Review: Now & Later (2009)

[Mark R. Leeper]

NOW & LATER
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: Yes, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine
go down. Sex mixes with politics in this story of a
former international banker on the run from the law
who has a brief and educational encounter with a
liberal and liberated Nicaraguan refugee. The
politics is probably more entertaining than the sex
and neither is particularly new and exciting.
Rating: low +1 (-4 to +4) or 5/10.

As Angela (Charli Solaris) tells Bill (Keller Wortham), Americans
live in the future. They live for the later, while she lives for
the now. (I am not sure an environmentalist would agree that
Americans are too concerned about the future.) Americans take
their money that they do not spend and invest it so that later they
can get a better car and a bigger house. And later they will have
more to invest. Angela and Bill end up nicknaming each other
Mr. Later and Ms. Now. The irony is that Bill is on the run from
the law because he did not think enough about what his later might
be. Bill was at one time an international banker. He was one of
the self-proclaimed "Masters of the Universe". This particular
Master of the Universe overreached himself a bit when he embezzled
funds from his company. He got caught and was sentenced to eight
years in jail. As the film opens Bill is on the run from the law
after having jumped bail. His former driver Luis suggests he can
hide in the Latino neighborhood and brings him to a restaurant
where Nicaraguan Angela happily takes him in.

Angela is in the United States illegally, having fled from
oppression in her home country. She is someone who cannot do too
much for others. Her time is spent helping other Latinos. She
also enjoys sex a great deal without any hang-ups. After a short
interval of Bill's discomfort they share both sexual and verbal
intercourse. The verbal presents her left wing worldview. Most of
the points made are familiar. The CIA has backed dictators and
undermined popular leaders. Bill listens astounded as if he was
completely ignorant that this was going on and challenges none of
what he is being told. Angela is amazed herself to find out the
international bankers who engage in arbitrage call themselves
Masters of the Universe. Neither seems very well informed and
neither is more than a thinly characterized type, in spite of
Diaz's claim that both characters were inspired by people he knew.
The "live for the moment" message is a familiar one going back at
least to ZORBA THE GREEK.

The film gives a somewhat idealized view of working-class Latinos.
They look out for each other. When one is in trouble everyone
comes to help. Their spokesperson Angela is radiant. She gives
selflessly of herself whenever she can. She seems too good to be
true. She has come from a place where deep injustices have been
done to her family, and now she just wants to help others.
Philippe Diaz who writes and directs this film is taking few
chances that the viewer is not going to like her. Bill, who in the
beginning represents the opposing point of view, begins stiff and
uptight. He learns that Angela's uninhibited way and her politics
are right. This is all just a bit unsubtle.

Diaz also wrote and directed the feature documentary THE END OF
POVERTY? He is no Bernardo Bertolucci, but their interests and
approaches are similar. Both recognize that an audience can be
attracted with the soft-core sexual themes in a film and will stay
around for the political payload. Without the sexual content the
story of Bill and Angela would have been pat with a little message
salted on. I rate NOW & LATER a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or
5/10.

[NOW & LATER was released on Blu-Ray on November 29, 2011.]

Film Credits: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865560>

What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/now_and_later/>


Mark R. Leeper
mle...@optonline.net
Copyright 2011 Mark R. Leeper
NOW & LATER
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: Yes, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine
go down. Sex mixes with politics in this story of a
former international banker on the run from the law
who has a brief and educational encounter with a
liberal and liberated Nicaraguan refugee. The
politics is probably more entertaining than the sex
and neither is particularly new and exciting.
Rating: low +1 (-4 to +4) or 5/10.

As Angela (Charli Solaris) tells Bill (Keller Wortham), Americans
live in the future. They live for the later, while she lives for
the now. (I am not sure an environmentalist would agree that
Americans are too concerned about the future.) Americans take
their money that they do not spend and invest it so that later they
can get a better car and a bigger house. And later they will have
more to invest. Angela and Bill end up nicknaming each other
Mr. Later and Ms. Now. The irony is that Bill is on the run from
the law because he did not think enough about what his later might
be. Bill was at one time an international banker. He was one of
the self-proclaimed "Masters of the Universe". This particular
Master of the Universe overreached himself a bit when he embezzled
funds from his company. He got caught and was sentenced to eight
years in jail. As the film opens Bill is on the run from the law
after having jumped bail. His former driver Luis suggests he can
hide in the Latino neighborhood and brings him to a restaurant
where Nicaraguan Angela happily takes him in.

Angela is in the United States illegally, having fled from
oppression in her home country. She is someone who cannot do too
much for others. Her time is spent helping other Latinos. She
also enjoys sex a great deal without any hang-ups. After a short
interval of Bill's discomfort they share both sexual and verbal
intercourse. The verbal presents her left wing worldview. Most of
the points made are familiar. The CIA has backed dictators and
undermined popular leaders. Bill listens astounded as if he was
completely ignorant that this was going on and challenges none of
what he is being told. Angela is amazed herself to find out the
international bankers who engage in arbitrage call themselves
Masters of the Universe. Neither seems very well informed and
neither is more than a thinly characterized type, in spite of
Diaz's claim that both characters were inspired by people he knew.
The "live for the moment" message is a familiar one going back at
least to ZORBA THE GREEK.

The film gives a somewhat idealized view of working-class Latinos.
They look out for each other. When one is in trouble everyone
comes to help. Their spokesperson Angela is radiant. She gives
selflessly of herself whenever she can. She seems too good to be
true. She has come from a place where deep injustices have been
done to her family, and now she just wants to help others.
Philippe Diaz who writes and directs this film is taking few
chances that the viewer is not going to like her. Bill, who in the
beginning represents the opposing point of view, begins stiff and
uptight. He learns that Angela's uninhibited way and her politics
are right. This is all just a bit unsubtle.

Diaz also wrote and directed the feature documentary THE END OF
POVERTY? He is no Bernardo Bertolucci, but their interests and
approaches are similar. Both recognize that an audience can be
attracted with the soft-core sexual themes in a film and will stay
around for the political payload. Without the sexual content the
story of Bill and Angela would have been pat with a little message
salted on. I rate NOW & LATER a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or
5/10.

[NOW & LATER was released on Blu-Ray on November 29, 2011.]

Film Credits: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865560>

What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/now_and_later/>


Mark R. Leeper
mle...@optonline.net
Copyright 2011 Mark R. Leeper