NEW SUIT is a knowing yet gentle parable about the evils of show biz. Specifically, the film biz as practiced in the mythical land of tinsel and hype. A place where there is so much style that no one there noticed that substance departed, tail between its legs, many, many moons ago. Which is why… Read More »
BUBBA HO-TEP
BUBBA HO-TEP is a surprisingly touching film considering the subject matter, viz. to wit, an aging Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) as a resident of a rundown East Texas nursing home battling an ancient Egyptian mummy given to wearing cowboy boots. That he is aided in this battle by a fellow resident who claims to be… Read More »
PREY FOR ROCK AND ROLL
PREY FOR ROCK AND ROLL is a high-octane ride through the world of rock and roll as it is actually lived by most of its practitioners. No private jets, no limos, no personal manager smoothing out the rough edges of reality, in fact, not enough to cover the rent. Such is the life of Jacki… Read More »
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
Check to see if Hell has frozen over, if there are flocks of pigs flying overhead, if theres a rip in the space/time continuum, because I’ve seen something that I was sure would never happen: Jim Carrey giving a mature, nuanced performance that is both genuinely affecting and deeply moving. That grail that he has… Read More »
COFFEE AND CIGARETTES
Are you a bug, Bill Murray? It’s an odd question, but in the context of Jim Jarmusch’s brilliant consideration of human interaction, COFFEE AND CIGARETTES, there is both genius and poetry to it. This series of vignettes filmed in glossy, nostalgic black and white examines ten different conversations that on the surface have nothing in common… Read More »
STATESIDE
At one point in STATESIDE, Dori, played by Rachel Leigh Cook, asks Mark, played by Jonathan Tucker), and Im quoting here, whether or not two people who sort of suck can marry each other. Legally, of course, there is no law against it. As for the philosophical implications, I reserve judgment, there being so many… Read More »
GARDEN STATE
Only rarely does a film as profound, as rich, and as deeply affecting as GARDEN STATE come along. Even more rarely is it the handiwork of a first-time filmmaker. That would be Zack Braff, known for his role as the philosophically harried intern on the subversively wicked comedy, Scrubs. Braff is Andrew Largeman, a struggling… Read More »
CRIMINAL
Greed makes the world go around, at least it does in the seedy world of CRIMINAL. This re-make of the Argentinian film, NINE QUEENS, has been re-imagined by writer/director Gregory Jacobs as a quirky daylight noir with a plot that spins on a dime as its twists and turns on its way to proving that it’s… Read More »
SILVER CITY
SILVER CITY, the title of John Sayles latest film, sounds like a pale reflection of El Dorado, the mythical city of gold that European sought way back when. They were obsessed with dreams of wealth beyond imagination and the power it would buy for them. With eyes on that prize, they failed to see the… Read More »
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU
In THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU. Wes Anderson, of RUSHMORE and THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS fame, again works in a rarified atmosphere with his unique auteurs voice that will leave some viewers wondering what all the fuss is about and other flinging hosannas to heaven. He blithely flits from the sublime to the ridiculous and… Read More »