Category: Film Reviews

Good and well meaning, if predictable, Ken Loach film about janitors organizing a union in LA It’s a good palliative to these anti-union, anti-immigrant, anti-worker times, but in the end, its still pretty tame. Nicely acted and fun. Postscript:. Funny, I used this movie in my Labor History class in 2002 and it evoked incredibly…

Good, if not entirely accurate, presentation of the life of David Helfgott, the schizophrenic Australian pianist. Well played and acted, it suggests his illness is due to his father’s cruelty, not chemical imbalance. Interesting, though, and moving in its way.

Good but not great film by the guy who did “Clerks” about a relationship between three cartoonists. The focus is the one between the straight guy and the lesbian cartoonist. Funny and very quick, especially through the first 2/3 but then becomes a bit slow. I found his unwillingness to accept her racy past unrealistic…

Good, if overblown drama about a brilliant working-class man who is a janitor at MIT. Well acted, but I found myself getting angry at the academia-bashing. Minnie Driver is wasted. Robin Williams as working-class Irish shrink is a caricature as are most of the academics. Touts working-class machismo as real masculinity, if warped by violence….

Fun Japanese girl-band movie. When a high school band’s guitarist gets hurt, the three girls in the band need a fourth, a lead singer. They select (at random) a Korean exchange student with limited Japanese. This is a wonderful film about teen life in Japan. There are no parents (well, mom makes a birthday cake…

Good but sentimental English. political flick about coal pit shutdowns in the Tory era of John Major. Well acted male weepie, (I’d rate it three red hankies), but lots of fun about a British coal town workers’ brass band and the struggle to resist a shutdown of the pit. A comic drama about the social…

Good, if overly long, Gillian Armstrong look at the relationship between an Australian woman owner of a glass factory (Kate Blanchett) and a young English preacher (Ralph Finnes). Both are obsessive gamblers. Beautiful cinematography, wonderful acting (especially by Fiennes who has, by far, the better role). A most interesting film. Weirdness on lugging a glass…

Fun look at the abortion issue with Laura Dern and a fine cast. It suggests that both the pro and anti-abortion forces are basically the same in their attitude and tactics. Funny and horrifying in part. Dern is a great doper loser shown in all her glory. Good work by lots of folks including Burt…

Good but very weird, early (1988) Atom Etgoyan film about a young woman who works in a hotel as a maid obsessed with a coworker, a young male actor who has yet to get a speaking part and, instead, has only done work as a silent extra. The film is odd, dispassionate in some ways…

Good, if overrated and overacted film about nature and human nature, love, insects, and incest, class and caste in Victorian England.

Funded via Kickstarter, this Charles Kaufman weirdly lifelike animated piece follows Michael Stone, an analyst and popular writer on customer service (David Thewlis voice) through his day and appearance as the key speaker at a conference of customer service managers. He is, quite literally in his dreams, falling apart and that serves as the perfect…

Good documentary about the Fox Cable News network. A serious attack on that reactionary bastion. Worth seeing

Good, playful piece with fine acting by Pam Grier, Samuel L Jackson, Robert DeNiro, Michael Keaton, Bridgett Fonda. Quentin Tarrantino meets Elmore Leonard. Less scattered than Pulp Fiction. Rather like “Get Shorty” in tone but darker, edgier production. Fun. About gun runners being tracked by the feds and their use of a stewardess as bait…

Funnier than anticipated boxing movie about a Don King clone who finds another great white hope and uses him well. It’s good on race, sports, and class

Good film from Mike Mills looking at the struggles of 38-yo Oliver (Ewen McGregor) a graphic artist who has always had problems establishing a successful relationship. He learns his widowed father (Christopher Plummer) is gay, has taken a young lover, and is dying of cancer, although he is living with more passion than he ever…

Good, scary war movie with intense first 20 minutes. Well acted, but I am rather upset at how this great opening became a set piece for a war journey picture with a predictable shoot em up ending. This war was hell but was worth the cost, says the film. All part of the boomers wanting…

Funny comedy by Mike Judge based in part on his “Milton” shorts. Three cubicle rats working at ‘soulless inc’. Two are being fired, one promoted for no reason. Very funny stuff and the thing with the stapler is quite good. Still it feels like and is a cartoon come to life. One of Jennifer Aniston’s…

Good film with Kate Winslet starring in the role of Hannah Schmitz, an ex-SS concentration camp guard who has an affair with an adolescent (very well-played by David Kross) in post-war Germany. Ralph Fiennes is excellent as the boy-become-man as he reconsiders his life and love and becomes the reader. A good film that forces…

Good, well-acted piece written and directed by David Mamet. Features excellent ensemble work by a group of fine actors (Steve Martin in a lovely character bit, Rebecca Pigeon [Mamet’s wife], Ben Gazarra, and several other really fine bits of work). Story of industrial espionage and a big con. Like all Mamet-conceived work, this plays through…

Funny scary Korean monster movie When American scientists force Korean scientists to throw chemicals into the river, bad things happen. A well done monster movie that’s worth watching. Sad stuff with the death of a child. Scary monster, but officials from both the US and Korea are the foils in this one. Bureaucracy is death…

Good flick based on the book Breaking the House about MIT students who, guided by a manipulative professor (Kevin Spacey) set out to win big counting cards in Vegas. I watched this one with my daughter and it’s pretty gripping and sort of violent in parts, but exciting nonetheless. How accurate?. I don’t know. I…

Guess what, the third time’s not the charm. Elliot Gould’s Reuben falls into a coma and the gang (sans Roberts) set out to rescue him from the evil Al Pacino and a cougar played by Ellen Barkin. Double dealings abound. Not much of a surprise in the film but some fun for b

Funny, offensive, dumb film in which Woody Harrelson plays a failed bowler and Randy Quaid plays an Amish bowler superstar. Bill Murray is great as the villain. Thank goodness it’s still ok to make fun of people with hooks and the Amish. The latter don’t go to movies

Good German film that chronicles the story and lives of the Comedian Harmonists from 1927-1934. Shows the impact of anti-Semitism on this popular, jazz-influenced singing group and German society. Though popular enough to even have some leading Nazis as fans, they did not get the real point of fascism until it was too late Well…

Funny, sly movie about a small-town Midwestern theater company doing a history of their town as a tribute. A really great look at their connection to the theater as an institution, and what it means in their lives. Fine stuff on the town’s refusal to accept and acknowledge their director’s gayness. Wonderful bits with Fred…