Category: Twos

Freckles, Neck This slight project has nothing to recommend it, except wonder at its reason for being. But that is enough for me. See, the reason behind such a project is that the sexual charm of a woman — a certain woman — is an accelerating capture. Once some level of familiarity is breached, rapture… Continue reading Better Than Sex (2000)

Stillborn This is purely personal, but I have a few wickets through which a film must pass for me to willingly splice it into my imagination. I’m only talking here about films that present themselves as art. — It has to be competent, which for me can translates into the degree to which it exploits… Continue reading Alicia (1994)

Overdeveloped Oh man, how sad. It is a sad story of failure that itself is a failure. It is placed in a world where the unnatural is impinging on the natural and that is called undesirable. And it itself is so unnatural, so manufactured and manipulative it runs counter to itself. Sure, it is independent… Continue reading The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005)

Us Watching Them The only interesting thing about this is the appearance of two energetic actresses. One pleasantly mooneyes at the camera and the other has a strong enough presence to have hope (despite “Pirates” and “Phantom”) that she might not disappoint like so many others. I knew I was in for a stew of… Continue reading Bend It Like Beckham (2002)

Writer’s Blocks In the last year, I saw a film (“In My Father’s Den“) with much the same themes. In that New Zealand film, a man, a celebrated war correspondent returns to his rural home on the death of his father. There are significant unresolved frictions between father and son. The returning man had sex… Continue reading Beautiful Kate (2009)

Dorothy This is some pretty good writing. You know it is pretty good when it deals with ordinary silliness and is directed by a non-entity and yet still engages. This is a fellow that is not afraid to write junk films, but who has also written the amazingly deft self-referential “High Fidelity” and the ambitious… Continue reading Beautiful Girls (1996)

Off Beat Off I will travel to see a film that is “folded“ in the simple sense this one is: writing about writing, especially when the story is historically based and most especially when the literary tradition in question is all about just this manner of folding. I also admire when a writer succeeds in… Continue reading Beat (2000)

Class Yet another example that just plodding through a novel has little to do with making a tenable film. This one just thrashes through the story with nary a nod to cinematic necessities. But it does have Derek Jacobi, an actor with so much presence it almost makes the trip worthwhile. Derek knows how to… Continue reading Basil (1998)

Singable I came to this because I had a bad experience watching the Disney “Cinderella,” and wondered at what passed for acceptable these days. I chose what I thought would be the gene with the lowest standards. I picked wrong. I should have gone with preteen boy anime, because this is pretty darn good. The… Continue reading Barbie as the Island Princess (2007)