There is no doubt about it, Kevin Spacey adores Bobby Darin. He spent years pushing to get this biopic, BEYOND THE SEA, about the singer made, directing, starring, and co-writing the finished product. The problem is that Spacey is so wrapped up in his hero worship that the audience is left in the cold. Instead… Read More »
RORY O’SHEA WAS HERE (aka INSIDE I’M DANCING)
RORY OSHEA WAS HERE is an earnest, unpretentious film from Ireland that has the virtue of treating its subject, the disabled and their struggle for dignity and independence, without weepy sentimentality. Beyond a break-out performance by James MacAvoy in the title role, though, it has little to set it apart from the usual disability of… Read More »
LILIES
Some films are dreck, some films are popcorn, some films are art, and some films are pure poetry. LILIES falls into the poetry category. It’s a mystery set simultaneously in the golden past and the gray walls of a maximum-security prison. It takes poetry and filmmaker John Greyson to make that work. The story of madness,… Read More »
RAY — DVD
Taylor Hackford is not originally from the south, but he has the soul of a southerner when it comes to storytelling. In RAY, he uses it to blend past and present in ways that don’t just show how the former affects the latter, but how in the emotional landscape of the title character, the legendary… Read More »
DOWNFALL (DER UNTERGANG)
The story of DOWNFALL, Hitler?s last days in his Berlin bunker before committing suicide when his Third Reich was at an end has been told before in countless versions. What sets this film apart is the way it incorporates the oral history of Hitler?s secretary, Traudl Junge (played like an innocent lamb to the slaughter… Read More »
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
While Ridley Scott was busy filling THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, his saga of the Crusades, with sweeping vistas of warfare, oceans of soldiers bent on carnage, and forests of siege engines gliding purposefully towards embattled Jerusalem, he forgot to add a story that would engross an audience. Or even work up a ripple in interest.… Read More »
CINDERELLA MAN
Showing a lack of imagination and a willingness to mine every applicable sports cliché that is stunning in several senses of the word, Ron Howard has taken one of the greatest comeback stories ever and turned it into a cloying bit of fluff. CINDERELLA MAN is handsomely mounted, steeped in period art direction, and features… Read More »
HIMALAYA (L’ENFANCE D’UN CHEF)
When Eric Valli first traveled the Dolpo Valley of Nepal, which may be with the exception of the Easter Islands, the most remote inhabited area on earth, he was struck by more than the stark and powerful beauty of the terrain. He was enthralled by the mountain people he met, their strength, their openness and most of… Read More »
ASYLUM
For a big chunk of ASYLUM, Natasha Richardson wears a shade of lipstick that is just a hair’s breadth off of being the right color for her. It’s emblematic of the film as a whole, which misses the mark when it comes to its stated purpose of delving into the madness and mystery of passion.… Read More »
OLIVER TWIST
Roman Polanski’s take on the Dickens classic, OLIVER TWIST, is a respectful one, and by respectful, I mean safe. Nowhere is there the distinct voice of the auteur that could raise a gaggle of goosebumps with the perfectly positioned camera angle that one finds in ROSEMARY’S BABY, CHINATOWN, or THE PIANIST. There is none of… Read More »
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