THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX, 2004’s version of the 1965 film, which was, in turn based on the novel starts with a bang. It ends with another, even better one, but, alas, sags in the middle with too much exposition and not enough suspense. Though people doing very silly things qualifies as a sort of… Read More »
THE WOODSMAN
THE WOODSMAN is the bravest film of the year, perhaps of the decade. Emotionally challenging and ferociously unforgiving, it is an astonishing work of surprising delicacy played out with the rawest of emotion simmering just beneath the surface. In telling the story of Walter (Kevin Bacon), a convicted pedophile, it demands that we look beyond… Read More »
HOTEL RWANDA
There is a scene in HOTEL RWANDA where Nick Nolte as a member of a U.N. peacekeeping squad, is explaining with more than a trace of righteous indignation to Don Cheadle, as the Rwandan trying to save 1200 of his fellow citizens from slaughter, exactly why the rest of world is going to sit by… Read More »
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Joel Schumacher and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA was a match made in cinematic heaven. The key to successfully producing a screen version of THE PHANTOM is creating a visual feast that is on par with the extravagance of the score. Its a sweeping, soaring thing with crescendos that spill over the audience like so… Read More »
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
MILLION DOLLAR BABY is a perfect film. Director and co-star Clint Eastwood has taken a story about people who live on the margins of life and turned it into a universal story about redemption and respect, and getting them the only way that counts, by being self-administered. The conceit is boxing, which Scrap (Morgan Freeman)… Read More »
BEYOND THE SEA
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 »
SHAUN OF THE DEAD DVD
Click here for the interview with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright.There were three press screenings of SHAUN OF THE DEAD prior to its release here in San Francisco. The first one I had to be talked into. After all, the premise, a romantic comedy about zombies made by people I?d never heard of, didn?t sound… Read More »
APPLESEED (Appurushido)
Anime as a whole is marked by its sophisticated visuals and even more sophisticated consideration of the human condition. This is a genre that is not afraid to ponder deep philosophical questions and challenge its audience to consider ideas that dont always have an easy answer, if there is any answer at all. APPLESEED, based… 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 »
THE WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL
After spending 83 minutes with Mark Bittner and the flock of WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL that have allowed him into their lives, it?s easy to come away with the sense that there was an element of fate in their meeting up. An 魩gr頦rom Washington state with plans to be a musician, he got sidetracked… Read More »
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