say that this one man changed the way thousands, if not millions, of women wore their hair.
Vidal Sassoon has been compared to Albert Eistein, The Messiah, and if that isn't enough, he is known as The Beatles of hair. This documentary isn't just about haircuts, but about Vidal Sassoon's rags to riches life and how never giving up on your dreams can pay off in the end. The tagline of this movie speaks nothing but truth: "How One Man Changed The World With A Pair Of Scissors".

POA reviews: Vidal Sassoon: The Movie

By: Rachel Piece

“Vidal Sassoon: The Movie” is the well told story of how Vidal Sassoon “changed the world with a pair of scissors.” He completely revolutionized the way women think of their hair. In doing so he contributed to the style revolution of the 60’s. The movie, composed of interviews with Vidal, his friends, family and collaborators, traces his story from a Jewish London Orphanage, to an apprenticeship with Adolph Cohen, to his success in the 1960’s, a TV talk show, a line of products, and worldwide fame.

Vidal created a completely new look in haircutting that followed the geometry of a person’s face instead of the one-style-fits-all philosophy of the 50’s. These styles mirrored the modernist architecture of the time, some of which we here in Chicago pass by every day. His cuts follow the rules of geometry and shape in a way that still looks modern and fresh today even 40 years from it’s creation.

His styles completely took over the world starting in London where people would come from all over Europe and even as faraway as Asia to study how to replicate the in demand styles. Vidal moved to New York and his style exploded over the United States, even being featured in Hollywood in Rosemary’s Baby.

One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Vidal talks about entering the business knowing that “Either the craft would have to change, or he would.” Vidal's the same, and he's radically changed the craft of hairdressing, something that is clear from this movie. And I would say that Vidal Sassoon: The Movie, is definitely worth the price of admission.


Vidal Sassoon: The Movie is playing at The Music Box Theater in Chicago, and will soon be available on Demand through Comcast and Direct TV

Ed Note: As someone who cares very little about hair, this trailer is very inspiring regardless.


POA reviews: Win Win

By: Paul Meekin


I really liked Win Win a lot. It tells the story of Mike, who becomes the legal guardian of Leo a senile old man. A couple of days later, his grandson shows up and through circumstance ends up living with Mike and his wife, Jackie. From there the story features bonding and the typical lines about betrayed trust.

It's moving without being schmaltzy, it's funny without telling jokes, and the characters have definite chemistry. These traits are often the signs of a great movie. But Win Win never edges itself into greatness. it's a better-than-some independent dramedy that has a good cast and a good script, but all the moving parts have been done elsewhere. The big fall out, the kid with the abusive mother, people coming together over sports. It's formula, sure. But a formula is a formula for a reason, and in the case of Win Win, it has it down and happily works inside the margins.

But here's my problem. I believe a movie theater is a holy place where you watch feats and theatrics that are so much larger than life that a big screen is practically required to contain everything. And we pay a premium for these seats and this screen and the 9 dollar popcorn.

With pay cable and HD-TV, slice-of-life drama has taken to the long form, and I like it there. Don't get me wrong, I liked the superb cast that featured Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, and Jeffery Tambor. I liked the pacing, and I even liked the kid. Win Win, ultimately, is hard to quantify.

It's certainly greater than the sum of it's parts, and that's interesting, because all of the parts come from Director Tom McCarthy, who has script, story, and director credit, and also says the character of Mike has roots in a real person. It was a movie that told a pretty realistic story about real people doing real things. But is a movie about “real things” worth 12.50, twenty minutes of pre-previews, and shamefully corny “turn off your cell phone” advertisements?

In the case of Win Win, I think so.


POA reviews HappyThankYouMorePlease

By: Aida


If you want to make the most of the fresh start this spring has to offer. Then go to see “HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE.” It’s warm, young and as promising as the spring. It’s also a promising debut of the actor Josh Radnor as a writer and director. The movie was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2010 and won the audience award for favorite US drama.


What I loved about the movie is that it has three independent stories. It is more of an ensemble rather than a story of one character. The stories are simple and real but that’s what makes them so compelling. Six young New Yorkers who are learning how to appreciate friendship, love and happiness. Josh Radnor’s character Sam is a struggling writer who unexpectedly finds a friend on the subway, a young boy named Rasheen. When Sam takes him to a police station and Rasheen refuses to go there. It turns out that the boy has been in six different foster homes. After learning that, Sam decides to keep him for a couple of days. Sam’s crush on Mississippi, an aspiring singer, gets serious and he has to figure out how to manage his fear of losing her and his fear of commitment. Sam’s close friend, Annie learns to receive love and adoration from a man that she would never consider as a potential boyfriend. A young couple, Mary-Catherine and Charlie, who are also friends with Sam, have to deal with “unexpected happiness” and their potential move to LA.


The movie is definitely worth the price of admission. It makes you think, laugh, and cry and just have a good time. It is about positive transformations of the characters and I think that’s what makes a good movie. It has a lot to offer to females and males of different ages. It is one of those movies that has tons of catchy witty phrases that will stick with you for a while. And, the first one is going to be: HAPPY THANK YOU MORE PLEASE

Chelsea Hancock:

Happythankyoumoreplease really challenges what it means to love someone; either as a friend, a coworker or especially in the romantic sense. Ted Mosby, I mean, Josh Radnor wrote and directed this endearing story.

Though there were some questioning moments in the film pertaining to common sense for the most part I thought that the relationship built between Radnor’s character Sam Wexler and love interest Mississippi is palpable and enjoyable but the most amazing and heart felt love tale takes place with Sam’s best friend Annie played by Malin Akerman. Annie has a hair follicle disease that forces her to try to be positive all the time, which the majority of us have never had to deal with. She’s always the voice of reason – the Oracle to Neo, the Rafiki to Simba the Obi-Won to Luke Skywalker and now we finally get to dig deep into her psyche and see that even the wisest and seemingly confident people struggle with self confidence and care so deeply about the opposite sexes view. She continually turns down coworker Sam #2 masterfully performed by Tony Hale.

Most of us know Hale as a hilarious sidekick or goofball in Arrested Development but for the first time I feel like I really saw him act and he did it perfectly. Annie finally sees through Sam #2’s nerdy exterior and allows herself to love.

The even bigger part of the picture is how important friendship can be. Sam Wexler takes care of Rasheen, a boy in foster care that gets lost from his foster care parent on a train. The two bond and learn about how important art and friendship can be on not only a young boy’s development but in an adult’s life as well. Oh, and did I mention that it’s funny? This movie has so much character and personality. Needless to say I really enjoyed the movie.

I left the theater a little bit more appreciative of the people I love in my life and it was so refreshing to see a movie with characters that are one hundred percent relatable, I felt like I knew every last one of those characters in my own life. So do yourself a favor, buy a ticket and don’t forget to say, “happy thank you more please.”

Emily McKinney:

I love Indie films. They are one of my favorite movie genres... that is, when they are done well. "Happythankyoumoreplease" was good. It was cute, it had a message, I liked it. It just wasn't great. It was your typical Indie film only this time it had mediocre acting and cliches. I thought it was cute and it had a good message, but there were quite a few things that I was not happy with. I wasn't angry that I watched it, but I definitely will not be sliding this DVD in between "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Lars and the Real Girl" on my movie shelf. It was worthy enough to win an award at the Sundance Film Festival, but not worthy enough to become a good, classic, Indie film. I recommend waiting until it hits rental to watch it.


Thursday, March 24, 2011

POA reviews: Battle: Los Angeles

By: Chelsea Hancock

Battle Los Angeles is everything I was hoping it would be! It was cheesy, it was thrilling, it was overly dramatic, and it is so worth the price of admission! And the best part is that Los Angeles was destroyed. At least now they don’t have to worry about forest fires.

Anyways, if you like world ending action movies where all hope seems lost and aliens have crazy lasers that burn faces off and alien dissections and Aaron Eckhart’s delicious, chiseled face than by God this movie is for you.

Perhaps the best part of the movie was the battle scenes. The news camer footage were pretty epic and shot composition was a little odd at points but it worked and it worked well. This movie followed the action movie Independence Day, 2012, Day After Tomorrow, Volcano and Men In Black movies to the T and I was so happy. Is this a defining movie of our generation that will blow your mind? No. But will you get your money’s worth by seeing it? Absolutely. Get some snacks, sit back and enjoy the tale of Marine’s going behind enemy lines to save civilians and watch explosions, heroic sacrifices and internal arguments invade your brain.

POA reviews Take Me Home Tonight

By: Chelsea Hancock

Take Me Home Tonight takes place in the 1980s about an MIT college grad, Matt Franklin played by Topher Grace chasing his dream girl Tori Frederking. Matt’s night climaxes when his best friend steals a car, his twin sister gets engaged to a douche and he finally sleeps with his dream girl in a charming scene taking place on a trampoline. I could see what the production was attempting to do; create a John Hughes type of movie with the main character unsure of what he wanted to do with his life and slowly discovering that he’s not alone, but it simply didn’t work.I appreciate the effort and I will admit I chuckled every now and then. What was disappointing was that the formula usually works with these films and it didn’t so much in this case. If I gave this movie a rating it’d be a 5.5/10.

The comic relief, Barry Nathan played by Dan Fogler was simply too much and too forced. Wendy Franklin played by Anna Faris is Topher Grace’s twin sister that is smart but willing to give up a future as a short-story writer for a husband which of course she realizes is not right for her. I worry that this production harped on the fact that they have a multi-talented cast and a well-dressed set perfect for the time, but what this movie has proven was that even a talented cast can’t save a terribly boring story.

We’ve all had epic nights where we’ve done coke from a stolen car, you’re lying to yourself if you say you haven’t, but this film felt like one of those “you had to be there” tales. Take me home tonight indeed, because it’s not worth the price of admission.

Monday, March 21, 2011

The Adjustment Bureau - Alternate Take

An Alternate Take on: The Adjustment Bureau

By: Paul Meekin


They've shuffled the release date of The Adjustment Bureau as many times as they have, probably to avoid comparisons with Christopher Nolan's self-important masterpiece “Inception”. While they're both mind bending supernatural / sci-fi flicks, and “Inception” is epic in every sense, “The Adjustment Bureau” turns out to be far more fun.

Matt Damon is David Morris, a from-the-mean streets politician who meets Emily Blunt's Elise on the eve of Damon's first political defeat, and her candor and beauty inspire Norris to give an impassioned speech about honesty in politics. This chance meeting angers a group of, bear with me, semi-super- natural “Adjusters”. “Adjusters” are tasked with making sure David Norris, follows his “Plan” and which does not include Elise, and “The Adjusters” are to stop him from ever seeing her again. And...their hats give them magical force powers. Don't worry, I am completely aware of how stupid that sounds.

Writer / Director George Nofli doesn't doesn't give us enough time to really ponder the inner workings of the corporate-dare-I-say-angels. We're given enough exposition to understand the system, why it should never (ever) be broken, and then the rest of the movie is Matt Damon breaking said system to our giddy delight.

We delight because this is fun. The chase, the dialog, the way things are revealed at just the right pace. The interactions between Damon and Blunt deserve great praise. Far too often in films the protagonist explains they're in love with a character they've barely met. But here, David and Elise's gleeful antagonism of one another fosters humanity rarely found in these sorts of movies.

There's a lot to say about this movie, and believe it or not, it has a lot to say too. There's a bit of political satire in here, some bits on the nature of free will, and how most of humanity seems to use it to kill other humans, and the nature of God.

Ultimately, you have the perfect date movie, and that's a feat worthy of great praise. For the lovey-dovey there's a palpable romance built on chemistry (and not a lack of clothing). For the geeks, a sci-fi storyline that acknowledges the scoff-worthy premise and happily owns it with wit, a wink, and a nod. “The Adjustment Bureau” is great fun and maybe a bit more. I'm hard pressed to call it smart because it's not as if the movie holds any profound message outside of love conquers all, but neither did “Inception”, and that movie's tag line was practically “It's too smart for you”.

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