The fact that I can walk into a multiplex in 2003 and see a movie with plain white-on-black titles backed by Billie Holiday’s recording of Cole Porter’s “Easy to Love” is heartening. That such a film should include exchanges about preferring to listen to Holiday on vinyl because CDs sound “too sterile,” and boasts casual […]
I don’t quite know what I expected when I settled in to watch this first quasi-narrative film from husband-wife documentary team Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. I knew I was slightly apprehensive — and even a little resentful — at the thought of being subjected to yet another smug, post-modernist essay delineating the quirks, […]
“Under a Vienna Moon — Over a Vienna Bakery.” That’s the title that both starts this undeservedly obscure, sophisticated comedy gem from director Lewis Milestone, and sets its tone. The Garden of Eden, dating to 1928, is what’s known as a sophisticated (back when that meant something) romantic comedy — the kind where the romance […]
Because the music is so heavenly, and everybody lives happily ever after, you have to forgive the sins of The Fighting Temptations. The story — what there is of it — is that oh-so-familiar fill-in-the-blanks scenario: big-city jerk comes home to small town and finds true love and a few honest aspects of himself. In […]
John Frankenheimer was one of the more prestigious directors of the 1960s, but his work is rarely revived today, and he generally didn’t have the greatest of luck with movies depicting the fantastic. His later forays into that arena — Prophecy and The Island of Dr. Moreau — were hardly successful on any level. However, […]
You don’t go to Robert Rodriguez movies for thoughtful narratives. About the deepest Rodriguez has ever gotten was his examination and redefinition of family in Spy Kids, or his posing the idea in Spy Kids II that maybe God no longer shows himself because he’s afraid of us. No, you go to a Rodriguez picture […]
What a mind-bogglingly strange road has been traveled by director Bob Rafelson. There were those early days helming episodes of The Monkees, followed by the world acclaim for his Five Easy Pieces and the popularity of a smattering of later movies. And now this misbegotten Rafelson mess is being thrust upon us by Mac Releasing, […]
Matchstick Men has it all — a flawless script (by talented first-timer Nicholas Griffin, and based on Eric Garcia’s novel), energetic and enigmatic direction (Ridley Scott), and unforgettable performances by both tempered pros and a young tyro. Without fireworks or train wrecks or a cast of thousand costumed extras, Matchstick Men works its magic with […]
While Cabin Fever is entertaining schlock in its own right, it’s certainly nothing new under the sun. Thus, it raises the question of what happens when horror films are viewed by people who don’t necessarily go in for the genre. Watching Cabin Fever unspool, that question seemed to be answered in the generally positive festival […]
It was once called The Sin Eater, though owing to cast and filmmaker, you might be hoping The Order would qualify as A Priest’s Tale. And yet if there was any truth in advertising, they’d have changed the title to The Ordeal, because that accurately describes sitting through this film. After the first five minutes […]
I put movies into one of four categories: those I disliked and never want to see again; those I liked, but have no real desire to see again; those I liked and will want to revisit sometime; and those I will be in the store to buy on DVD the day they come out. Since […]
This is one of the worst movies of the new century. Throw the rotten tomatoes at David Spade, the SNL graduate who stars in and co-wrote the so-called script to Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. (How could Paramount Studios have approved a script in which all the key action happens offscreen — the classic amateurish […]
Here’s a rare chance: Asheville Pizza and Brewing has booked 1954 horror classic The Creature From the Black Lagoon — yes, it’s in 3-D, too — for a solid week starting this Friday. Whether you consider the Creature series a death-rattle coda to Universal Pictures’ claim to the title of “The Home of Horror,” or […]
Many, many years ago, the great filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch remarked, “I’ve been to Paris, France, and I’ve been to Paris, Paramount. On the whole, I prefer Paris, Paramount.” The new Merchant-Ivory production Le Divorce brings home the truth of Lubitsch’s statement with all the force of a sledgehammer. This is indeed the sort of movie […]
Jeepers Creepers 2 is probably the most interesting not-all-that-good movie to come along in a while. JC2 works fairly well as a simple horror flick. There’s no denying that the Creeper (Jonathan Breck) is a darn sight … er … creepier than he was in the first film, which pretty much fell apart as soon […]
I confess that I am not a huge fan of musical theater, despite the fact that the musical film done right is probably my favorite genre. I own very few Broadway shows on CD (or LP, for that matter), though I admit to having the “original Broadway cast” 78s for both Oklahoma! and Kiss Me […]
Despite all the money claimed to have been lavished on The Medallion, Jackie Chan’s latest offering (which, judging by the outtakes, was shot in the winter of 2001) looks and (especially) sounds like a relic from 1972 that has somehow slipped through a fissure in time. The music (which no one to own up to […]
Publicists in search of a usable break-out quote for this film are welcome to this: My Boss’s Daughter doesn’t suck nearly as much as I thought it would. Alas, judging by the fact that the film appears to be doing the same kind of non-business as last week’s Grind (a movie jealous of the box-office […]
I’ve loved actor Richard Benjamin ever since I first saw him as Dick Hollister opposite real-life wife Paula Prentiss in the 1967 TV show He & She, an undervalued comedic gem that paved the way for the much more famous Mary Tyler Moore Show. Benjamin not only starred in the sitcom, but he was also […]
Until I saw this steaming crap-fest, I didn’t realize what a fine film the Brittany Murphy-Ashton Kutcher vehicle Just Married was — strictly in relative terms, of course. I have no idea what anyone involved in this shapeless mess thought they were doing, but whatever it was, surely what they ended up with cannot have […]
The Man Without a Past is a totally strange, beguiling, sadly humorous and humorously sad little film that’s apt to linger in your memory far longer than many a more immediately impressive work. That said, this movie doesn’t travel all that well, which may explain why so little of writer/director Aki Kaurismaki’s work has been […]
