A must-see for Japanimaniacs, those interested in Japanese folklore, or anyone weary of the boring stories that typically accompany American animation, Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is a refreshing new take on Alice in Wonderland. The film, which destroyed box office records in Japan, knocking Titanic out of the top spot (which, in turn, had bested the […]
Jon Popick
Posted inMovies
A planet to make you think, another to make you drink
I think we might be asking too much of our movie-going audience. After a summer full of arthouse films disguised as blockbusters, Hollywood thought they could sneak Punch-Drunk Love in the back door without anyone noticing that Adam Sandler didn’t do any of his crazy voices or sing “The Chanukah Song” in it. I recently […]
Posted inMovies
As subtle as a club to the head
The Emperor’s Club was originally going to be called The Palace Thief, after the Ethan Canin short story upon which it’s based. But the film’s producers must have reasoned, “Heck, we’ve already ripped off Dead Poet’s Society; we may as well pinch its name, too.” (Rumor has it that another suggested title was Mr. Hundert’s […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Celebrate the gift of watching
Nothing gets cinemaniacs more excited than the holiday season. It’s not the smell of Kwanzaa cookies or the incessant tolling of Salvation Army bells that gets them going, though. It’s the bounty of award-quality films making its way into local theatres to displace swill like I Spy and Sweet Home Alabama. This year is no […]
Posted inMovies
Guns kill people, but so do women
[Cue Chandler Bing voice.] Could Michael Moore’s Bowling For Columbine (opening Friday, November 15, at the Little) be released at a more appropriate time? [End Chandler Bing voice.] We’re still finding victims of the Beltway Snipers, who were apparently picking people off from a distance with the impunity of Mark McKinney’s Head Crusher from The […]
Posted inMovies
Frida gets her freak on
Julie Taymor, the Tony Award-winning director of the stage adaptation of The Lion King, made an auspicious feature-film debut a few years ago with Titus, a visually arresting take on Shakespeare’s tragedy that was the greatest Peter Greenaway film never actually made by Greenaway. When I heard she was helming the big-screen adaptation of Mexican […]
Posted inMovies
How to get on Santa’s “naughty” list
Paul Schrader’s Auto Focus (opening Friday, November 1, at the Little), a look at the life of Hogan’s Heroes star Bob Crane, is another by-the-numbers, end-of-the-year biopic that would probably be fairly uninteresting if it weren’t for the deviant subject matter. Apparently Crane, unbeknownst to his millions of fans, was a sick little monkey who […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Screen time
The second annual High Falls Film
Festival returns to Rochester with the best cinema has to offer…
Posted inSpecial Sections
Eat these shorts
The feature films get most of the attention at High Falls and pretty much every other festival in the world. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore the short films. Look at it this way: The packaging might be smaller, but the quality is just as good. Look at John Stockton, or Napoleon, or even […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
For the kids
With films about huffing gas, Bloody Sunday, and capital punishment, you might think the High Falls Film Festival would be the last place you’d want to take your kids (well, almost the last place — there’s also that family vacation down I-95). Think again. This year’s festival offers not one, but two special programs designed […]
