Category: Film Reviews

Ice-T opens up his phone directory and calls the rappers he knows to talk about their art. Some are just them stroking one another’s egos, some are genuinely substantial. Not all are articulate about their craft. That’s part of the point. There are few women in the mix, and except for Eminem, this is an…

I was somewhat disappointed in this Don Cheadle look at the great trumpeter during a period of absolute desolation when he couldn’t produce. His music dissolved. Co-starring Emayatzy Corineladi as Francis Taylor, the dancer he loved and damaged and Ewan McGregor as a free-lance journalist seeking to learn what’s happened to the great man, the…

In contrast to most folk, I didn’t enjoy this one, a distaste only exacerbated by seeing that S Mnuchin (our glorious Secretary of the Treasury) was its executive producer. I know I’m in an extreme minority here regarding the film, which pleased summer audiences (including Bronwen). I don’t do gods well. I thought the acting…

I was somewhat underwhelmed by this. small, multiple award winning fairy tale from Israel about an Egyptian band’s visit gone awry, although I think Bronwen liked it more than I did. I would have liked a bit more edge. Still there are parts to enjoy. The band arrives and takes the wrong bus, arriving in…

In part 3 of Millenium, Larson’s look at the Swedish right-wing finally comes up to surface after becoming less central to the mission in v2 The ‘secret,’ the arrogant, the anti-democratic becomes palpable played on Lisbeth’s personal history (as they were in the look at fascism and its aftermath in v1) and Blomqvist’s efforts to…

I was underwhelmed by this mediocre Merryl Streep/Alex Baldwin/Steve Martin vehicle about Jane Adler (Streep) who surreptitiously reunites with her lawyer ex (Baldwin) at her son’s graduation and after. She’s been alone and crafted a rich and amazing life on her own. Into her life comes Steve Martin’s Adam, the architect redoing her amazing California…

Intense look at the power of the energy of a young woman whose will can change the script and whose voice can shatter glass and fix roulette wheels. Lola’s boyfriend Manni is up to his eyeballs in it when he loses a bag of cash intended for a very bad man. Scripts are played out…

I was underwhelmed by this sentimental, rather formulaic Steven Spielberg-directed and produced very big film. Not a bad movie, just rather more traditional than I enjoy. Some of shots seemed like homages to “Gone With the Wind”. A tenant family spends too much on a special horse that is truly special. He saves the farm…

Interesting and enjoyable drama about a woman, her teenage son, and her mother as they try to cope with the death of the woman’s husband after a long, drawn-out disease. Starring Emma Thompson and her real life mother. Wonderful work by all the supporting actors and actresses, including a pair of older, funeral groupie women,…

I’d wanted to see this Korean thriller from Jooh-ho Bong for quite a while and it did not disappoint. Very well written and acted, it looks at a single mother (wonderfully played by Hye-ja Kim) who supports herself selling medicinal roots and herbs, whose son, a slow and rather irascible young man, is accused of…

I watched this slight teen comedy about a total nerd with an amazingly dysfunctional family in Idaho and enjoyed it despite myself. Its ending is really well done. I loved the boy and girl geeks What’s lovely about the thing is that they truly remain geeks and you do understand why other people find them…

Interesting and intense look at the James Jones novel from Terrence Malick. It stars Sean Penn, Elias Koteas (in a stellar piece of acting—very moving), Woody Harrelson, Nick Nolte, and even George Clooney and John Travolta have somewhat pointless cameos. They bring no star power to them and are a little distracting. When the film…

I really enjoyed the first 2/3 of this interesting Spike Joynz/Charles Hoffman collaboration about trying to write a screenplay about Suzy Orlean’s The Orchid Thief. The last third degenerates into the Hollywood chase/murder stuff that the film is, in fact, a critique of. Nicholas Cage plays Hoffman and his “brother” Donald and does a fine…

I really enjoyed the trilogy that provides the basis for this first film. I liked this true-to-tale vision of the book. It’s very well done and very creepy indeed. Nicely acted. Very disturbing film. One difference from the book is in the ending as to why L and B leave things as they do. The…

I really enjoyed this 2010 slaughter-fest action drama from Takashi Miike. Thirteen men, mostly samurai (led by Koji Yokusho—”Shall We Dance”!) including a Ronin and men in training, but also some commoners, band together in 1844 at the behest of the councilor to the Shogun to kill their lord’s evil, sadistic and pathological brother who…

I really enjoyed, frequently laughed out loud, and was also more than a little disturbed by this wacky Boots Riley vehicle He wrote and directed. He’s the frontman for The Coup, a radical hip hop band that’s influenced by folks like George Clinton. I play their albums with some regularity on my show. I found…

I really liked this bizarre look at the life of Chuck Barris, game-show creator, culture degrader, and, he says, CIA assassin. The perfect post-modern film. There is no reality but the story and who knows what’s real. Nice direction and acting by George Clooney, with a fine star turn by Julia Roberts. Really fun and…

I really liked this Cannes award-winning French film about a high school class, the teacher and the working-class immigrant students. It’s a rough film but very well done. Based on an autobiographical novel, it stars the writer and real students. Wow, what acting. It felt like a documentary but it’s not See this film!

I really liked this film about the young Che and a 9000 km trip around South America he took with a friend when he was 23/24. Wonderfully acted by both professional and non-professional actors (Bernardo Gael is great as Che and the guy who plays his friend is really marvelous). and directed with real skill…

I really liked this Oscar-winning look at (mostly female) backup singers in pop music including Darlene Love, Claudia Lennear, Lisa Fischer, Tata Vega, Merry Clayton, Patti Austin, Cheryl Crow, and Judith Hill, among others. It considers their place in the song and notes that in many cases they are the chorus for the audience (live…

I really liked this Paul Thomas Anderson written and directed Adam Sandler vehicle about an oppressed, henpecked misfit filled with rage who makes his way through life badly. He finds a soul-mate (Emily Watson) almost as weird as he is, but after an intense conflict with folks from Utah (the brothers, who are brothers) after…

I really liked this sci-fi, social commentary about aliens stranded and housed in shanty-towns outside Johannesburg, SA. Very well acted and weird piece by Peter Jackson. Both SA and US content. Creepy prawnlike aliens. What happens when we ‘cross over?’. B walked out of this one. Creeped her out way too much. Stick with it….

I really liked this unusual conceit of a film from Richard Linklater shot over 12 years using actors as they aged. So much could have happened to short circuit this project, but it came to fruition and produced a film that has everyday life, real tensions and personal evolution at its core. Some of my…

I may be the wrong person to review this one, since I don’t watch teen coming of age films with great regularity. Still, I was lured by the praises on the DVD box touting its comedic brilliance Will I ever learn?. There are a few laughs in this, but the answer is clearly no. So,…

I saw this at a salon-like DVD party at Bruce Sylvester’s and that was half the fun of it. Thanks Bruce. This is an odd family road trip movie written, directed, produced, etc by Allen Wagner. It stars his mom, dad, two sisters and several friends. The dysfunctional but long-lived Wagner family take a trip…