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The Blog Log 2007
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December 12/22 More Best
of the Best My
Top 10 Runner Ups for 2007 and
others’ posted on Film
Blog @ The
Boston Phoenix. 12/21 Best of the
Best My
Top 10 of 2007 and Worst 5 and others’ posted on Film Editor, Peter Keough’s Blog at The Boston Phoenix. 12/21 Air Time For NECN reviews of Charlie Wilson’s War and Sweeney Todd,
click here. 12/20 On Air My time to go
on at NECN tomorrow
(12/21) has changed from 12/20 Movie of
the Week to See! Charlie
Wilson’s War and Tim Burton’s rich take on Sweeny Todd are two of the better films of the
year, but they’re not quite in the rare league as Julian Schnabel’s brilliant
story of a stroke paralyzed editor in The
Diving Bell and the Butterfly. 12/18 On Air I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (12/21 @ 12/17 Best of the
Best My Top 10 of 2007. 12/16 DVD Picks of
the Week (New) Once, it’s a romance, it’s a musical, low budget and simply
haunting. (Reissue) Blade Runner (1982), Ridley Scott’s dark
envisioning of Earth in the not too far off future is one of the best sci-fi
action flick to take place on this planet, and Mel Gibson may be a lunatic,
but the man can make movies as demonstrated by his award winning war epic Braveheart (1995) and
last year’s Apocalypto. (Out and Reviewed) Balls of Furry, Stardust, Underdog and National
Treasure. 12/14 Movie of
the Week to See! Three pleasers: I
Am Legend, the remake of Omega Man (1971) has Will
Smith as the last man alive, facing a horde of mutants, the screen adaptation
of Khaled Hosseini’s
wildly popular novel, The Kite
Runner, tells a heartfelt tale of redemption, and Jason Reitman’s follow up to Thank You for Smoking, Juno, may not as
barbed as its predecessor, but it’s still a solid black comedy propelled by
wit and humor. 12/13 Review of The Perfect Holiday. 12/09 Best of the Best The Boston Society of Film Critics
picks are in and No Country for
Old Men takes the top prize. 12/09 DVD Picks of
the Week (Reissue) Monte Hellman’s Two Lane
Blacktop (1971) is a cult classic in the vein of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), The Shooting (1967), Performance (1970) and Electric Glide in Blue (1973). Most of which feature
the great character actor Warren Oates. In Blacktop he plays
GTO, a nomad driver who bets his hotrod against the tandem of singer James
Taylor and Beach Boy, Brian Wilson, in a cross country drag race. It’s a
surreal oddity, that offers social commentary as
provocatively careers into unexpected terrain. 12/08 Best of the Best Tomorrow, the Boston Society of Film Critics, pick
the year’s best film. It’ll be a long process, but go to their website for all the updates. 12/07 Movie of
the Week to See! Atonement, Joe
Wright’s adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel, is a
scrumptious romantic epic to behold and both James McAvoy
and Keira Knightley flex
their fledgling star power. Also, Darfur
Now and is a keen and hopeful look into the genocide problem in the
12/06 Reviews of Darfur Now and Revolver. 12/04 Review of The 11th Hour that’s now available in Winter
edition of Cineaste Magazine.
12/02 DVD Picks of
the Week (New) If you dig trippy Asian anime, then Paprika is just your
poison, and Adrienne Shelly’s first and last film before her murder, Waitress, is delicious indie
treat about a server, knocked-up, single and able to release her emotions in
her pies. (Reissue)
Another John Ford collection (Ford at Fox) is out. The
masterworks include Drums Along
the Mohawk (1940). (Out and
Reviewed) Mira Nair’s adaptation of the widely acclaimed novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, The
Namesake. 12/01 In Print My essay reviewing the 11th Hour is available now in Cineaste Magazine. 11/30 Air Time For NECN reviews of Before the Devil Knows Your Dead, Hitman and Margo at the Wedding click here. 11/26 DVD Picks of
the Week (New) The end of
the line for Johnny Depp’s screwball pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is fitting
and well earned conclusion, especially for something that came from an
amusement ride, and in keeping with threes, Matt Damon keeps the intensity up
in The Bourne Ultimatum. (Reissue) Two classics
that need no introduction Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Phillip K. Dick’s
futuristic novella, Blade Runner (1982) and
the eternal Christmas staple It’s a
Wonderful Life (1946) …plus there are director collections from the Coen brothers, John Ford and Stanley Kubrick. (Out and
Reviewed) Woof, woof, it’s Underdog. 11/25 On Air I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (11/30 @ 11/22 Movie of
the Week to See! Todd Haynes’s portrait of Bob Dylan, I’m Not There maybe plotless
but it’s also hypnotic and cuts new trails in cinematic style. An androgynous
Cate Blanchett plays one
of six incarnations of the legendary troubadour. ..Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh
shine in Margo at the
Wedding, another tale of claustrophobic dysfunction from The Squid and the Whale director Noah Baumbach. 11/21 Reviews of Beowulf, Love
in the Time of Cholera and Hitman. 11/18 DVD Picks of
the Week (Reissue) Two bald
creeps who rock, Max Schreck as the original big screen
vampire in F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) and
Michel Blanc as a enigmatic peeping Tom in Patrice Leconte’s Monsieur Hire (1989). (Out and Reviewed) Ho, ho, so, The
Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. 11/14 Review of P2. 11/09 Air Time: For NECN reviews of No
Country for Old Men, Lions for Lambs and Fred Claus click
here. 11/09 Movie of
the Week to See! The Coen brothers are back in dark
form with their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s
violent thriller, No Country for Old Men. Think Blood Simple or Fargo without the
cheeky wit. 11/06 On Air I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (8:45), November 9th to review No Country for Old Men,
Lions for Lambs and Fred Claus. 11/05 Review of No Country for Old Men. 11/04 DVD Picks of
the Week (Reissue) Jack
Nicholson, Robert Towne and Roman Polanski are all at their peak in the
revisionist crime-noir, Chinatown (1974). A
must for any collection and No. 6 on my 500 Must Sees.
(Out and Reviewed) Michael
Moore’s latest political stunt, Sicko and Adam Sandler
adds his own political boost for same sex marriage in I
Now Pronounce You Chuck + Larry. 11/01 Reviews of Warren
Miller’s Playground, Saw IV and Jimmy
Carter Man from Plains. 10/27 DVD Picks of
the Week! (New) Don Cheadle and Chiwetel
Ejiofor give two of the year’s best
performances (along with Mr. Riley
below) in Talk to Me, Kasi Lemmons’s sharp bio-pic about DC DJ and civil rights advocate, Petey Greene. (Out and
Reviewed) In
the Land of Women. 10/25 Movie of
the Week to See! Control is the best
rock-n-roll bio-pic since Sid and Nancy (1986) and Gus Van Sant’s The Last Days (2005), and Sam
Riley is Oscar worthy as Joy Division’s tragic lead singer, Ian Curtis. Get the latest on what’s
playing. 10/24 Reviews of The
Comebacks and Music Within. 10/21 On Air! I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM, October 26th to review upcoming films. 10/20 DVD Picks of the Week! (Reissue) Tons of great picks: The Stanley Kubrick box set includes 2001: A Space Odysey (1968) The Shinning (1980), Lolita (1962), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and more. And there’s also such timeless classics as Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964), the close remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961) and the first entry in his Man with no Name trilogy—For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Plus there’s Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925) featuring the indelibly classic Odessa steps shoot out that was brilliantly cloned in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987), Sidney Lumet’s courtroom classic, 12 Angry Men (1957), Terrence (The Thin Red Line and Badlands) Malick’s gorgeously shot Days of Heaven (1978) featuring a young Richard Gere and O Lucky Man! (1973), Lindsay Anderson’s gonzo sequel to the equally gonzo, angry young man drama, If… (1968). (Out and Reviewed) Home of the Brave, Fido (if you dug Shaun of the Dead, this one has sauce for you), Meet the Robinsons and Eli Roth’s gory follow up to Hostel, Hostel: Part II. 10/18 Book review of Richard Ford’s Lay of the Land. 10/17 Reviews of Lust,
Caution, Why Did I Get Married? and Things We Lost in the
Fire. 10/14 DVD Picks of
the Week! (New) Angelina Jolie is Oscar worthy as Daniel Pearl’s intrepid wife in A
Mighty Heart. (Out and
Reviewed) Supernatural mumbo-jumbo abounds in The Invisible, where a
teen tries to solve his own murder. 10/05 Movie of
the Week to See! George Clooney is cool, smooth and conflicted as a flawed
fixer in Michael
Clayton. It’s The Firm for the
thinking crowd. Get the latest
on what’s playing. 10//01 DVD Picks of
the Week! (New) Raymond
Carver’s short So Much Water so Far
From Home gets an Australian update in Jindabyne. Great
performances by Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney. (Out and Reviewed) 1408, John Cusack carries this Stephen King adaptation. 09/27 Reviews of The
Bubble and The King of California. 09/19 Reviews of Feast
of Love and Dedication. 09/17 DVD Picks of
the Week! (New) Grindhouse is a self
indulgent vanity project from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, but if you’re
a fan of Quentin’s 70s homage obsessed style (Kill
Bill), you’re in for a pleasurable 3 hour grind. We
are Marshall, is a tad
melodramatic, but it shows plenty of heart. The performances Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox play off each other
handsomely. And if you like lite French farces, where goons get paired with
supermodels, then checkout Francis Veber’s riotous The
Valet. (ReIssue) A couple of classics, Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Deliverance (1972), plus William (The French
Connection, The Exorcist) Friedkin’s once heavily protested, now cult classic,
thriller about a serial killer in the gay S&M underworld, Cruising (1980). 09/14 Movie of
the Week to See! You could call Eastern
Promises, A History of
Violence Part 2. It features a throat slashing inspired by a terrorist
beheading on the internet… and it’s set in 09/12 Still Going
The 23rd Boston
Film Festival is upon us (it runs September 14th-21s). In the past 2 years
since Robin Dawson took over the already sinking ship, the future for the
fest seemed grim. Now, George Clooney’s in the mix. The film selection is
still second tier (most of the choice films and talent are at 09/09 DVD Picks of
the Week! (New) Sarah Polley’s directorial debut, Away
from Her, may just be my favorite film of the year. Based on an Alice
Munro short, the performances by Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent as a woman affiliated by Alzheimer’s and her
husband, who of him, all she recalls if his philandering professor days, go
along way to galvanizing the film. Bittersweet and heartfelt. (ReIssue) The Graduate (1967), the instant classic helmed by
Mike Nichols, staring Dustin Hoffman and featuring the indelible Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack, needs no introduction. 09/07 Movie of
the Week to See! It’s not really the best movie of the week to see ( 09/03 DVD Picks of
the Week! (ReIssue) Jim Jarmusch’s
Broken Flowers (2005), Mystery Train (1989) and Down By Law (1986) starring Roberto Benigni, Tom Waits and longtime Jarmusch
collaborator, John Luire, are my favorites by the
quirky indie director. Now the Criterion collection
has put out Stranger than
Paradise (1984), the movie that put Jarmusch on
the map and his ramshackle, yet appealing collection of hack vignettes from
around the globe, Night on Earth (1991). (Out and Reviewed) Lindsay Lohan plays Lindsay
being Lindsay, in Georgia Rule, which is to
say, she’s an obnoxious self-interested party hound. 09//02 In Print My short, Learning
to Read Bukowski, which I
penned as my entry for the Bukowski Pint and Pen
contest this year—I never finished in time—is part of The Green Muse’s September Issue. 09//01 Impaled on
Scissors… It’s been a long time coming, but finally Augusten
Burroughs got served (settled a law suit). I’ve always questioned the
authenticity of the author’s best selling memoir Running With Scissors
(now just called a book) about his dysfunctional childhood and the timing of
its release—it came out two years, after the psychiatrist, given a fictional
name and depicted in an unflattering and unlawful manner, died. I wonder now
if Sony, which spun the book into a movie starring Alec Baldwin and Annette Benning will get a call from a lawyer?
See the new
news and my old
rant. 08/30 Reviews of War and Balls
of Fury. 08//26 DVD Picks of
the Week! (New) Quirky,
understated and perversely funny, Year
of the Dog is a tasty biscuit from Chuck
and Buck (2000) co-creator, Mike White and SNL leftover Molly Shannon. (Out and Reviewed) Kickin’ it Old
School—why bother? And from the why reIssue files, A Night
at the Roxbury. 08//23 Reviews of Resurrecting
the Champ and The Last Legion. 08/19 DVD Picks of
the Week! (ReIssue) It’s hard to believe that Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop (1987) is
twenty years old. Its FX and gritty, yet humorous and self-effacing look at
the near future are still cutting edge even by today’s glossed up standards.
Peter Weller is perfectly understated as the Cyborg
cop struggling with his identity. A one-of-a-kind accomplishment… and also
hitting the twenty year mark is David Mamet’s pscho-thriller, House
of Games (1987), where everyone seems to be playing an angle and it’s
never clear who is really being played. Mamet’s
juicy dialogue gets served up by a usual suspects Joe Mantegna and now ex-wife, Lindsay Crouse. The second best Mamet play to screen adaptation behind Glengarry, Glen Ross (1992). (Out
and Reviewed) The
Ultimate Gift, silly moral lessoning with a heavy Christian accent. 08/16 Movie of
the week to see! Rocket Science Fast Times are
Ridgemont High with a heart or Igby Goes Down with soul. Spellbound director Blitz gets teen angst down. 08/16 Reviews of Death
at a Funeral and Rocket Science. 08/12 DVD Picks of
the Week! (New) David Lynch’s little seen, slightly released Remembering Antonioni and Bergman: Two great directing legends gone in one
week. Here are my two favorite films by each director. Antonioni
(I must admit I have never seen the highly regarded, L’Avventura): Blow
Up (1966) and The Passenger (1975). For Bergman, it’s easily The Seventh Seal (1957) and Persona (1966). 08/09 Reviews of Underdog
and Stardust. 08/04 DVDs (Out and Reviewed) The lil
green guys go from cartoon to live action and back to animated incarnations
in TMNT. 08/03 The Movie
of the Week to See! The Bourne trilogy
has been a harrowing ride and The Bourne
Ultimatum is no let down. Matt Damon’s laconic spy searching for his past
and a little payback gets all the answers, and director Peter Greengrass (United 93) keeps it all on a laser beam, even
as the loops predictably close. Think
of it all as, Who Am I? Why AM I? and Why Did You? 08/01 Reviews of The
Ten and Who’s Your Caddy? 07/31 Book Review of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. 07/30 Go See! If you’re a fan of Francis For Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979), the recut, Redux, does not
add more, but it is a curio that fills in some of the blanks and packs more
of an overt political punch. You can catch the classic with the extra 49
minutes this Wednesday
at the Brattle Theater.
07/28 DVD Picks of
the Week! (New) Starter for Ten, is a cute, mod-era 07/27 Today’s the day! Tonight
(8PMish) @ Grub Street’s big 10 year bash, I read my
short Scrambling
recently published in Grub Street’s best of anthology, Hacks. Click here for
details. 07/26 Reviews of I
Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and No Reservations. My Short Scrambling has just been published in Grub Street’s 10th year, best of
anthology, Hacks. To celebrate the publication, the official launch party will happen on Friday,
July 27th,
where I’ll read. Come on by to see me trip over my words. See the website for further details. 07/21 Do We Really Need More
Moore? my Rant on Michael
Moore and Sicko has been posed on Web del
Sol. 07/21 DVD Picks of
the Week! (New) David (Fight Club) Fincher’s take on the investigation
into the real life serial killer of title, in Zodiac is part
gripping crime drama and part creepy sicko snuff
flick. Stand out performances by Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards as the gonzo journalist and
detectives on the killer’s trail… also, from 07/14 In
Need of a Cure: read the new Rant on Michael
Moore and Sicko. 07/13 On Air! My NECN reviews
of Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix, Talk to Me and Rescue Dawn. 07/12 Reviews of Talk
to Me and Sicko. 07/11 On Air! I’ll be on NECN this Friday, July 13th to review Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Talk to Me and Rescue
Dawn. 07/06 Movie of
the Week to See! Transformers is chockfull
of eye popping FX, but director Michael Bay’s bang bang
mayhem, seems done before and relies too much on sex appeal and morphing
‘bots to make it go. Like zombie movies with an edge and shot of humor like Shaun
of the Dead or Slither? If so, then
the quirky, off kilter Fido
is for you. 07/04 Happy 4th of July! 07/04 Book Review of Raymond Carver’s Where I’m
Calling From. 07/03 Review of Fido. 07/01 Go See! Brother from Another
Planet, John Sayles’s quirky 1984 comedy about ignorance and racism. The
title, an African American ET and Sayles himself, as one half of the original
Men in Black are just a
few of the many devilish twists. You can see it in Monday, July 2nd
at the Boston Public Library. Other personal Sayles’s favorites of mine
on far ranging subject matters include; economic demise in City of Hope (1991), the Black Sox scandal in Eight Men Out (1988) and early 1900 workers
manipulated by corporations and unions in Matewan (1987). 07/01 DVD Picks of
the Week! (Reviewed
and Out) Pride, a near miss
as a pick. Terrence Howard is terrific as real-life swimming coach Jim Ellis battling
racism and thugs to better the lives of a few wayward boys. 06/28 Review of 1408. 06/28 Movie of
the Week to See! Sicko, isn’t as
acerbic as Michael Moore’s other polemic documentaries. In short it
disappoints, even with the Cuban stunt. However, Live
Free or Die Hard does get back to its old school roots. Aged and haggard
per usual, Bruce Willis’s throw back cop, John McClane
gets caught in another maniacal mastermind’s maelstrom of mayhem. It’s
delivers the bang, bang, smash ‘em up action
thrills, and in a digital age, McClane’s relentless
throw back, is refreshing, especially as the country’s telecom and energy
grids go down. 06/24 DVD Picks of the Week! (New) Shooter Mark Wahlberg has a fun time as
a semi retired army sharpshooter, caught up in a Presidential assassination
plot. It’s not as cerebral or compelling as The
Parallax View (1974), Suddenly (1954) or The Manchurian Candidate (1962), but it does make for
a thinking man’s thriller. (Reviewed
and Out) Black Snake Moan, Christina
Ricci plays a wayward nymphomaniac and Samuel L. Jackson plays the man who
tries to reign her in. Craig Brewer
who struck gold with Hustle and
Flow (2005), loses his grip with this silly southern gothic. That
makes two bad snake outings (Snakes on a
Plane) in a row for Mr. Jackson. 06/15 On
Air! My NECN review segment from
this morning. 06/13 Movie of
the Week to See! It’s a coin toss: La Vie En Rose, Olivier Dahan’s bio-pic about French chanteuse
Edith Piaf is a scrumptious wonder to behold, while
The Rise of the Silver Surfer improves
upon the Fantastic
Four and shows that this is the superhero series with teeth. 06/12 Reviews of A
Mighty Heart, Hostel: Part II and La
Vie En Rose. 06/10 DVD Picks of the Week! (New) Chris Cooper gives an Oscar caliber performance as
real-life CIA mole, Robert Hanssen in Breach, and Ryan Phillippe continues
to impress in maturing roles as Hanssen’s wide-eyed
understudy, trying to out him. (Reviewed
and Out) Ghost
Rider, if you’re a Nick Cage fan, and Blood and Chocolate—woof! (Reissued) The Verdict (1982),
probably the most un-Boston, 06/07 The movie I penned for the 06/07 Movie of
the Week to See! The third times a charm, though the first two we just as
much fun. If you liked the cool dialogue and hip score to Ocean’s 11 and Ocean’s
12, then you’ll dig Ocean’s 13, if not,
pass. IMHO Clooney and Soderbergh can spin another
2 or 3 out of this one. 06/04 Mini
Oscars! On Thursday, June 7th @ the Coolidge Corner Theater, my 48 Hour Film Project, Quin Quimby and the Itchy
Scourge (I’m only the writer, but…) is one of the finalists for
awards. The festivities begin at 06/03 DVD Picks of
the Week. The Sergio
Leone Anthology, you get the director’s timeless spaghetti western
collaboration with Clint Eastwood, The
Man With No Name trilogy (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More and A Fistful of Dollars), plus Duck,
You Sucker—aka A
Fistful of Dynamite… Icon Steve
McQueen garnered his only Academy Award nomination for The Sand Pebbles (1966), the epic yarn about a |
05/31 Movie
of
the Week to See! The trippy Japanese anime, Paprika is a think man’s adult swim. It’s a thriller about a
device that blurs the line between dreams and reality. The titular heroine is
a sexy sprite pixie, while her real alter ego is a no-nonsense scientist. ..and if you have not seen it, run out and see Away From Her, Sarah Polley’s masterful
adaptation of Alice Munro’s short, The Bear Came Over the Mountain. It’s about Alzheimer’s,
confused relationships and the people struggling around those affected.
Polly’s only 28 and her debut effort, of such mature adult material, promises
something more for a good long time to come. Of course it stars Julie
Christie, who is still a portrait of radiance and desire even at 66. 05/30 Yippee! My 48 Hour Film Project, Quin Quimby
and the Itchy Scourge made the finals. Dates and details for the baby
Oscars! 05/27 DVD Picks of the Week! It’s a slim week. New: Hannibal Rising is a curio
for fans of the series and in Reissued: The 40 Year Old
Virgin (2005) is
already getting a second release. For fans of director Sidney Lumet in his crime-drama prime (12 Angry Men and Serpico) there’s Prince if the City (1981) featuring Treat
Williams as the honest cop fighting corruption. …and there’s Scarface, the 1932 original that gave birth to the 1980 retooling
featuring Al Pacino as the Cuban immigrant turned
criminal capitalist. Paul Muni is equally as
volatile in this Howard Hughes production. 052/0 Book Reviews of Freakonomics and Twilight for the
Superheroes. 05/20 DVD Picks of the Week! New: Mel Gibson may be one mad misguided bigot (or not) but
this guy knows how to make movies. Apocalypto is a great companion piece to Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ. All three are steeped in history and lore and Gibson’s
unaffected vision. Take him or it for what it is, but Gibson’s rendering of
Mayan mayhem landed at #7 on my Top 10 of 2006. 05/17 Movie of the Week to See! Like Raymond Carver? Remember in Robert Altman’s masterful
film adaptation, Short Cuts, when Huey
Lewis pulls out his… and pees into the river and onto a dead body? That
vignette is based on Carver’s So Much Water So Close to Home,
gets an Outback retooling in Jindabyne. The results
are dark, telling and riveting. 05/16 Reviews of Jindabyne and Georgia Rule. 05/12 DVD Picks of the Week! New: Darren Aronofsky is one of the
most intriguing directors of his generation. Pi (1998) may have been a slack low-fi
sci-fi thriller, but the drug addiction tour de force, Requiem for a
Dream (2000) showcased
the director’s true talent. And while there was much negative hype about the
time traveling romance, The Fountain,
the performances by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, and riveting visuals, do more than atone for an
unconventional (plotless some critics hurled)
narrative. It made my Top 10 of 2006 …and
speaking of visual stunners, Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy blended with Franco
fascism, Pan’s
Labyrinth, was the
movie The
Fountain edged out to
make my Top 10 of 2006. …also being released and reviewed by me, The Dead Girl (worth a
look) and Stomp the Yard. ReIssue: Becket (1964).
Edward Anhalt’s play may be about King Henry II’s conflict with the titular former drinking buddy,
turned pious church envoy, but with a cast that features Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole and
John Gielgud, it could be about anything and still
be riveting. 05/11 Movie of the Week to See! 28 Weeks Later, better than its predecessor. More creepy and more real,
and the zombie mayhem is exactly what you’d hope for. At the center is a
disturbing father and son drama that plays out with profound repercussions.
The amazing sound track is both hypnotic and haunting. 05/10 Review of The Hip Hop Project. 05/09 Go Make a Movie: my take on
doing the 48 Hour Film Project posted on Misstropolis. 05/08 See it! The trailer for Quin Quimby and the Itchy Scourge. 05/07 Come and See! My 48 Hour Film Project team’s film
made it in with less than 30 seconds to go on deadline. Our genre draw was
superhero, not exactly what I had hoped for (I’m the writer) but we made a
game go of it. The film’s called Quin Quimby and the Itchy Scourge and it plays at the Kendall Square Cinema this Wednesday (May 9th) @ For advanced tickets (recommended)
you can get them at Movie Tix or see 48 Hour’s Boston Section that has
links for tickets, dates, details and a filmmaker blog. 05/06 DVD Picks of the Week! New: There’s three ho-hum fare like Because I Said So is out
there, as are some interesting, but not quite all there selections like Breaking and
Entering (think Closer 2 and it has Jude Law as well) and The Painted
Veil (gorgeous
cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh), but the one to
see is Amy Berg’s haunting documentary, Deliver us from Evil, about pedophilia in the Catholic Church. …also, read my Boston Phoenix interview
with Berg. ReIssue: Bonnie Brasco (1997) feature two great actors (Al Pacino
and Johnny Depp) in a tale of male bonding and
honor to duty as a FBI mole tries to take down a mob boss. Based on real
events. …and how can you deny Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a
Thief (1955)? It
feature the lovely Grace Kelly and Cary Grant as dashing robber and love
interest. Totally Hollywood and totally classic. 05/04 Movie of the Week to See! If you’re a Spiderman fan then Spiderman 3 is for you. If you found the first one just OK and the
second running out of gas already, then you should pass. 3 has a lot going on. Perhaps too
much. Some of it’s deft and droll, but much of the camp misfires badly. My
recommendation would be Francis Veber’s quirky
French farce, The Valet. Where else,
but in 05/03 Reviews of Next, The Invisible and Kickin’ It Old School. 04/30 I’ve gone and done it, and signed up to be on a team for the 48 Hour Film Project (where you do just that, make a movie in 48 hours). The 04/29 DVD Picks of the Week! New: The Hitcher remake lacks
the camp of it’s 1986 predecessor, Dreamgirls offers great performances (Jennifer Hudson won the Best
Supporting Female Oscar and Eddie Murphy was nominated in the counterpart
category), soulful music and slick direction, but the pick is Little
Children, which
feature two Oscar nods itself; Kate Winslet for
Best Actress and Jackie Earle Haley in the Best Supporting role—remember him
as Moocher in Breaking Away
(1979)? The tale of dysfunction, infidelity and a fallen cop’s vengeful
obsession with a furloughed pedophile, is more gripping in Todd (In the Bedroom) Field’s hands than author Tom (Election) Perrotta’s pen. …and, believe
it or not, Justin Timberlake can act. In Nick Cassavetes’s
Alpha
Dog, the pop icon plays a
reluctant participant in a drug deal gone bad. The
film came and went in the theaters and is worthy of a look on DVD. ReIssue: An Officer and a Gentlemen (1982), Richard Gere proved
acting chops beyond his good looks as a going nowhere bum trying to make it
as a Naval aviator. Of course everyone remembers Louis Gossett Jr. indelible
Academy Award winning turn as drill instructor. Overall one of the great
romantic films of all times as it works as both a chick flick,
that more than works for guys as well. 04/27 Movie of the Week to See! If you’re in 04/26 Reviews of The Condemned, The Valet, Offside and Fracture. 04/23 See It! Boston’s best film festival is no longer the Boston Film Festival, which has been in decline over the past few years (but I
am hopeful for a resurgence), but the Independent Film Festival which runs April 25th
to May 1st, at three
great local art houses: The Brattle, Somerville Theater and The Coolidge Corner Theater. Last year, the IFF boasted Half Nelson, which went on to garner Ryan Gosling an Oscar nod and
this year, Hal Hartley is back with Fay Grim, which is, believe it or not, a sequel to his 1997 quirky
sleeper, Henry
Fool. Go to the IFF’s website for further details. 04/22 DVD Picks of the Week! There’s a reason Helen Mirren
won an Oscar for her performance in The Queen, the story of the titular entity’s remorse/reaction to
the death of her former daughter in law, Princess Dianna. What you may not
have realized at the time was the public revolt against the monarchy’s aloof
response. Michael Sheen is excellent as the young Tony Blair. …if you’re a Denzel Washington, Tony Scott bang-bang fan, then the
time continuum thriller, Déjà vu may be for you. If you’re
just curious, we’ll be warned, you’ll feel like you’ve seen it all before.
…and if you’ve been enrapt by Lucy Liu (also ex-producer) or Desperate
Housewives hawk (it’s
got Nicollette Sheridan in a battery of slink
outfits), you may get a kick out if Code Name: the Cleaner, but
probably not. 04/18 Movie of the Week to See! Hot Fuzz (from the makers of Shaun of the Dead), Fracture (staring Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins and Oscar nominee
Ryan Gosling) and The Land of Women, all pack
piquant treats, but the movie to see is Mike White’s The Year of the Dog. SNL alum
Molly Shannon give a career turn as a disenfranchised office worker with a
canine obsession and White (Chuck and Buck)
maintains his comic hand as a first time helmer. 04/17 Reviews of The Land of Women and Pathfinder. 04/14 DVD Picks of the Week! New: 04/12 Unsexy is in, or out, depending on how you look at it. In any case,
the Phoenix’s List of 100, is a scream,
and I, by default, made it at #76. 04/11 Reviews of Year of the Dog and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. 04/08 DVD Picks of the Week! The dubious travails of Jim Jones, the 04/06 Movie of the Week to See! It’s hip, it’s cool and there’s plenty of spunk to it,
plus some great dialogue and some dead-on performances, but be advised, the
new Quentin Tarantinio and Robert Robert Rodriguez collaboration Grindhouse, is derivative schlock made for die hard Tarantino and RR
fans. At three hours plus, this homage to the B exploitation movies of the
70’s (which is something Tarantino has been doing as infinitum since bursting
onto the scene with Reservoir Dogs
in 1992) plays out like From Dusk Till Dawn and a deranged episode of Dukes of
Hazard. Grindhouse is two movies in one, with each director getting a 90
minute swath. Rodriguez’s Planet Terror is a zombie flick
centered on a slinky Rose McGowan (sure to revive her career after wallowing
as Marilynn Manson’s goth sidekick) and Freddy Rodríguez (Harsh Times) as former
lovers reunited in the face of the apocalypse. And in Tarantino’s Death
Proof Kurt Russell’s a tea toddling road warrior with a disturbing
passion for buxom babes in muscle cars. Neither spectacle entirely stands on
its own, but the packaging puts it over the top, especially the faux trailers
sandwiched in the middle by such usual suspects as Rob Zombie (Devil’s Rejects), Eli Roth (Cabin Fever and Hostel) and Edgar
Wright (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). 04/05 Review of Firehouse Dog. 04/02 I’m shocked to hear that
Oprah has chosen Cormac McCarthy’s The Road as her next book club read. It’s darker than anything
she’s ever picked before, but I’m glad the book is getting that kind of
recognition. It’s easily one of the best and most affecting books I have read
in the past 10 years. 04/01 DVD Picks of the Week! New: Volver may be a more subtle film from Pedro Almodóvar
(than let’s say Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown or Live Flesh), but it carries
dark undertones and a knockout performance from Penelope Cruz. …for the
politically minded Robert De Niro’s second
directing effort, The Good Shepherd,
is an intriguing, if muddled look at the origins of the CIA and the
provocative in concept, but not so in execution, mocumentary
about the assignation of president Bush, Death of a
President, provides
food for thought. ReIssue: One of the ten best
baseball movies, The Natural
(1984) features a well cast Robert Redford as the hero who could have been.
In a steroid stained world, its poignancy resonates with even greater
clarity. …a nerdy Dudley Moore gets his wish come true (a hot Raquel Welch)
in Bedazzled (1967) the absurd and unlikely comedy from Stanley Doneen (Singin' in the Rain). …and Bob Fosse’s wonderful yet underappreciated
autobiography, All that Jazz
(1979), is dark and provocative journey down with a strong performance by Roy
Scheider as the self destructive
choreographer. March 03/29 Reviews of Meet
the Robinsons, Live Free or Die and The
Lookout. 03/26 Go See! As part of
the Brattle Theater’s cop drama
series, Hot Fuzztival you can see Bullitt (1968) this Tuesday,
3/27. It packs one of five the greatest car chase scenes in movie
history, along with The French
Connection (1972), The Seven Ups (1973), To Live and Die in LA (1985) and The Rock (1996). The
Exorcist (1973) director William Friedkin, made two of them. …and on Thursday,
3/27, you can see Infernal
Affairs, the 2002 Asian cop flick propelled by bullets and double
identities, which served as the blueprint for this year’s Oscar winner, The Departed. 03/25 DVD Picks of the
Week! Three great picks. The cautionary, futuristic Children of Men, is Blade
Runner closer to home (in time), Will Smith takes a walk on the
heartfelt side as a struggling single dad in The Pursuit of Happyness and one of my Top 10 picks of 2006, Zhang Ymou’s opulent tale of incestuous revenge, The Curse of the Golden Flower. It stars
the always feisty and never aging, Gong Li and Chow Yun-Fat.
….and if you have a hankering for slasher fare, Turistas does have some genuine creep you out
moments. 03/23 Movie of the Week to See! Before there was Fellini there
was Lattuada, who gave Fredrico
his start. Lattuada’s little seen 1962 mob romp Mafioso, dark in
heart but merry in soul, gets a second shot at a stateside due. …Shooter works, you can think of it as Rambo with brains
as directed by Antoine Fuqua of Training Day notoriety. It’s political aspirations are appealing even if they
don’t go anywhere and call to mind a much better and more cutting thriller
starring Warren Beatty, The Parallax
View (1974). 03/22 Reviews of The
Dead Girl, Mafioso, Pride, Dead
Silence and TMNT. 03/18 DVD Picks of the
Week! The Departed may be the
better movie, but it was in Blood Diamond, as a soldier of fortune seeking a big pay day, that
Leonardo DiCaprio gives the better performance. The
film may border on overt righteousness about the west’s moral responsibility
to If you’re a Rocky fan, Rocky
Balboa is a nostalgic high note to close out the series that had seen
some abysmal lows over its 30-year run. You can also check out my interview with Sly.
He’s a more salt of the earth kind of guy than you think. And for the kids, Eragon is a turgid turd
and a sad way to see Jeremy Irons go. But Everyone’s Hero, brims with old school nostalgia, with Babe Ruth and the
Yankees battling the Chicago Cubs during the Depression and a ten-year-old
boy, ostracized in sandlot games in position to save his dad’s job and the
World Series. It’s the final project (directed) by the late Christopher
Reeve. 03/15 Reviews of The
Ultimate Gift and Two Weeks—two weepies that is J. 03/14 Hot
Sol, my short, Antenuptual just got posted on Web del Sol’s Hot Fiction Issue. 03/13 Has
Oscar Gone Limp? See my wrap up, Oscar Goes Old School on Web del Sol. 03/11 DVD Picks of the
Week! New: The Bond
series is back with a vengeance and a new attitude, largely thanks to the
athleticism of the new (and blonde) 007, Daniel Craig and some changeups in
conventions. Casino Royale may be the best Bond in 30 years. If
you dig Christian Bale’s seething intensity, then Harsh Times is worth a
look. The film goes off track quickly. It’s directed by David Ayer, who
penned Training Day (2001), and
also stars Desperate
House Wife, Eva Longoria. Reissue: I Will Fight No More Forever (1975) is one
of the all-time great TV movies. I put it up there with Michael Mann's Jericho Mile and Roots. It's the
tale of Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé Indians in 03/10 Review of The
Namesake. 03/09 Movie of the Week to See! From And there’s Starter for 10, a cute British romantic comedy
staring—the next coming of Ewan McGregor—James McAvoy fresh from The
Last King of Scotland and newcomer Rebecca Hall who possesses the pert, sassy wit
of a young Kate Beckinsale. 03/08 Check out Misstropolis, the new
online women’s e-zine where I’ll be contributing
film reviews and more. 03/07 Review of 300. 03/04 DVD Picks of the
Week! New: Sang-soo Hong’s Women is the
Future of Man is a haunting and dark take on the politics of sex. American
Hardcore is a gritty documentary chronicling the origins of
American Punk. Make glorious laughter with Sacha
Baron Cohen’s wildly popular—and amusing—Borat. And you can pass on the less funny,
equally scatological, but totally inept, Let’s Go to Prison. Reissue: The Full Monty (1997)
working class blokes in working-class 03/02 Movie of the Week to See! The real-life saga that inspired the original Dirty Harry, Zodiac. Jake Gyllenhaal gives a
strong performance as the reporter obsessed with solving the killing as does
Mark Ruffalo as the overworked cop on the case.
Perhaps one of the finest true crime films ever. Directed superbly by David
Fincher who a few years ago put together Fight Club. 03/01 Reviews of Black
Snake Moan and Wild Hogs. 02/28 Book Review
of The Road. Just an
amazing read from start to finish Air Time: I’ll be on the Todd Feinburg Show (WRKO
680) on Monday 2/26 @ Best of 2006! The Boston Society of
Film Critics (of which I’m
a member) picks,
My Top 10, Oscar Selection
Predictions, Oscar
Night Predictions. In Print: My nonfiction short
The Season That Almost Wasn't, which won 1st place in Ghost
Road Press’s Open Window contest, is out
in GRP’s 2006 Open Windows Anthology. 02/25 DVD Picks of the Week! It’s a real down week when one of the better choices is The Return, but one of My 2006 Top 10 is available: Heart of the Game is an affecting
tale of broken adolescent dreams that’s akin to Hoop Dreams, but about girl ballers—She Got Game? And hey, you can get almost all of tonight’s Oscar nominated
films (Little
Miss Sunshine, 02/23 Book Review
of On Beauty. 02/22 The Oscar Predictions are in! 02/21 Review of Ghost Rider. 02/19 DVD Picks of the Week! 02/15 Movie of the Week to See! Chris Cooper is creepy as real life spy Robert Hansen in
Billy Ray’s Breach. Ryan Phillippe compliments as
the wet behind the ears FBI agent-in-training assigned to Hansen. Ray proved
his mastery of real lives skidding sideways with Shattered
Glass (2003) and keeps known history provocative here. 02/12 Review of Hannibal Rising. 02/11 DVD Picks of the Week! New: Martin Scorsese’s Oscar nominated crime thriller, The Departed—a dark shoutout to Boston!—is
out, as is the Infernal
Affairs trilogy, the Hong Kong auctioneers nominated scribe
William Monahan adapted The Departed from. Sophia
Coppola’s Marie
Antoinette may have been the laughingstock at 02/08 Review of Because I Said So. 02/04 DVD Picks of the Week! New: Clint Eastwood’s
Letters
from Iwo Jima maybe up for
Best Picture, but the American book end to the director’s ambitious WW II
project, Flags of Our
Fathers, has strong
merit too. Also, a surprisingly strong performance from Ben Affleck in Hollywoodland, a dark tale about Tinseltown
and the debated, murder or suicide of TV Superman, George Reeves—who Affleck plays—in
the 50s. And it came and went so fast, you never got a chance to see it in
the theaters, but Bart Freundlich’s Trust the Man is a dark comedy about dysfunctional couples in 02/02 So who’s it going to be? The Bears or the Colts? Rex needs to not give up the big
play and if both teams can keep it close look for Hester or ex-Pat Adam Vinatieri to decide it. I’ll pick the Colts by a single
score if Rex is on. If Rex is off, this will look like the old NFC blowouts
of the 80s and 90s. 02/01 Funny things do happen on
the way to Oscar night, like a
Hindu language film representing Canada in the Best Foreign Language Film
category. True it is; Deepa Mehta’s final chapter
in her elemental trilogy, Water, is a
heartfelt feminist anthem set during the advent of Gandhi’s protest against
imperialist occupiers. Of course, Mehta. Of Indian heritage, lives in 02/01 Good News, I just learned that my story Scrambling will be
included in Grub Street’s upcoming anthology
Hacks, recounting the best to come out of the 02/01 Reviews of Epic Movie and Blood and Chocolate.
1/28
DVD Picks of
the Week! New: Open
Season is respectable (animated) family entertainment. Better than The
Wild or Madagascar, but it’s
no Toy Story. Reissue: Like Pedro Almodovar?
There’s a Viva Pedro collection out that contains six films, including Almodovar’s cross over hit—and a personal favorite of
mine—Women on the Verge of a Nervous
Break Down (1988). And, to warm you up for Hannibal
Rising, you can see Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster in all their
serial-killer, Oscar winning glory in the seminal Silence
of the Lambs (1991). 1/28 The Korean Film Festival at the Museum of Fine
Arts had some strong offerings. King and Clown, a Dynasty era 1/26
The movie of the week to see! You can pass
on The Hitcher and Smoking Aces, which is long on style, but short
on depth. There's way too many bad asses (Alicia Keys dressed up in fishnet stockings
as a lesbian hit woman, a trio of half naked, punked-out
gay neo-Nazis, and Ben Affleck with a handle bar mustache) to have teeth.
It's closer to 3000
Miles to Graceland (2001) than True Romance (1993), which
blended a myriad of big name stars in small off-beat (near gonzo) roles
seamlessly. And they didn’t screen Epic
Movie for the critics and Blood
and Chocolate is a cheesy howl. Go see some of the excellent Oscar contenders
still in theaters.
1/25 Review of The
Hitcher.
1/24 The Oscar Nods
are in and there are some pleasant surprises. Little Miss Sunshine wins three nominations, including
best picture and Mark Wahlberg, not Jack Nicholson,
from The Departed, got the
Best Supporting actor nom. See all the nominations and how
I stacked up. 1/21 DVD Picks of the
Week! New: If the hack
serial killer series, Saw does you,
then by all means engage Saw 3. But The Puffy Chair, a romantic comedy about a trio of
slackers trying to ascertain the object of the title, is the pick. Based on
the title, it may sound insipid, but the relationships are complex and the
humor, dry and telling. Reissue: Akira
Kurosawa’s samurai-western, Yojimbo (1961) became the
blueprint for Sergio Leone’s spaghetti-western classic, A Fistful
of Dollars (1964). Toshiro Mifune as the
drifter caught between two rival gangs was the original taciturn anti-hero
before there was Clint Eastwood. One of the great must see films of all time. 1/18 The
movie of the week to see! God Grew Tired of Us
the chronicle of several Sudanese Lost Boys’ resettlement to
1/17 Read It: Before there was Darfur a profile of John Bul Dau, the Sudanese Lost Boy
who’s featured in the haunting documentary God Grew Tired of Us, in The Boston Phoenix.
1/17 Reviews of God Grew Tired of Us, Primeval and Stomp
the Yard.
1/13 DVD Picks of
the Week! Slim pickings, but former WEE wrestler, Dwayne “The Rock”
Johnson gives a convincing performance as tough-love JV correctional
officer/coach in Gridiron Gang. 1/12 The movie of the week to see! Two of my Top 10s, are out, Clint
Eastwood’s stirring companion piece to Flags
of Our Father, Letters From Iwo Jima, and Jonestown, the chilling documentary about Jim
Jones and the notorious suicide cult. Also out and superbly scrumptious on
the big screen is Guillermo del Toro’s fairytale sent to hell—or fascist
Spain for that matter—Pan’s
Labyrinth. Three can’t misses. …and, if you get a chance this
weekend, see the dynamite Asian rock-n-roll high school drama Linda Linda Linda at the Brattle
Theater. Best of 2006! Dearly
Departed, The Boston
Society of Film Critics (of which I’m a member) tapped The Departed four times (no surprise, since it
takes place in Read
About it: At The
Boston Globe. My Top 10 Yeah, I know, The Departed and The Queen are missing. Both good films for sure,
but… feel free to disagree.
1/11 Reviews of Code
Name: The Cleaner and Happily N’Ever After. 1/7 The Patriots
looked good against the upstart NY Jets, but how will they stack up against LaDainian Tomlinson and the 14-2 San Diego Chargers next
week? Sound
off. 1/7 DVD Picks of the Week! Forget Snakes
on a Plane and The
Illusionist—both films better in hype then on screen—and get to the Brattle Theater
where on Monday 1/8 you can see
Burt Lancaster in the surreal/all too real The
Swimmer (1968) and Thursday 1/10, Sam Peckinpah’s
magnum opus, and my personal all-time favorite, The
Wild Bunch (1969). Two unconventional classics that should not be missed.
1/4
Can someone please tell governor-to-be Deval Patrick to stop spending all this (corporate
raised) money on his week-plus-long inauguration ball and get to work. I
understand he’s excited and he’s a first, but he’s also talked about getting
back to humble grass roots and away from big spending, so stop talking about
it and start doing it. What better way then to excite the people, then take
the money for the celebration and put it in their pockets. Save the fanfare
for when you do something to earn it other than being a first. 1/4 Review of Black
Christmas. 1/1
DVD Picks of the Week! Glory (1989) Edward Zwick’s poignant chronicle about the African American
platoon that fought in the Civil War. A surprising and heartfelt turn by
Matthew Broderick as the unit’s commander. The film won three Academy Awards
including Best Supporting Actor for Denzel
Washington as a seething foot soldier. |
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