“You’re a cog, boy! A cog in an organ!” Thus begins the journey of Performance protagonist Chas, bloodstained thug on the run. Directed by Nicholas Roeg and Donald Cammell in 1970, Performance (Wednesday, March 17, Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House, 8 p.m.)opens with a fighter jet rocketing across the sky before quickly cutting […]
Movie Reviews
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Movies within a movie: Italy’s current cinema
For a long time a major force and a powerful influence in international cinema, Italian film currently languishes in a general state of mediocrity, occasionally enlivened by some works of genuine excellence. The decline of film in Italy is part of a general condition in the once great industries of Europe. Aside from the […]
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Don’t forget, kids: The ’70s are hilarious
“Starsky & Hutch” the TV show ran for four seasons and 88 episodes from 1975 to 1979. I don’t remember one episode. All I can remember is Starsky’s bright red-and-white muscle car. Starsky & Hutch the movie runs slightly longer than 88 minutes. All I can remember is Starsky’s bright red-and-white muscle car. The […]
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Also playing…
You might be forgiven for thinking, from the posters, that the titular hero of Hidalgo is played by Viggo Mortensen (Lord of the Rings). But Hidalgo is a mustang. The marketing folks at Disney can’t seem to decide between pushing Viggo, a sudden commodity, or the horse, not coincidentally possessor of the second-worst horse name […]
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Not enough pins to tie McNamara down
After 40 years, we should all be ready to forgive and, ah, remember. But Robert S. McNamara probably never will win this critic’s heart or mind. And Errol Morris’s polished documentary, even with the dual bonus of an Oscar and Philip Glass’s primordially appropriate music, is too good for the former whiz kid, defense […]
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A child is left alone for the weekend in a grand apartment with only the servants to pester in The Fallen Idol (1948). The film could probably coast along entirely on the banter between the young boy, Phillipe, and Baines the butler, or by following Phillipe about on the miscellaneous adventures he busies himself with, […]
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The night of the gilded statuettes
So the annual Award Ceremony of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science (it always seems so impressive written out in full like that), better known as Oscar Night, looms before us, haunted by the ghosts of stars and movies past. After weeks of the usual hype, assisted by the usual learned speculation […]
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Overkilling Jesus Christ
Director and co-writer Mel Gibson has brought us The Passion of The Christ with the stated intention of sharing his faith with the world. This he means to do by simply telling the story of the last days of Christ (told in the Gospels), albeit graphically. This might lead one to expect a sober, […]
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Oscars on the fly
Editor’s note: Every year, in the weeks leading up to Oscar Night, film critics and Academy members are flooded by screeners of the films up for big awards. The thinking here is that these films need to be seen again while the viewer stays mindful of the various awards they’re nominated for. This way, everyone […]
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‘An American in Paris,’ 1968
Although it confronts some of the his most important and persistent subjects and themes, Bernardo Bertolucci’s new film, The Dreamers, hints at a certain exhaustion of the imagination. It is as if the director were not merely revisiting but repeating his past. The film flaunts the rare and dreaded NC-17 rating and is set […]
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“Catch That Kid.” I remember my mother taking my brother and me to see Escape From Witch Mountain nearly 30 years ago. That film had extra-talented young teens who outsmarted the adults, and it didn’t make a lick of sense. But I loved it so much that I rushed the screen. A recent showing […]
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Fighting the Cold War with hockey
The appearance of Miracle, a docudrama about the remarkable victory of the United States hockey team over the USSR in the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, provides an occasion to teach a lesson in the history of the later 20th century. A long initial montage sequence features newsreel and television footage of a great many […]
