3 Needles: B+
Incredible film to look at. Landscapes were visually stunning. Pretty good acting. Wasn't Dukakis' best. Chloë Sevigny as the novitiate, Clara, was excellent. My favourite scene of the movie: Sevigny dressed all in white comes across a herd of giraffe in Africa savannah. Gorgeous. Lucy Liu as a Chinese blood runner/smuggler was quite good as well.
Thom Fitzgerald, the director, shows us the impact that AIDS has on three different cultures/communities. How well-meaning, but ignorant people can lose everything; how the most scientifically savvy among us can be duped; how, fundamentally, money rules the world. There was a lack of political commentary about sex education in Africa, in particular, and the current American policy of requiring that abstinence and marital fidelity be proferred as the best way to combat AIDS. Bush and his cronies need to see this film. There is no place for prudish Christian morals in trying to combat this global epidemic.