The Merchant/ Ivory film factory usually dwells on the genteel angst of Victorians. With LE DIVORCE, they take a modern tale and turn it into a flawed but charming little film, long on the foibles of human interaction, a bit short on filling in the details. Never mind. Watching the subtle culture clash as American… Read More »
RING TWO
Sometimes a film offers up an emblematic moment, one that crystallizes what is at the heart of the action and in RING TWO, that moment can be summed up in two words. Angry deer. They appear after Rachel (Naomi Watts returning after what may be the result of a lost bar bet) and her continually… Read More »
STAY
The failing of most very bad movies is that there was very little in the way of thinking that went into them. That is not the case with STAY. This overbearingly pretentious piffle has been overthought so much in its attempt to be clever and deep that rather than being engaging or mysterious or even… Read More »
KING KONG
The first thing that comes to mind after seeing Peter Jackson’s KING KONG is wow. Make that WOW. He’s done the seemingly impossible: followed up his magnificent LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy with a film that cements his reputation as a director that can deliver big films that aren’t afraid to wear their hearts on… Read More »
EASTERN PROMISES
EASTERN PROMISES is a gloriously dark and compelling thriller that plays cat and mouse with its audience the way that the characters involved play cat and mouse with each other. The tension, though, in this well-plotted suspense yarn arises not so much from the evil that the villains purvey, it’s the way that the underworld… Read More »