Weekend Movie Forecast: <em>Che, Gran Torino, Doubt</em>

Che, Stephen Soderberg's epic biopic about legendary T-shirt entrepreneur Che Guevara, opens in New York tonight for a one-week run at the indispensable Ziegfeld theater, in order to qualify for an Academy Award nomination. J. Hoberman at the Village Voice writes, "Throughout Che, the emphasis is on processâindeed, Soderbergh acted as his own director of photography, under the name Peter Andrews. Moreover, the movie presents its subject almost entirely in the context of three eventsâthe Cuban Revolution, the Bolivian debacle, and a 1964 trip to the United Nations. "There were some at Cannes who accused Soderbergh and screenwriter Peter Buchman of evading the facts: Where was Che's bureaucratic bungling and his persecution of political enemies? What about his love affairs? His adventures in the Congo? Why, others wanted to know, did Soderbergh withhold the ecstatic entrance into Havana? Everything must be deduced from Che's behavior under actual or rhetorical fireâhe is defined in terms of his desire and capacity to make history."After Soderbergh normalized Che (mainly by tweaking the first half to soften its strangeness), his movie seemed disappointingly less formally rigorousâbut even more scrupulous in its pursuit of an objective narrative. The filmmaker wanted to make history as well." — Gothamist

John Del Signore

Published Dec 12, 2008

Modified Dec 12, 2008

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Che

day the earth stood still

Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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