America’s place in the world of manufacturing and finance may be a pale shadow of its former self, but there’s one area where the United States still rules — popular culture. Folks all over the globe still love our movies, music, television, and fashion, and even in places where American values and politics may be considered suspect, they’re watching and listening to us, though the cultural signifiers frequently mean something different in other lands. Anyone who doubts this need only watch Havana Marking’s fascinating new documentary Afghan Star for proof; the Anglo-American talent show phenomenon American Idol has spawned a copycat series in Afghanistan, but while the producers have carefully followed the U.S. model, it’s the differences that tell a truly remarkable story.

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Pietro Paladini (Nanni Moretti), the main character of Antonello Grimaldi’s slice-of-life drama Quiet Chaos, watches his life fall to pieces when his wife unexpectedly dies as the result of a freak fall. Faced with a young daughter, Claudia (Blu Yoshimi), Pietro must find a way to cope with this sudden and unexpected tumult as a single parent — and he makes an almost obsessive commitment to wait outside of Claudia’s school, all day, every day, until she emerges from the building.

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Special limited time offer: Purchase one ticket for My Sister’s Keeper at face value and receive one bulging pocketful of tear-soaked tissues free of charge! (Tissue not included.)

Perhaps My Sister’s Keeper should be shown in theaters that offer seats with tissue dispensers built right into the arm rests; it’s a true weepy in the most literal sense of the term, and it never misses an opportunity to tug at our tear ducts in telling the tale of a young girl conceived to keep her leukemia-stricken sister alive. The concept of the movie alone may be enough to choke up any loving parent, but recruit the kind of talent that can make the entire thing believable and even the most cynical of viewers are likely to get a little misty-eyed. Occasionally overbearing, yet consistently well played, it’s the kind of film that audiences turn to when they need a good cry.

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Twenty-one years after striking Oscar gold with Dangerous Liaisons, director Stephen Frears and actress Michelle Pfeiffer re-team with screenwriter Christopher Hampton for Chéri — another movie about privileged, sex-obsessed French people who wear layer upon layer of fabulous clothing.

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One of the biggest stars of the 20th century, entertainer Michael Jackson died on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 of cardiac arrest. Even after a 13 year lapse in live performing, an expatriation to Bahrain, and almost two decades of persistent controversy, the recording artist’s legacy as the undisputed King of Pop has held fast. Jackson remains almost impossibly relevant, even in death, the subject of adoration — as well as hatred — among millions of viewers, spanning both borders and generations.

As fans mourn the 50 year-old performer’s unexpected death, AMG’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine memorializes Jackson’s life, career, and impact on the entertainment industry.

TV and pin-up icon Farrah Fawcett lost her longtime battle with cancer today, at the age of 62. Though she only appeared on the memorable 1970’s detective series Charlie’s Angels for one full season, the legacy of her performance on the cult favorite would last for the rest of her career, fueling her status as a sex symbol, even as she tried her hand at more dramatic work, like 1985’s The Burning Bed.

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Hooray for explosions! Michael Bay follows up 2007’s big-screen adaptation of the Transformers cartoon/toy franchise with the 2009 sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. This installment is an even bigger spectacle than the first one, which is saying a lot for a movie about giant robots that turn into cars. It does fall prey to some of the same flaws as its predecessor — namely that no film based on a toy needs to be 2.5 hours long. But if you enjoyed the robo-spastic ride the first time, then you should be happy with this movie, too. And if you complained that the first movie was trite and lacking in character development, then you probably shouldn’t even be reading this.

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The 1990s and 2000s witnessed an upsurge in arthouse material that boldly and courageously probed eroticism, with glistening and often profound insights into the role that lovemaking plays in the psychological and emotional lives of individuals — consider, for example, Louis Malle’s Damage, Patrice Chéreau’s Intimacy, Catherine Breillat’s Romance, or Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher.

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