A chance meeting between two strangers (Helena Bonham Carter, pretty in pink, and Aaron Eckhart, suave in a tux) at a wedding reception in New York City starts the action in CONVERSATIONS WITH OTHER WOMEN, a slippery delight with as much tension as a standard thriller, but the smarts of a literate drama, both of which… Read More »
THE BLACK DAHLIA
There are so many missteps in Brian De Palma’s THE BLACK DAHLIA that one hardly knows where to start. Perhaps the best place is with the adaptation of James Ellroy’s novel of the same name. The book is a rich and vibrant work that provides too much fodder for a two-hour film to capture. Instead… Read More »
NO RESERVATIONS
NO RESERVATIONS is a prime example of everything that is wrong with Hollywood remakes of terrific foreign language films. Take challenging characters, piquant situations, homogenize the high heckola out of them and, poof, everything that was wonderful in the original is gone. To be fair, even without knowing MOSTLY MARTHA, said original, there is little… Read More »
THE DARK KNIGHT
THE DARK KNIGHT is the aptly named second installment in Christopher Nolan’s sublime retelling of the Batman story. The setting may be Gotham City, but the landscape is that of the unconscious, where archetypes roam unfettered by the restraints of the waking world. This the realm of the hero’s journey, fraught with all the peril… Read More »