Daniel Wachsmann’s 1990 film, THE APPOINTED, melds the mystical and the profane creating an enigmatic tale of love and destiny, Set in the biblical world of the Kabbalah as lived in contemporary Israel, it is the story of Shemya, the prodigal son and grandson of rabbis who tries and fails to remove himself from his… Read More »
QUIET AMERICAN, THE
THE QUIET AMERICAN is a subtle, deeply disturbing film with a performance by Michael Caine that is a marvel of understated elegance, delivering an emotional punch of prodigious proportions. Based on the novel by Graham Greene, it tells the story of a romantic triangle that is emblematic of the intrigues surrounding Vietnam at the time… Read More »
GODS AND GENERALS
The problem with having read the book on which a film is based is that no matter how hard you try, its hard to divorce that book from its adaptation playing out before you on the big screen. So it is with GODS AND GENERALS, the prequel to GETTYSBURG, and based on the novel by… Read More »
THE JUDGE
THE JUDGE is everything thats wrong with studio bids for Oscar consideration. A carefully calculated effort designed to hit all the perceived necessary tropes to qualify as both important and as quality. Alas, it is neither. True, there are excellent performances by Robert Downey, Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, and Billy Bob Thornton, but they… Read More »
THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE
THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE is a great idea for a movie. Unfortunately, its fine direction by Alan Parker and excellent acting from a cast headed by Kevin Spacey is undercut by a script that would, charitably, receive a C+ in Screenwriting 101 for Charles Randolph. How it made it to the big screen in… Read More »
SANDSTORM (BAWANDAR)
Jag Mundhra’s SANDSTORM succeeds on several levels. First, it’s a fine piece of filmmaking that tells this story of cultural discrimination with a directness that never panders to either its audience or its characters. Second, it succeeds in outlining in stark and uncompromisingly personal terms exactly what this sort of injustice means for one woman… Read More »
ASSASSINATION TANGO
You will either get caught up the quirkiness of Robert Duvalls latest film or you will leave the theater wondering what the heck it was that you just saw. Either way, theres no doubt that you will come away with why Duvall has become obsessed with the tango. Truth be told, I suspect that said… Read More »
MAJESTIC, THE
THE MAJESTIC desperately wants to be a heartwarming classic, the type that is a staple of family gatherings and the holiday memories of a million people. It is intent on warming the cockles of the heart, but screenwriter and Hollywood native Michael Sloanr, even abetted by GREEN MILE and SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION director Frank Darabont, has… Read More »
GOOD THIEF, THE
THE GOOD THIEF is a cheeky little film that uses the excuse of a complicated caper to do a character study. Writer/director Neil Jordan, who adapted this from the 1955 French classic, BOB LE FLANEUR, uses smoke, mirrors, and a sleight of hand to keep things interesting, a magic that is certainly more adept than… Read More »
PHONE BOOTH
One of those wise old Greeks, perhaps it was Socrates, said that the unexamined life is not worth living. And in PHONE BOOTH, there’s a psycho with a gun who’s taken that bit of philosophy way too literally. This being a Joel Schumacher film, he of FLATLINERS and BATMAN and other flights of high-flown fancy,… Read More »
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