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12/31 More
Top
10 poop at the Phoenix.
Happy New Year! 12/30 Best of the Best: My Top 10 for
2008 is out. 12/21 DVDs out and reviewed: Fly Me
to the Moon. 12/19 On Air: For NECN reviews of The Tale
of Despereaux, Yes
Man and Valkyrie, click here. 12/17 Reviews of The Tale
of Despereaux and Delgo. 12/16 On Air: I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (12/19 @ 12/14 The Boston Society of Film Critics picks for 2008 are in. 12/14 DVDs out and reviewed: The House Bunny. 12/13 Coming tomorrow the 12/12 Reviews of Nothing
Like the Holidays and Punisher:
War Zone. 12/02 Review of Twilight
and Let
the Right One In. 11/30 DVD Picks of the Week! (ReIssues) 11/26 Review of Transporter 3. 11/25 On Air: I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (11/29 @ 8:45) to review Australia, Milk and Four
Christmases. 11/23 DVD Picks of the Week! (ReIssues) How can you argue with Big Crosby
singing Irving Berlin’s White Christmas
in Holiday Inn (1942),
Billy Wilder’s meta classic Sunset
Boulevard (1950) with William Holden and Gloria Swanson with Buster Keaton
and Cecil B. DeMille as them
selves, plus Sounder (1972) the
somber story of black sharecroppers in 1930’s Louisiana. (Out and Reviewed) Eddie Murphy tries to get back
on track in Meet Dave and Space Chimps. 11/21 Movie of
See! Forget Twilight and see Let the Right One In, the darker and more moving tale
about teenage vampires. And of course Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, which is now my favorite film of
the year so far—it’s a feel good, feel-bad winner. 11/16 DVD Picks of the Week! (New) Two films
that are near locks to make my top 10 of 2008, Wener
Herzog’s philosophizing documentary, Encounters
at the End of the World and the heartfelt, Disney-Pixar collaboration WALL-E, directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding
Nemo)… And, probably the funniest film of
the year, Tropic Thunder. 11/07 Air Time: For my NECN reviews of 11/06 Reviews of RocknRolla and The
Haunting of Molly Hartley. 11/05 On Air: I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (11/07 @ 11/02 DVD Picks of the Week! (ReIssues) The college comedy classic Animal House (1978) is back and it easily stands
the test of time. (Out and
Reviewed) An unwise remake, Get Smart. 10/27 DVD Picks of the Week! (Out and
Reviewed) Hell Ride, Tarantino
produces this flimsy nod to 60’s biker flicks. 10/20 DVD Picks of the Week! (ReIssues) Missing (1982)
Costa-Garvas’s taut tale about a father (Jack
Lemon) trying to find his son-in-law who has been abducted by militants in a
fictitious South American country. It’s a work that sits well with the likes
of Under Fire (1983), 10/17 Bush
Whacked: I never went
on NECN this Friday
AM because the real Bush held an economic address that preempted my review of
W. 10/16 Reviews of Sex Drive, Morning Light and Quarantine. 10/27 DVD Picks of the Week! (Out and
Reviewed) Hell Ride, Tarantino
produces this flimsy nod to 60’s biker flicks. 10/20 DVD Picks of the Week! (ReIssues) Missing (1982)
Costa-Garvas’s taut tale about a father (Jack
Lemon) trying to find his son-in-law who has been abducted by militants in a
fictitious South American country. It’s a work that sits well with the likes
of Under Fire (1983), 10/17 Bush
Whacked: I never went
on NECN this Friday
AM because the real Bush held an economic address that preempted my review of
W. 10/16 Reviews of Sex Drive, Morning Light and Quarantine. 10/15 On Air: I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (10/17 @ 8:45) to review W, Max Payne and The
Secret Lives of Bees. 10/09 Reviews of The
Express and Beverly
Hills Chihuahua. 10/05 DVD Picks of the Week! (New) Gus Van Sant’s latest contemplation about skate kids, crime and
punishment and justice resonates in 10/02 Review of Appaloosa. 09/28 DVD Picks of the
Week! (ReIssue) LA
Confidential, may barely be ten years old (1997) but it has the scope
and feel of a classic crime noir. (Out and Reviewed) Besides
seeing the lead actor free his willy, Forgetting
Sarah Marshall is forgetful. 09/27 Paul Newman, one of the
greatest 09/25 Review of Nights
in the Rodanthe. 09/22 DVD Picks of the Week! (New) If you were
a fan of Dario Argento’s stylish should saga, Suspiria
(1977), then the final installment in the witch trilogy
(starring his daughter, Asia), Mother
of Tears, is for you—definitely an acquired taste. (ReIssues) The 09/19 Air Time For my NECN reviews of Igor, Lakeview
Terrace and Ghost Town, click
here. 09/15 On Air: I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (08/08 @ 09/14 DVD Picks of the Week! (ReIssues) Risky
Business(1983) the movie
that made Tom Cruise a household name and that great sex scene with Rebecca
De Mornay—take note of the hip, pulsating sound
track by Tangerine Dream, they just don’t come like that any more. (Out and Reviewed) The Strangers and 88 Minutes. 09/12 Movie of
the Week to See! The Coen brother’s Burn After
Reading is a biting satire about egotistical CIA agents, still, you can catch
Sam Peckinpah’s classic western, The
Wild Bunch (1969) at the Harvard
Film Archive, the top film on my all time list 09/09 Reviews of Appaloosa and Bangkok
Dangerous. 09/07 DVD Picks of the Week! (ReIssues) Cool
Hand Luke(1967) Paul
Newman anchors the movie about a incorrigible con with a disarming smile and
bulldog tenacity. George Kennedy won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Strother Martin could have too. So many classic moments,
out it on almost everyone’s top 100 lists. ..It was ten years ago the Coen brothers took a walk on the quirky side with The Big
Lebowski. Who knew that a slacker know as the
“Dude” and bowling could be so much fun? A neat, raunchy twosome would be Lebowski followed by the Kingpin (1996) by the Farrellys—bowling, brothers and bad situations equal lots
of laughs. (Out
and Reviewed) The
Forbidden Kingdom; Jet Li and Jackie Chan finally together. Great FX, but a
coo-coo story. 09/04 Movie of
the Week to See! Forty years ago Jirí Menzel told the story of a Czech village’s resistance
against the Nazi occupation with Closely
Watched Trains. The film was based on a novel by Bohumil
Hrabal and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign
Language Film. Now, after being absent for so long, due to turmoil in his
homeland, Menzel is back with I Served the King of 09/01 Must See! The films of Sam Peckinpah at the Harvard
Film Archive. This is the man whose seminal work; The Wild Bunch (1969) influenced the works of
Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. He is considered the godfather of the
action film, but please don’t think 08/30 DVD Picks of the Week! (ReIssues) 08/28 Air Time For my NECN reviews of House Bunny, Traitor and Elegy, click
here. 08/27 Review of The House Bunny. 08/26 On Air: I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (08/08 @ 08/24 DVD Picks of the Week! (Out and
Reviewed) What
Happens in Vegas, it should have just stayed there, and Prom Night. 08/22 Movie of
the Week to See! Ben Kingsley, may hold center
court as Philip Roth’s alter ego in Elegy, but it’s
Penelope Cruz who seals the film about power, sex and intellect. 08/21 Review of Elegy. 08/19 DVD Picks of the Week! (Out and
Reviewed) Hannah
Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds
Concert Tour in Disney Digital 3-D, yup, it’s a mouthful. 08/14 Movie of
the Week to See! Ben Stiller’s send up of 08/13 Review of Fly Me
to the Moon. 08/12 Read It! Joshua Ferris’s The
Dinner Party published in the New
Yorker, is one of the best bits of short fiction I have read this year. 08/08 Air Time For my NECN reviews of Pineapple Express and Hell
Ride, click
here. 08/07 Movie of
the Week to See! Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, Super
Bad and Step Brothers) makes his
funniest movie yet with Pineapple
Express. Grind house fans will revel in Larry Biships,
biker turf war drama Hell Ride, produced by
Quentin Tarantino. It ain’t perfect, but it does
deliver the goods. 08/07 Review of Hell Ride. 08/05 On Air: I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (08/08 @ 07/24 Review of Step Brothers. 07/21 DVD Picks of the Week! (ReIssue) High
and Low (1963), Akira Kurosawa’s
known for his samurai classics, but this hard boiled detective tale, is
propelled by simmering grit and swagger. Most of that’s because, Kurosawa
alter-ego, Toshiro Mifune, plays the wealthy
businessman trying to get back his kidnapped daughter. Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
William Hurt won an Oscar for his performance as a jailed sex offender trying
to bide time through fantasy. The late Raul Julia and Sonia Braga should have
been recognized for their fine performances as well. Before he won an Oscar,
for Last King
of Scotland, Forest Whitaker served notice of his thespian prowess
in Clint Eastwood’s bio-pic, Bird (1988), about legendary
jazzman Charley “Bird” Parker. The jazz soundtrack is haunting and hypnotic. 07/18 Movie of
the Week to See! Yes, The Dark
Knight is a worthy follow up to Batman
Begins. It’s darker, more muddled and Heath Ledger does steal the
show. For the next Batman, the need to make Christian Bale, not sound so much
like a constipated geriatric when in the bat suit. Still, the 1989 version
helmed by Tim Burton, remains the best Batman yet. 07/17 Reviews of Meet Dave and Space Chimps. 07/13 DVD Picks of the Week (New) The Bank Job, a
classic British mob movie (think Get Carter and The Long Good Friday) based on true
events. It didn’t get a long look in the theater, which is disappointing as
it’s one of the better films of 2007 and a thespian break out for action
star, Jason Statham. (Out and
Reviewed) College Road Trip and Step
Up 2: The Streets, plus a review of the original, Step Up. (Recently
Rented and Recommend) Funny Games, Michael (Cache) Haneke’s home
invasion exercise, a remake of his 1997 foreign language film, is psychologically
chilling and cuts a lot deeper to the bone, than the more recent, The Strangers.
07/11 Air Time For my NECN reviews of Meet Dave, Journey
to the Center of the Earth-3D and Hell
Boy 2: The Golden Army, click
here. 07/10 Movie of
the Week to See! Hell Boy2: The
Golden Army director Guillermo del Toro’s sequel again rides the moxie
of it pleasantly complex anti-superhero (kudos again to Ron Perlman). It’s
the superhero movie of the summer, so far…paging the Dark Knight. Also if you were moved by Werner
Herzog’s quirky docu Grizzly
Man, then just go see Encounters at
the End of the Earth and be thrown some wildly pontificating curveballs about
the future of man. 07/08 I’m reading Michel Houellebecq’s controversial Elementary Particles, which is a
bit rambling, but engrossing (stay tuned for the verdict) nonetheless. What’s
stunned me is NY Times reporter, Emily
Eakin’s interview with the French author who
seems to be gunning to pass J. D. Salinger in the weirdness department. 07/07 On Air: I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (07/11 @ 07/06 DVD Picks of the Week (New) Stop Loss, Iraq
films have bombed, but director Kimberly (Boys Don’t Cry) Peirce’s modern
day Coming
Home (and having to go away again), it told with affect and power.
(Out and Reviewed) The
Ruins, killer vines, yikes! 07/05 My super short short,
Date, which was
published in Tuesday Shorts
as Untitled,
has been posted in the Vault.
06/30 DVD Picks of the Week (New) City of Men is a potent follow up to City of God, both tell tales of
the complex anarchic social structure inside Brazil’s drug controlled
slums. (Reissue) Heathers (1989), the cult high
school suicide spoof featuring a young Christian Slater, Winona Ryder and Shannen Doherty was dark, disturbing and wickedly funny.
It’s a far cry from the past for director Michael Lehmann who has
distinguished himself with such recent bombs as Airheads (1994), Hudson Hawk
(1991) and 40
Days and 40 Nights (2002).
(Out and Reviewed) Fool’s
Gold and Rails
& Ties, the melodrama directed by Clint Eastwood’s
daughter, Alison and starring Mr. Six Degrees, Kevin Bacon. 06/28 ABC’s Person of
the Week this week deemed Brit, Sir Nicolas Winton the Schindler of Czech
children. There’s no denying the humanity and magnitude of his efforts,
though interestingly enough, the Brit evacuation policy was marred by a
degree of criticism. I discovered this only after seeing, and being touched
by, the profile, but then something about a film on the subject I thought I
had seen, tugged at the fringes of my brain, and then I found my write up on
the documentary, Into
the Arms of Strangers. They were harsh
and confusing times back then, Winston did what he could, going above board,
still, it’s leaves food for thought. 06/27 Movie of
the Week to See Wall-E, Finding
Nemo director Andrew Stanton, scores
again with this cute, yet cautionary tale about earth’s future eco-disaster
as told through a robot romance. It’s got something for everyone of all ages. 06/26 Review of Wanted. 06/22 DVD Picks of the Week (New) Persepolis, the
animated tale of an Iranian girl struggling with her identity during the fall
if the Shah, nearly made my
top 10 for 2007, and In Bruges, is a sly, noirish
drama about hit men (including a gay one) assigned to off one and other after
pulling a job. (Out and
Reviewed) Charlie
Bartlett, think prep school
screw up akin to Holden Caulfield. (Recently
Rented and Recommend) L’ Avventura
(1960) one of my favorites from Michelangelo Antonioni along with Blow Up
(1966) and The
Passenger (1975). Also was mesmerized by one of Peter (Gallipoli
and Witness)
Weir’s early films, Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), about the disappearance
of several school girls. 06/20 Air Time For my NECN reviews of Mongol, The Love Guru and Get Smart click
here. 06/19 Reviews of The Happening
and Get Smart. 06/17 On Air I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (06/30 @ 06/09 Great Authors on Great Authors: hear Richard
Ford read John Cheever and T. C. Boyle do Tobias Wolfe’s Bullet in the Head,@ The New Yorker. 06/08 My super short short,
Date,
has been published at Tuesday
Shorts, a super cool site for fiction that is super short and super
sharp. The post is listed as Untitled,
I have since reedited the material and titled it, and will post it here later
on. 06/04 Review of Mother
of Tears. 06/01 DVD Picks of the Week. (Reissue) Make
your day with the Dirty Harry collection. Arguably the best
series of films by guys for guys . (Out and Reviewed) Demi
Moore and Michael Caine give winning performances
in the 60’s glass ceiling turned crime noir drama, Flawless, directed by British Vet, Michael Radford (Il postino). Also Will Ferrell hams up the bush
league basketball send up, Semi-Pro,
which with some balance could have been something more like Slap Shot
or Bull
Durham. |
05/31 Read Tobias Wolfe’s great
short story A Bullet
in the Head on NPR’s website. 05/30 Air Time For my NECN reviews of The
Strangers and Sex in the
City, plus a remembrance of Sydney Pollack click
here. 05/29 Like Fight
Club or Choke? Then check out this
clip of author Chuck Palahniuk
promoting his latest book Snuff. which
involves an epic giant gang bang and other zany details. 05/28 Review of The Strangers. 05/27 On Air I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (05/30 @ 05/26 Sydney Pollack passed today after a
long struggle with cancer. Many will remember the director for such classics
as The Way We Were (1973), Tootsie (1982) and Out of Africa (1985), for
which he won an Oscar for, but I would like to recall a few more esoteric
selections (and that was Pollack's gift, he was not bound by genre), They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969), The Yakuza (1974), with a weary Robert Mitchum going up against the Japanese mob, and Absence of Malice (1981). His works were commercial
and critical successes. Probably few know that Pollack was also an uncredited director on the gripping film adaptation of
John Cheever's The Swimmer (1968). He
worked with Penn, Cruise, Hoffman, Newman, 05/25 DVD Picks of the Week. (New) Darfur Now, celebs, Don Cheadle and
George Clooney are featured in this gripping illumination on the African
crisis. (Out and Reviewed) Rambo Sly (see my interview)
closes out the First Blood series, just like he did his underdog pugilist
franchise with Rocky Balboa. 05/20 DVD Picks of the Week. (Out and Reviewed) National Treasure 2 pretty much the same as the original
and both are better than The Da Vinci Code as far
as historical scavenger hunts go. 05/15 Review of What Happens in Vegas. 05/01 Review of Harold and Kumar Escape
from Gunatanamo Bay. 04/27 DVD Picks of the Week. (New) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, painter Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls) is a master
with mood and emotion. He makes the tale of French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby
(Mathieu Amalric, who deserved and Oscar nod),
who’s paralyzed from a stroke, riveting as he reconciles his now and his past
as an in-demand, womanizer and man about town. It made my 10 Best for 2007. 04//24 Movie of the
Week to see! Just get out and go to the Independent Film Festival of Boston
(04/23-04/29), the premiere festival in 04/24 Review of 88 Minutes. 04/20 DVD Picks of the Week. (New) Charlie
Wilson’s War is a grand hoot, and telling
of America’s long run hand in the Middle East—this more positive than
anything during the Bush Administration. Also for the literary minded, Starting Out in
the Evening, with Frank Langella playing
a Phillip Roth-esque author trying to remain relevant.
Langella won the Boston Society of Film Critics’
best actor award this year and was our guest at the BSFC’s inaugural
awards ceremony. (Out and
Reviewed) One Missed call—one to
be missed. 04//18 Movie of
the Week to see! If you enjoyed Tom Mccarthy’s
quirky, small, The Station
Agent (2003), then The Visitor is for you.
It’s another touching tale of improbables reaching
across barriers in a dysfunctional universe. 04/17 Reviews of Prom
Night, Forgetting Sarah
Marshall, Where in the World is
Osama? And The Forbidden Kingdom. 04/17 Air Time For my NECN wrap of the
best wedding movies, click
here. 04/15 On Air I’ll be on NECN this
Thursday AM (04/17 @ 04/14 DVD Picks of the Week. . (New) Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, at 80 years old Sidney Lumet can still muster up a
pulp thriller and Marisa Tomei shows that she keeps
herself in fine shape. It made my 10
Best for 2007. Also, the wildly
popular Juno
is out. I enjoyed its wit and verve, but found its accolades a bit more that
it deserved. Director Jason Reitman’s, Thank You For Smoking was a far more barbed and
darker endeavor. (Out and
Reviewed) The 11th Hour (published
in print only in Cineaste
Magazine), In the Name of the King and Resurrecting
the Champ. 04/09 Reviews of The
Ruins and Leatherheads. 04/08 Making
Movies Check out
pictures of team Relegated to the Sides as we make
our 48 Hour Film Project film, Salvation Incorporated. 04/08 Making
Movies My 48 Hour Film Project film, Salvation Incorporated made it
in on time. Like the film I worked on last year, Quin Quimby and the Itchy
Scourge, the scope was quite ambitious. How did it come out? I
don’t know, I’ve yet to see it, but the cast and crew toiled tirelessly. You
can see the film, the same time I see it for the first time, tomorrow night @
04/06 DVD Picks of the Week. (New) There
Will Be Blood, haunting and mesmerizing
for two thirds, then it veers off into the absurd. Still what it attempts to
do is epic and Daniel Day Lewis won an Oscar for anchoring P. T. Anderson’s
latest take on dreams and dysfunction (Boogie Nights and Magnolia being among his other
dark accomplishments). Also, Ron
Livingston (Office
Space) gives a witty and charming performance as a deaf Vietnam
War vet who champions the Americans with Disabilities Act in Music Within.
Director, Steven Sawalich seems to have 04/02 Making
Movies I’m doing the 48 Hour Film Project again. The film I scripted last year, Quin Quimby and the Itchy
Scourge was a finalist. This year I am on team Relegated
to the Sides, we shoot THIS weekend. You
can see our final product at the screening on April 9th at the Kendall
Square Cinema. We’re in the 03/31 DVD Picks of the Week. (New) Sweeny Todd, you
can never fault Tim Burton’s films for lacking
ambiance and a menacing sheen, and the director’s alter ego, Johnny Depp handles the musical format handsomely. (Reissue) Eight
Men Out (1988) John Sayles’s take on the Black Sox scandal and it’s tarnish on 03/30 Last night I went to the Harvard Film Archive to see Heat
and Dust (1983) and was pleasantly surprised by attending director,
James Ivory’s ability to engage the audience. He was accessible, articulate
and cared about having a genuine conversation with the audience. Ivory, who
along with long partner and producer, Ishmail
Merchant, recently deceased, has given us such classics as Remains of the Day and A
Room With a View. His appearance upped my interest in seeing his latest, The City of Your Final Destination, due out
later this year. 03/28 Air Time For NECN reviews of Miss Flawless, 21, and Stop Loss, click here. 03/27 Review of Flawless. 03/25 On Air I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (03/07 @ 03/17 DVD Picks of the Week. (New) Atonement
is a
fine adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel about sin,
redemption, romance and a stunted future. It made my 10 best list last year, and the
long tracking short by director Joe Wright is simply brilliant. The last man
alive drama staring Will Smith, I am Legend is a fair
remake of Omega Man (1971).
Also, Feast of Love, based on Charles Baxter’s novel, offers dramatic
intrigue, though is feel a bit clichéd and manipulative at turns. (Reissue) In The Ice Storm (1997) Ang
Lee captures the dark dysfunction of Richard Moody’s novel about sex and
gender politics in a coddled 03/13 Review of College
Road Trip. 03/10 DVD Picks of the Week. (New) No Country
for Old Men, simply the best movie of last year, apt winner
of the Best Picture Oscar. The
dark-noir based on Cormac McCarthy’s laconic, yet
eerily poetic novel is a poetic return to Blood
Simple (1984) territory for the Coen
brothers. (Reissue) Al Pacino gives a tour-de-force performance as an outraged
attorney fighting the system in …And Justice
for All (1979). (Out
and Reviewed) A shot and a miss, Hitman. 03//07 Movie of
the Week to see! The Bank Job is one of
the best heist caper in years. 03/07 Air Time For NECN reviews of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, The Bank Job and Semi-Pro, click here. 03/03 On Air I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (03/07 @ 03/02 DVD Picks of the Week. (New) Into
the Wild, Sean Penn’s take on the John Krakauer
novel about a young man fed up with society who tries his hand at being
Thoreau in 02/29 Movie of the Week
to see! Paulo Morelli’s haunting gangland follow
up to 2005’s City of 02/28 Reviews of Semi-Pro and City
of Men. 02/25 Air Time For my NECN Oscar rewind click
here. 02/24 DVD Picks of the Week. (Reissue) The
Last Emperor, Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987
triumph is a scrumptious all time classic. (Out
and Reviewed) Robert Zemeckis digs deep into
his animation bag of tricks in Beowulf (check out
the story below and cinematically, it’s been done before and better with 300 stud Gerard
Butler in Beowulf and Grendel and Antonia Banderas
in The
13th Warrior) and Death at a Funeral falls in to
the could have been funny category.
02/23 Article Avatars Anyone? Upgrading Movies to ‘Near
Reality’ posted on Web del Sol.
02/22 On Air I’ll be on NECN this Monday
AM (02/25 @ 02/21 Reviews of Step
Up 2 the Streets and Charlie Bartlett. 02/18 DVD Picks of the Week (New) a very good week,
Michael Clayton, The Firm on brain
cell steroids, Margot at The Wedding, fiction
friction between sisters from the director of The
Squid and the Whale, Brian De Palma’s Redacted, a somewhat
return to the same material as his 1987 war film, Casualties
of War, is far better than most nay saying reviews had it, American Gangster is a dark American crime gothic and Lust
Caution is a sexy
tale of espionage from director Ang Lee. 02/15 Air Time For NECN reviews of Diary of the Dead,
Spiderwick Chronicles and Jumper, click
here. 02/14 Best of the
Best The Phoenix has
compiled the best of
the year by surveying current and past critics, also you can check
out My Oscar/Best of Picks. 02/13 Review of Fool’s Gold. 02/10 On Air I’ll be on NECN next Friday
AM (02/15 @ 02/09 DVD Picks of the Week (New) Gone Baby Gone the underlying story is not tight;
It’s compelling pulp noir, sure, but it all hangs on a flimsy twist. That
said, and maybe better casting for the lead (yes, Casey is passable plus),
Ben Affleck shows great flare in his directorial debut—of course is doesn’t
hurt to get a knockout performance (and Oscar nod) out of Amy Ryan as a grieving, drug
addicted mother of an abducted child. (Reissue)
The Stanley Kramer
Collection with such
classics as Guess Who’s
Coming to Diner? (1967) and (he was producer) a young Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953). (Out
and Reviewed) No Reservations and Dedication. 02/06 Review of Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour. 02/02 Best of the
Best My
Oscar/Best of Picks have been updated with final predictions. 02/02
DVD Picks of the Week (New) The
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford came and went
in movie theaters, which was a shame, because it’s a subtle, masterful
accomplishment. It made my top
ten for 2008 and features some nuanced performances—including Casey
Affleck who’s nominated for an Academy Award. It’s Australian director Andrew
Dominick’s first stateside effort and it’s worth it to check out his 2000
debut, Chopper, featuring a
young Eric Bana as a homicidal maniac. (Reissue) Tootsie (1982), probably the best cross-dressing farce, this side
of Some Like it Hot (1959). Who
knew that director Sydney Pollack (The
Firm, Out of Africa) had such a
keen sense of humor? And speaking of Billy Wilder (he directed Hot) his 1961 Oscar winner, The
Apartment is out as well as Alan Parker’s Midnight
Express (1978). The don’t get busted for drugs
in a drug intolerant middle eastern country nightmare, was penned by a young
Oliver Stone. (Out and Reviewed) Feast
of Love. 02/01
Movie of the Week to See! 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days back in the
80’s it was illegal to have an abortion in Romania—a law imposed by leader, Nicolae Ceauşescu. Cristian Mungiu’s film tells of
two such women’s harrowing ordeal to get the black market procedure. In Freakonomics, the authors attribute the 1989 Romanian
revolution and Ceauşescu’s subsequent
execution to the fact he banned abortion. Read the Phoenix’s full
review. 02/01
Air Time For NECN reviews of Untraceable,
Over Her Dead Body and Meet
the Spartans,
click
here. 01/31 Reviews of Rambo, Over
Her Dead Body and Meet the Spartans. 01/27
DVD Picks of the Week (Out and Reviewed) King of California. 01/25
On Air I’ll be on NECN next Friday
AM (02/01 @ 01/21
Best of the Best My Oscar/Best of Picks. 01/20
DVD Picks of the Week (Out and Reviewed) Saw IV. 01/17
Reviews of The
Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie and In
the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. 01/14
Must See: On January 20th,
the Boston Society of Film Critics (of
which, I‘m a member) will host their inaugural awards
ceremony at the Brattle Theater.
Best Actor recipient Frank Langella will be on
hand, as will folks from the Mass Film
Bureau and others. Langella’s movie, Starting Out in the Evening (think
Phillip Roth meets Lolita in a way) will be shown following a reception and
the awards. It’s open to the public. Click here
for details and to purchase tickets. 01/13
DVD Picks of the Week (Reissue) Personal
Best (1982), pushes the boundaries of sexuality and the human limits
with Mariel Hemingway as a lesbian track start hopeful. Back before the Bucket List, Rob Reiner used to make edgy
comedies and When Harry Met
Sally (1989) testifies. And Spike Lee‘s seminal work, She’s Gotta Have It (1986) is
also out. (Out
and Reviewed) Good Luck Chuck and The
Ten. 01/11
Air Time For NECN reviews of The Bucket List,
Walk Hard and One Missed Call, click here. 01/06
Review of One Missed Call. 01/07
On Air I’ll be on NECN this Friday
AM (01/11 @ 01/06
DVD Picks of the Week (New) 3:10 to Yuma is a worthy
revisionist western with a great supporting turn from Boston local Ben Foster
as a sharp shooting baddie, Danny Boyle’s Sunshine is one of
the most underappreciated sci-fi mood pieces in recent years and David
Fincher’s crime drama Zodiac, reimagining
the San Francisco serial killing in the 60s, is one of My Top 10 of 2007. (Out and Reviewed) War. |
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Home, Blog Log, Blog Log 2007, 2006 or 2005 |
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