Tom Hanks once again reminds us that he is the quintessential American Everyman with a deeply affecting turn as the symbol of modern American enterprise in A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING, based on the novel of the same name by Dave Eggers, and adapted by Tom Tykwer. Think of it as an updated version of… Read More »
INTERNATIONAL, THE
THE INTERNATIONAL is a convoluted film about a complicated subject. Certainly complicated best describes the ins and outs of international banking, a business that doesnt so much disrespect borders and politics as ignore them altogether as being just so much piffle in the grand scheme of things. Certainly the premise that debt rules the world,… Read More »
3
3 is a German variation on the classic French bedroom farce. As such, in addition to the leaping from metaphorical bed to metaphorical bed with all the attendant cross-purposes and miscommunications, there are also robust and tantalizing morsels of semiotics, synchronicity, existential identity, with a romantic spirit at work that not only invokes, but also… Read More »
CLOUD ATLAS
CLOUD ATLAS is an ambitious film plagued with problems that garbles its overarching themes. Some of these problems stem from its makers attempting to adapt the six novellas of the original book into a film with a running time of only(?) three hours. Others are of a more puzzling nature, troublesome and unforgivable for being something… Read More »
PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER
The first image in Tom Tykwer’s PERFUME is of a nose in close-up emerging from the twilight. The first sound is of its drawing a deep breath. It is stark, it is simple, and it is perfect. Smell is the point of this decadent gothic tale, and it is the driving force of the nose’s… Read More »