Category: Film Reviews

Burt Munro (Anthony Hopkins), New Zealander extraordinaire, rebuilt his 1920 Indian again and again, racing it and turning it into the world’s fastest street bike under 1000 cc. With the help of his friends and the many weird and wonderful Americans he meets along the way, he’s able to race at Bonneville and sets a…

Bronwen and I both really liked this Gus Van Zant biopic starring Sean Penn as the charismatic gay SF supervisor who was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone. In his one year in office as the first elected out gay male official in the country, he helped transform the nation and his view of the…

Captivating, non-linear romantic drama from Spanish filmmaker Julio Medem. Presented in the voice and vision of a boy (Otto) and girl (Ana). Their star-crossed love is joined to the comings, goings, and car crashes in the lives of their parents. Most critics found this too melodramatic (Jay Carr in the Globe actually liked it a…

Bronwen and I both really liked this, Tom McCarthy’s second movie. His first, “The Station Agent,” was excellent. Once you get beyond the conceit of the situation, this is a stellar drama with fine acting and deeply humane plot-lines. Walter, an economics professor played superbly by Richard Jenkins who was nominated for an Oscar for…

Cheryl loaned us this fine film about a woman (Halle Berry) whose husband Brian (David Duchovny) is tragically murdered. She’s left with two kids (both precocious, one of them is Berry’s son) and establishes a relationship with Jerry (Benicio Del Toro), Brian’s best and oldest friend and a very wacked out former-lawyer become heroin addict….

Bronwen and I liked this documentary about Al-Jezeera, the Arab satellite tv station that has so much audience in the Middle East and the Arab community in the US. It is both supportive and critical, acknowledging the bias of these Arab journalists (their despair and confusion on the fall of Baghdad is palpable) and the…

Children’s flick based on the book. Classic story of child with horrible parents, saved by wonderful teacher (Miss Honey) who she in turn saves as well from her wretched aunt/principal. Nicest work by Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman (he produced as well) as the awful parents. Fun to start, but the stress on her goodness…

Bronwen and I liked this look at this film by and in part about Zana Briski as she worked with the children of prostitutes, alcoholics, addicts, etc in Calcutta’s red light district. She taught a group of them photography and then used their photos (many of them very good and very beautiful) to help get…

Choppy but almost too complete and strangely flat historical drama about the life of Martin Luther (Joseph Finnes). Most critics really liked this 2003 production and it caused a religious war on IMDB, but I still went unmoved. Stellar work by Peter Ustinov as the prince of Wittenburg who protects him and goes along with…

Bronwen and I liked this lyrical fantasy action film from Jiang Yimou. It is a long piece about the battle between the forces of the state and the rebels who are expert with daggers and all aspects of martial arts. Beautiful people abound in this classic and it is quite a pleasure to watch until…

Classic with Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Katherine Ross. A small bit from Strouther Martin as a ‘colorful’ mine engineer in Bolivia is a wonderful joke given his work with Newman in “Cool Hand Luke”. We wanted b to see this fine old western, but she really had some difficulty getting parts. Also, the whole…

Bronwen and I loved this magical/historical look at post-Civil War Spain through the eyes of a little girl, her mom, her fascist stepfather, Republican guerillas, and the magical creatures of the forest and the underground. This is a stellar and incredibly painful film with some scenes of horrible brutality. But the magic is so powerful!….

Co-written, co-directed by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz (brother and sister), the film also stars Ronit in the title role of this, the third film in a family saga that chronicles the arc of an unsuccessful marriage. It is a scathing look at the confessional control of marriage and divorce in Israel, where Orthodox rabbinical courts…

Bronwen and I really liked this Jonathon Demme remake of the Sinatra/Lansbury classic, and yes, we know we’re almost alone in that. This one featured Denzel Washington as the Gulf War major brainwashed by the Manchurian Corporation to make one of his soldiers, again Raymond Shaw played by Liev Schreiber, a congressman and then vice…

Columbian film about Karen who leaves her loveless marriage to Mario after 10 years and, starting at the bottom, has to make her way in the world. Her tears are those of women and are also part of the theater she must create to gain enough money to survive. She meets some good men along…

Bronwen actually liked this one more than I did, but I’m just not deeply Jedi enough anymore. Missed Ford, of course, and was saddened by Carrie Fisher’s passing in real life. Mark Hamill seemed out of sorts to me. Maybe. it was me, or maybe it was the writing. It certainly wasn’t The Force. I…

Bronwen and I watched this Felliniesque Argentine/Italian piece from the early 1990s for her class on Spanish language film and conversation. It stars Marcello Mastroianni in one of his last roles, and chronicles the tale of small village in rural Argentina (what do they do there, anyway?) A young woman whose husband has just died…

Cute Australian romantic comedy fantasy about a guy (Rhys Ifans) who sails away from his mind/soul numbing life on a chair lifted by helium filled balloons. He’s ‘deposited’ into an idyllic town full of wonderful characters where he meets the true love of his life (Miranda Otto). An open life is the only one worth…

Bronwen and Bronwen are in NYC so I took myself to the movies to see this fascinating biopic about Truman Capote and the writing of In Cold Blood. Seymour Phillip Hoffman channels the dead author. He is simply remarkable. The film is very good, if a tad long. The story of his journey west and…

Bronwen enjoyed this weak melodrama, a costume period piece about an illusionist (Edward Norton) in fin de siècle Vienna. I found myself less enamored of it. In love (of course it’s mutual) with a duchess about to be betrothed to the Crown Prince, he plots a way to free her from his clutches. The plot…

Damn, not the director’s cut I thought it was (got it from Bentley), but it was nice to see this remarkably atmospheric, tightly written chestnut again. Good work by all concerned, with a real film noirish character. Sci fi detective work. Rutger Heuer and Darryl Hannah are excellent, as are many of the supporting characters….

Bronwen and I both enjoyed this somewhat predictable Clint Eastwood-directed and star vehicle (he says it will be his last bit of acting) about a 70+ former autoworker/Korean War veteran, Walt Kowalski, whose wife has died, whose neighborhood has gone immigrant, and whose country has changed. All he has left is his mint 1972 Gran…

Bronwen liked this Japanese comedy more than I did; it really made her laugh out loud. A wimpy rental car clerk has an accident because his boss is baiting him. He runs into a car owned by a Yakuza and is forced to go to their headquarters. It explodes and he winds up going to…

Darker and more interesting in some ways, this is nonetheless less satisfying than the two earlier and sweeter pieces. Certain elements don’t hang together unless you’ve read all the books (which I have) and the film is choppier and less complete that the others. Why, for example, does he conjure his father’s stage image?. In…

Bronwen and I both just tolerated this light romantic comedy with so many untenable elements in it. Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton are both ok, although I am just sick of movies about rich people in the theater/movie/music/advertising world. Don’t these folks know any normal people?. A few very funny scenes, a nude scene by…