NEW RBR FEATURE: AT THE SILVER SCREEN WITH GOLDY

Today, Red Bulls Reader unveils a new feature: At the Silver Screen With Goldy.  This feature will have Red Bulls defender and movie buff Kevin Goldthwaite give his take on recent (and possibly classic as well) movies.  Below is the first installment.  RBR hopes you enjoy this feature, providing a different look at what goes on inside the head of a professional soccer player.  RBR also hopes you enjoy the graphic we created.  We do.  Now we will let Kevin take it from here…

Hey everyone… As most of you know, the life of a professional athlete is filled with much down time. We sometimes struggle to find activities to keep our days from dragging along. Pretty tough life, I know, but a tactic I have come up with to fill the afternoon void is going and checking out movies. I am a fan of all sorts of movies from blockbusters to small independent films and enjoy seeing pretty much anything that I think is original and gets my brain working. So what we are going to be doing here is a movie review type/sort of thing where I will be doing my best to find some good flicks for you readers to check out.

With all that being said the first movie on tap for us is Woody Allen’s most recent film called Vicki Cristina Barcelona. I’ve seen Woody’s older classic movies, namely Annie Hall and Manhattan, and enjoyed the two with his wildly neurotic characters and great monologues. But his last two movies, Scoop and Match Point, didn’t fare too well so I had no idea what Woody had in store for us with Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

The movie is about two friends in their mid-twenties who go to Barcelona for what is supposed to be a two month trip. The two young women, Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) and Vicky (Rebecca Hall) take in the culture and sights Barcelona has to offer and one night end up getting a somewhat bizarre proposition from a local painter named Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem). From here both women spend some time with Juan Antonio in the Spanish countryside. Vicky spends some time alone with Juan Antonio after Cristina falls ill, and she spends an amazing day and night with Juan Antonio which she would have never thought possible, because she was in love with her NYC yuppie banker fiancé. Then Cristina moves along and starts an unconventional relationship to say the least with Juan Antonio, herself, and Juan Antonio’s ex Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) who does a fantastic job in the movie as another one of Woody Allen’s neurotic characters. She plays a wild, loving, passionate, intense, philosophical and insane person all at the same time and makes the movie all the much better while she is on screen. Even if her racy scene with Scarlett was cut out, her act is definitely worth the ticket price alone.

Now, the major conflict that I saw developing throughout the movie was Vicky’s dilemma with what to do about her yuppie banker fiancé, Doug. Upon meeting Juan Antonio she was certain that he was the perfect person for her. But after spending time with him nothing seemed to make sense anymore and she needed to decide if she should stay with the loving, secure and somewhat bland NYC yuppie banker, or if she should she take the plunge and pursue Juan Antonio, who is eccentric, passionate and romantic (qualities that are very alluring to her). Here is where I think Woody Allen is at his best, posing conflicts that are near and dear to so many people and making you feel like you are side by side with the character helping them make their decision. He nailed it with this film, much like he did with Annie Hall and Manhattan where he had great characters and a plot that many could relate to. Maybe this will allow Woody Allen to have another movie that will be mentioned along side his older award-winning films.

All in all I really liked the movie. I thought Penelope Cruz was amazing, I liked how Woody Allen was able to make me feel like I making the decision along side Vicky with what man to choose. Also, I think Javier Bardem deserves a mention here. Maybe I am just envious of his courting habits with the ladies, who knows, but I felt he did a superb job. Now, is this movie going to bring Woody Allen back into Oscar talk or bring him back to the buzz he was getting around Annie Hall and Manhattan times? Probably not, but maybe this can right his ship so to speak after two poorly reviewed movie like Scoop and Match Point and bring him back to making great classic films.

Well that’s all for this edition. I hope you guys enjoy the review and more importantly enjoy the movie if you get to see it. Thanks for reading and I’ll check back in with you guys after my next movie outing.

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