Dear Readers,

I have always believed that the whole point of film criticism is not to serve as consumers guide, namely, to recommend to readers which specific movies to see or not to see.  No. The goal of criticism is to shed light, or illuminate, a particular work by placing it against the contexts in which it was made.  Thus, the more reviews one reads, the better informed  a viewers is.

Carlos Cuaron is the writer-director of Rudo y Cursi (Tough and Corny), which is being released by Sony Pictures Classics on May 8, 2009. 

For Carlos, Rudo y Cursi (Tough and Corny) was like a family project, literally, as one of the producers (Alfonso Cuarón) is my brother, the other two (Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro) are very dear friends, Diego and Gael are my buddies and the rest of the crew became my creative kin. We were able to create a big family in which we were all united by the same cause. Alejandro, Guillermo and Alfonso explained everything that could happen and everything I could feel while directing my first feature. Diego and Gael explained and had opinions about everything they wanted in regards to acting issues. So I was very sheltered.

For the celebration of the 70th Anniversary of Disney's landmark cartoon Pinnochio, the studio is putting out for the first time an edition of 2-Disc Blu-ray Hi-Def.

The movie is based on Carlo Collodi's fantasy for children, published in Italy in 1883 and in an English translation in 1892.  Disney's cartoon film, based on Collodi's story, was released in 1940 and brought the character to a wider audience. Among other things, Pinnochio is the film that taught the world to “Wish Upon a Star.”