WCBE 90.5 FM "Little Miss Sunshine," "Sketches of Frank Gehry," "Who Killed the Electric Car?"

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time:
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Reviews: “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Sketches of Frank Gehry” “Who Killed the
Electric Car?”
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, August 18, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

The Script:

Clay

"Little Miss Sunshine” is full of naughty words and grumpy fun . . .

John

“Sketches of Frank Gehry” will make you love buildings again. . .

Clay

“Who Killed the Electric Car?” gets lost in its own ozone . . .

MUSIC UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("Little Miss Sunshine” 130 words)

Clay: Little Miss Sunshine is the best comedy of the year.

The Hoover family is traveling by VW bus to the Little Miss Sunshine Beauty
Pageant. A few family members are dad (Greg Kinnear), a
motivational speaker; Alan Arkin as potty-mouthed, tell it like it is
grandpa; brother in law (Steve Carell) has tried suicide more than
once.

My VW bus broke down as does theirs. They always do on long trips, a
metaphor for the romantic growth of our country and the flowering of character. This
film shows more character development than most of the films this summer
combined.

Along the way the Hoover family will face its darkest secrets, keep a sense
of humor, and confirm the importance of love, which the poet says
“comforteth like sunshine after rain.”

Clay ("Little Miss Sunshine” 132 words)

Folks, in tribute to the hippie families of the seventies who let the
sunshine in through their long hair and VW bus windows, comes a comedy
that’ll leave you laughing even when it hurts.

Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, “Little Miss Sunshine” is a
perfect feature debut for this award winning team who have produced MTV
videos for REM, Smashing Pumpkins and (dare I say it?) the ever-so-naughty
Janet Jackson.

From the suburbs of Albuquerque to the concrete expressways of L.A. “Little
Miss Sunshine” takes us on a giddy romp that most of us have been waiting
for all summer.

Credit Greg Kinnear for playing a father who doesn’t always know best,
Paul Dano who melts our hearts as the brooding son, and three cheers for
little Abigail Breslin who takes the movie home.

John ("Sketches of Frank Gehry” 130 words)

Here's a "home" movie of sorts:

The Sketches of Frank Gehry documentary tells of a jolly little Jewish man
whose Guggenheim Balboa may be the most celebrated museum architecture of
modern time. This informative and humane documentary is directed by Sydney Pollack (Tootsie), who knows nothing of architecture and therefore is perfect for the job, according to Gehry.

The doc’s singular weakness is Pollack’s regular intrusions, even having
another camera recording him while he is recording Gehry.

Enjoy the moments when Gehry lets us into his creative process, for
instance, by constructing a new building model of flexibly-placed cardboard
pieces he changes before our eyes with good reasons. When he shows how he
took a Hieronymous Bosch painting and created a building out of its
composition, I was a happy human listening to a god’s creation.

Clay ("Who Killed the Electric Car?" 130 words)

Well, John, writer-director Chris Paine is no god, just a first time
documentary maker who tries to persuade us in “Who Killed the Electric Car?”
that good guys drive electric cars and bad guys drive internal combustion
engines.

This may or may not be true, but he doesn’t prove it. Sure he has some
celebrities who leased the prototype cars in the 1990s, such as a weird bearded
Mel Gibson, an ever sincere Tom Hanks, and the wild and wacky Phyllis
Diller.

His villains of choice? The car companies, the oil companies, the compromised
politicians, and everyone else who failed to lease one.

“Who Killed the Electric Car?” is not a good documentary, but it is a great
commercial. I’d buy one today, but too bad, folks, GM long ago, decided to
trash them.

But enough of bright yellow microbuses, architectural prodigies, and little
engines that could, John, because it’s grading time.

John

Holy Hippies, Hooray!

“Little Miss Sunshine” earns an “A” for the best ensemble ACTING this
summer . . .

Clay

"Little Miss Sunshine” gets an “A” for being ANOTHER ribald road
romp across AMERICA . . .

John

“Sketches of Frank Gehry” earns a “B” because BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS BELIE a
humble architect . . . .

Clay

“Who Killed the Electric Car?” gets a “C” because it CONFUSES more than it
CLARIFIES . . .

John

Clay,

I wonder what a VW bus trip would do for Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Rumsfeld.

I’m outta here.

Clay

I don’t really know, John, but I'm they'd be happier in a Hummer . . .

I'm outta here, too

See you at the movies, Folks.

HIT MUSIC

Richelle:

The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is
written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with
90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

© 2006 John DeSando and Clay Lowe