Over the course of some 30-odd years, David Cronenberg has displayed a highly individual (and quite appropriate) penchant for the bizarre in a number of memorable, and even stylish, horror films. His peculiar combination of the mechanical and the biological distinguishes his work from that of most of his fellow toilers in the dark and […]
Movie Reviews
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Jordan’s mediocre Thief
The teaming of Neil Jordan and Nick Nolte is an interesting one, considering the director only seems capable of making a good film every other time out (his most recent was The End of the Affair), while the actor has been able to successfully carry a film approximately once over the last 10 years (Affliction). […]
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Small towns, small lives, small movie
Such recent movies as The Good Girl, One Hour Photo, and About Schmidt suggest that the cinema can still connect with the drab underside of American life, sounding the muted note of defeat and despair that accompanies the grand public trumpet of confident optimism and exuberant expansion. Our nostalgia for a past that may never […]
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Cranking out pseudo-stylish junk
Cranking out pseudo-stylish junk There’s something rather admirable about Spun‘s casting strategy, which seemed to involve finding as many irritating actors as possible and having all of their characters strung out on crank. It’s a bold and brazen approach — kind of like if somebody told you they could toss a dime from the top […]
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A Canyon of despair and boredom
Playing like a feature-film continuation of Family Ties, Lisa Cholodenko’s Laurel Canyon (opens Friday, April 11, at the Little) pits a free-spirited mother against her uptight, conservative, and — yes — perpetually embarrassed 21st century version of Alex P. Keaton. Because the mom, and the film itself, is all about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ […]
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Reach out and shoot someone
Joel Schumacher’s new thriller, Phone Booth, illustrates once again the weird and ambiguous relationship between popular cinema and its temporal context. Originally scheduled for release many months ago, the picture disappeared, at least for a while, until the manhunt for the Washington, D.C.-area sniper ended with the apprehension of the suspects. The distributors apparently believed, […]
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Mysteries in the jungle
Although presumably a mere accident of production and distribution schedules, the appearance of John McTiernan’s new film, Basic, demonstrates the American film industry’s uncanny penchant for seizing the moment. Just in time to jump on the war wagon, Hollywood once again releases a military flick. The movie, however, suggests another, not entirely unknown aspect of […]
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Let’s move to Cleveland
It’s probably just a coincidence that bombs started falling over Baghdad about 10 minutes after I checked into my hotel in Cleveland, where I was to cover their 27th annual International Film Festival. But there seems to be some unfortunate connection between me leaving town to watch movies and the occurrence of a horrible international […]
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A messy stew from Stephen King
The latest in the unending series of films adapted from the Stephen King novel factory employs a grab-bag, or perhaps a garbage-can, approach to the author’s usual subjects, resulting in an extraordinary and virtually uncontrollable farrago of horror. Dreamcatcher combines the nostalgia and sentimentality of Stand By Me with the psychic phenomena of, say, The […]
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Sex, drugs, and… well, more sex
Go on, admit it. When you see the title The Crime of Father Amaro (opens Friday, March 28, at the Little), you automatically assume it’s a film about a priest buggering young boys, don’t you? Well, it’s not. We first see the recently ordained Father Amaro (Gael García Bernal) as he rides a bus […]
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The envelope, please
Despite all the breathless reporting of the nominations, and all the learned speculation about who and what will win one of those gleaming art deco statuettes known as Oscars, students of the cinema should understand that like most such contests — from Miss Artichoke all the way up to the Nobel Prize — the Academy […]
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One man and a knife against the world
As his new movie, The Hunted, suggests, William Friedkin’s career continues to wander into bizarre areas of subject and character and, not surprisingly, to display a flagrant and really quite inexplicable inconsistency. He has directed some excellent and influential motion pictures, most notably The French Connection and The Exorcist; in addition to some almost equally […]
