Movies

The Reader

January 29, 2009

“The Reader.” Stephen Daldry, director. Weinsteins, producers. 123 minutes. Rated R for nudity. I don’t get the fascination with the bland Ralph Fiennes (“The English Patient,” “The Constant Gardener,” “The Reader”). One of my favorite “Seinfeld” episodes is the one where Elaine tries desperately to avoid seeing “The English Patient,” that ponderously long and tedious [...]

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Max Tivoli

January 1, 2009

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” David Fincher, director. Kennedy/ Marshall, producers. 159 minutes. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, ” F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1921. The Confessions of Max Tivoli,” Andrew Sean Greer, Picador, 2004. “It’s a pity that the best parts of life come at the beginning, the worst parts at the end.” –Mark [...]

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Valkyrie

December 26, 2008

“Valkyrie.” Bryan Singer, director. United Artists, 120 minutes. In Norse mythology the Valkyrie are warrior maidens who gather the souls of fallen heroes to Valhalla to form an army against the sorcerer Albrech. In the film “Valkyrie,” Adolf Hitler describes them as “handmaidens of the gods choosing who will live and who will die.” Hitler [...]

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Gran Torino

December 25, 2008

“Gran Torino,” directed by Clint Eastwood. Double Nickel Entertainment, 2008. 116 minutes. As “Gran Torino” begins, Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is standing at the front of a church, watching the mourners file in for his wife’s funeral, and growling at them–yes, growling like a cur–because he doesn’t approve of his grandchildren’s clothing. Granted, it is [...]

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Slumdog Millionaire

November 26, 2008

In 1951 Ray Bradbury wrote a collection of short stories entitled “The Illustrated Man” in which a vagrant man is completely covered with tattoos. These tattoos come to life as the foundation for each of the stories in the collection. It was a clever and creative gimmick that united several unrelated stories examining technology and [...]

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The Changeling

October 31, 2008

Will the Real Clint Eastwood Please Come Back? “The Changeling.” Clint Eastwood, director. Universal/Imagine, 141 minutes. You’ve probably seen previews for “The Changeling,” in which Angelina Jolie pounds her breast as she wails, “I want my son back!” before she is carted off to a psychiatric prison ward. The previews promise corruption in the police [...]

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The Women–Why Remake a Classic?

September 30, 2008

“The Women” 1939. George Cukor, director. MGM, 133 minutes. Written by Clare Booth Luce and directed by George Cukor, the original production of “The Women” is a nearly perfect film, one of those masterpieces of 1939, the Golden Year of movie making. Populated entirely by women (reportedly even the dogs and horses in the film [...]

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Frozen River

August 29, 2008

“Frozen River.” Courtney Hunt, writer/director. Cohen Media Group, 97 minutes. “Frozen River” is about an unlikely pair of women smuggling immigrants from Canada to the US, but I promise you it is not a message film and it has no political agenda. It doesn’t make a case for or agains immigration; it doesn’t even make [...]

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Hamlet 2: The Sequel

August 29, 2008

“Hamlet 2.” Andrew Fleming, director. Fox Searchlight, 92 minutes. Special Jury Award, Sundance 2008. How could there be a sequel to Hamlet? They all die in the end, right? That’s part of the joke in “Hamlet 2,” an irreverent, profane, laugh-out-loud parody of the Earnest Inspirational Teacher film genre. Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan) is the [...]

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Tell No One

August 25, 2008

“Tell No One.” Guillaume Canet, director. Eurocorp/Music Box USA 125 minutes. In French with English subtitles. “Vertigo” meets “The Big Sleep” in this French thriller, and the result is movie magic. Even if you didn’t hear the dialogue you would know this was a French film, beginning as it does with the camera intimately panning [...]

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