It’s a testament to just how good MARY POPPINS RETURNS is that the weakest part of this sequel to the 1964 film is the sequence with Meryl Streep. I hasten to point out the relative nature of the word “weakest”. Like everything else in this practically perfect cinematic exercise, it’s eye-popping and clever as the… Read More »
NINE
NINE, the film adaptation of the musical adaptation of Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 is an interesting film for many reasons. The most striking is the one that sinks the venture, and that would be discovering that Daniel Day Lewis, an actor of considerable power, has his limits. Astounding with only his left foot to work… Read More »
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN — ON STRANGER TIDES
Sometimes an actor finds a role that becomes his second self, so precisely does he embody it, and so identified does he become with it. William Powell had Nick Charles in THE THIN MAN series. Basil Rathbone became Sherlock Holmes to a couple of generations. Johnny Depp has Captain Jack Sparrow. Unlike Powell or Rathbone,… Read More »
CHICAGO
Just when you thought we’d lost the knack for producing a live-action musical film here in the States, along comes CHICAGO. Set in 1920s in that toddling town, this hard-as-nails tale of sex, politics, fame, and most of all jazz, is a big, splashy, brassy confection wrapped up in a bow with enough bugle beads… Read More »
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA attempts to take the admittedly addicting soap opera that was the book and elevate into something on a higher plane of artistic existence. It fails. What was best about the book, an innocent girl caught up in the pure grasping evil of the geisha universe complete with all the nitpicky yet… Read More »