I usually try to avoid high anticipation for upcoming movies because they so often do not or cannot fulfill the hopefulness their publicity generates. In fact, I am happiest when I know the bare minimum about a movie; that way […]
Continue reading »Month: November 2011
J. Edgar (2011) ✰ ✰
Few Americans have led lives as influential or controversial as the longtime director of the F.B.I, J. Edgar Hoover. Why is it then that no one can seem to make a decent movie about the man? Clint Eastwood is the […]
Continue reading »Puss in Boots (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰
I enjoyed but never loved the Shrek films, and my favorite characters were the supporting ones used for comic relief: Donkey, and Puss in Boots. I think it’s great that Puss gets his own movie. The more cat movies the better, […]
Continue reading »The Tree of Life (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Terrence Malick’s hugely ambitious fifth film is also, amazingly, his best. It focuses on a family in 1950s Texas and holds them as an embodiment of grace. Their oldest son, Jack (played by an adult by Sean Penn), has to […]
Continue reading »The Runaways (2010) ✰ ✰
Floria Sigismondi’s retelling of the tale of the all-female, all-adolescent rock band The Runaways covers their origin to the time that lead singer Cherie Curie (Dakota Fanning) quits due to…insubordination? The uncertainty in that summary captures the lack of coherence […]
Continue reading »The Drowning Pool (1975) ✰ ✰ ½
A belated sequel to Harper (1966), The Drowning Pool finds private eye Harper (Paul Newman) in New Orleans on another complex case instigated by a woman. Initially, he is investigating infidelity, but soon there are murders and family problems that […]
Continue reading »Harper (1966) ✰ ✰ ✰
A separated private detective, Harper (Paul Newman), is hired to find a missing millionaire who everyone seems happy to have lost. The investigation reveals a probable kidnapping and numerous suspects. In the end, Harper finds the missing man and the […]
Continue reading »71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994) ✰ ✰ ✰
This early effort from the German director Michael Haneke (who works in multiple languages, including English, and identifies most strongly with Austria) collects 71 sequences about a handful of characters who come together at the climax. The first thing we […]
Continue reading »Captain Newman, M.D. (1963) ✰ ✰ ✰
Gregory Peck followed his Oscar-winning turn in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) with the title role of an Air Corps psychotherapist who uses whatever means necessary to connect with his troubled patients and help them to adjust to life after combat […]
Continue reading »Man Without a Star (1955) ✰ ✰ ✰
In his fourth western, Kirk Douglas finds a role that fits his personality to a tee, one which allows him to jaunt and joke, sing and dance, prove his worth as a dramatic actor and display his newfound acumen in […]
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