ELLING, this years Oscar nominee from Norway as best foreign film, is that perfect little gem of a film that draws you into a new way of seeing the world. Its eponymous protagonist is a prickly, obsessive middle-aged man suffering a slew of neuroses starting with anxiety and acrophobia and so on down the rest of… Read More »
MONSTER-IN-LAW
There is nothing wrong with a light comedy, even one as formulaic as MONSTER-IN-LAW. At least not in principle. Alas, when the makers rely on the formula to carry the day, and they are stuck with the self-absorbed performances of their two starring actresses, who are more concerned with image than character, well, there is… Read More »
MADAGASCAR
As I was watching MADAGASCAR, the new animated flick from Dreamworks, it occurred to me that there just aren’t enough lemurs in films of any kind and that’s a darn shame. Not just because as primates they’re our cousins, distantly, but also because there is something intrinsically and compellingly absurd in their large eyes and… Read More »
FAT ACTRESS — THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
“Fat Actress”, the pseudo adventures of Kirstie Alley coping with life as something considerably more than a size 2, is a guilty pleasure that has enough smarts to it to quell any feelings of guilt. True, it’s not as sharp as Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” on HBO, another fictionalized, “true-life” improvised series to which… Read More »
ENLIGHTENMENT GUARANTEED (Erleuchtung garantiert )
Two Germans, lost, homeless and penniless, forced to live by their wits in the urban wilderness of Tokyo makes for an interesting stop along the path to enlightenment in Doris Dorries film ENLIGHTENMENT GUARANTEED. How they got there and what will happen next is nothing so much as a gently comic updating of the old saying,… Read More »
MR AND MRS SMITH
MR. AND MRS. SMITH probably started life as a script that was a very clever satire on the state of modern matrimony. What finally made it to the screen, however, is instead a schlocky vehicle for its stars, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. There are a few moments when one sees a dash of savvy… Read More »
BEWITCHED
The funniest thing in BEWITCHED is an oddly touching attachment Will Ferrell’s character, Jack Wyatt, develops for a bottle of ketchup he picked up during an off-screen interlude in New Mexico. It’s barely mentioned, but there it is in a couple of scenes, clutched tenaciously the way a kid clutches his blankie in times of… Read More »
WEDDING CRASHERS
The urge to mate is a primal one and the one, arguably, over which we as a species have the least control. In pursuit of such a goal, much energy has been expended, including wars. John (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) The heroes of the WEDDING CRASHERS have simplified the process in a way… Read More »
BROKEN FLOWERS
There are those of us who, with wild abandon and without apology, worship at the altar of Jarmusch. There is in his off-kilter rhythms and deliberately deadpan aesthetic a peculiar, and peculiarly resonant, insight into how it is that human beings conduct their lives. His films, including his latest, BROKEN FLOWERS, are peopled with characters,… Read More »
BAD NEWS BEARS
My oh my, but what mess has been made of THE BAD NEWS BEARS. Not that it was ever a classic, except in a minor sense for fans of Tatum O’Neal and Walter Matthau, but what Richard Linklater, a man capable of producing works of unorthodox beauty and beautiful complexity such as WAKING LIFE, has… Read More »
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- …
- 43
- Next Page »