By its very nature, the summer blockbuster so beloved in Hollywood demands not only amplitude and grandeur but also a hero of a commensurate stature, who will not be dwarfed by the spectacular context of his story. Borrowing heavily and recklessly from Homer, the makers of Troy attempted to glorify the pivotal decision of their […]
Movies
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Jewish film from all the unfamiliar places
It all started with Shoestring, and the 2004 installment of the Rochester Jewish Film Festival, July 11 through July 18, means that festival season is officially underway. Over 100 films were considered in the festival’s fourth year; 16 made the final cut. The majority of the selections are documentaries that look at the Jewish experience […]
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Also playing…
If you see only one set of opening credits this year, make it the credits of Napoleon Dynamite. If you want to stay for the film, go ahead, but you’ve already seen the best of what the movie has to offer — especially if you’ve seen the trailer, which doesn’t show the best parts so […]
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The great, necessary Bush hunt
Despite all the pompous commentary and the predictable outrage of the conservative crybabies, Michael Moore’s controversial new documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, suggests much more beyond its avowed intention to rid the nation of George W. Bush. The writer-director certainly succeeds in showing the incompetence, corruption, and mendacity of the Bush administration. More important, though, he […]
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Also playing: not on video, TV movies
A leader keeps people subjugated by fear and emotion, pursuing a religion-based agenda while letting the top official in charge of justice pervert the law to his own ends. Fahrenheit 9/11? Nay, Cobra Woman! This delicious nugget from 1944 kicks off the Not on Video series at the Dryden. Maria Montez plays the evil […]
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The man without a country
Whatever else he has accomplished in a large, varied, and successful body of work, Steven Spielberg’s reputation as a director will probably forever be associated with a number of grand blockbusters. His science fiction flicks include such titles as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, A.I., Jurassic Park, and most recently, Minority […]
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Also playing…
Co-conspirator ofFrançois Ozon, Marina de Van has emerged with a very personal directorial debut, In My Skin. She plays a young professional with druggy, vampiric looks who, with everything going well with her career and relationship, becomes… overly engrossed in herself, you might say. A tumble in the metal-strewn backyard of a party results in […]
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Life in the affluent suburbs
The first feature film based on Ira Levin’s novel, The Stepford Wives, a combination of horror and science fiction with roots reaching all the way back to Frankenstein, appeared in1975 and, though it barely retained the spirit of the original, proved influential in some unforeseen ways. The movie spawned three sequels, all of them inadequate […]
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City’s choice: shorts
This week we have two back-to-back chances to see locally made short films and animation. Eggwork Productions (headed by Rochester filmmaker and City contributor Matt Ehlers) presents its fourth annual Eggmark night on Sunday, June 20. Not only will Ehlers screen his hysterical, too-short Who’s Your Daddy, a pick at both the Sundance and SXSW […]
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Desperate love, desperate measures
Three movies playing around town right now tell tales of obsessive love spawning disturbed behavior. A Slipping Down Life, a pleasantly rewarding indie film just now making it into theaters after five years of technical wrangles, has the most natural approach, and seems in danger of being overlooked for its lack of sensationalism. The […]
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Suffer the little children
The child’s point of view often lends a special combination of innocence and insight to narrative, which explains its use by writers like Mark Twain, Henry James, Graham Greene, and William Faulkner. Even when it concentrates on children, the cinema, however, generally shows children from an adult perspective. The subjects are often drenched in buckets […]
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Also playing…
An Israeli film with no mention of politics, Broken Wings concentrates instead on the members of a family as they cope variously with the absence of the father, who died nine months previous. The cluttered texture of life is shown in a way you don’t often see anymore in American films, and it’s interesting to […]
