FATALE is a densely plotted and devilishly twisted erotic fantasy of a noir. Filmed with self-conscious style, it offers a variation on FATAL ATTRACTION that is not without merit, yet with a bemused view of womanhood that gives one pause. We are firmly ensconced in the, admittedly noir Madonna/whore paradigm here, but making a woman… Read More »
THE HUNT
No one is spared in Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof’s THE HUNT, nor, as, will be revealed by the end, should they be. Our intrepid filmmakers have eschewed taking sides in the current political morass, instead opting for a more challenging take on the foibles of human nature itself. A bold move guaranteed to raise… Read More »
LOGAN LUCKY
Transposing the milieu from glitz to grits, Steven Soderbergh’s LOGAN LUCKY does more set an intricate heist flick in the backroads of Appalachia, it also makes a sly statement about class, culture, and our preconceived notions about those two things. It also has something that most Soderbergh films lack for all their visual impact: heart.… Read More »
THE HOMESMAN
Tommy Lee Jones is a dour man, at least on screen. His carefully cultivated persona is a laconic one of few words and little patience. It is a character that he plays to perfection, and in THE HOMESMAN,he imbues it with a wonderful, understated quirkiness that makes his star quality all the more charismatic. As… Read More »
AMELIA
Of late, Hilary Swank gives only two kinds of performances, award-winning, and duds. AMELIA, a prestige effort from Mira Nair, alas, delivers the latter. To be fair, she and everyone else concerned are not working from a script, but rather from a scenario thrown together with broad strokes and characters conceived as cardboard cut-outs of… Read More »
THE CORE
Somewhere in THE CORE there is a neat-o flick trying to get out. Unfortunately, its stymied by cliché characters and a series of hackneyed action-adventure plot points that all but kill any joy we might have found in the otherwise fun concept and occasional burst of crisp dialogue. The premise is that the Earths outer core,… Read More »
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
MILLION DOLLAR BABY is a perfect film. Director and co-star Clint Eastwood has taken a story about people who live on the margins of life and turned it into a universal story about redemption and respect, and getting them the only way that counts, by being self-administered. The conceit is boxing, which Scrap (Morgan Freeman)… Read More »
11:14
A hit and run, a drop and run, and a severed penis are just part of a very bad night in the usually quiet little town of Middleton. It’s a place where the sidewalks roll up at 9pm, but tonight there’s plenty of mischief afoot, all of it converging, for better or worse, at the… Read More »
THE REAPING
Just in time for Passover, Easter, and/or any other equinoctial festival on your liturgical calendar comes THE REAPING, an abomination of a film to put the fear of God in us all with its sheer awfulness. Then again, one can with some merit ponder why an all-knowing Being would allow such as this to happen.… Read More »
FREEDOM WRITERS DVD
FREEDOM WRITERS covers the well-trod ground of the idealistic teacher making a difference in the lives of underprivileged, inner-city kids. In this case, it’s Los Angeles a few years after the riots of 1992 and the teacher, Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank), is out to save these kids before they lose their way and end up… Read More »