Practical movies, what a zone to enter! What a collection of thrills, disappointments and adventures of different kinds! Sometimes for me they take me to a sublime place: “King Kong”, “Van Helsing”. Most times it is just noise. If it is cinematic, I’ll credit it with...
All hilarity breaks loose in this heartwarming coming-of-age comedy when three generations of Fiedlers collide in a crazy family reunion. As they prepare for the biggest Bar Mitzvah on the block, they begin to see that they're much more alike than they'd originally thought.
Unsacred Feather you are a fairly powerful man in TeeVee, and have some standing in the movie world. Suppose also that you have been a poor father to a son that is fairly incompetent at life. He wants to become a filmmaker, and you have...
Into the world of the Emperor Penguins, who find their soul mates through song, a penguin is born who cannot sing. But he can tap dance something fierce!
Mad Maximum Motion can parse this into three bits I think. The first is what people normally see, the story. Miller and many of the Oz New Wave don’t pay much attention to this. They put something there of course, otherwise we would get distracted. Here...
David Norton is used to being in control. As a best-selling author, he decides the fate of his characters, their lives and their deaths. But what happens when his fictional world becomes all too real?
Inverted Writing is a standard form for a movie like this. It is so heavily imprinted that when you encounter a deviation, it shocks. We have a writer who wrote a book that comes alive. We expect that the relationship between book (the film within)...
Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to chose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.
Tombstones, Subways I walked through a Japanese cemetery that is several hundred years old. There is in this place a variety of tombstones, a very wide variety. There are stylistic similarities, weaving through eras, religious traditions (which are remarkably complex and subtle). The place is...
When an armed, masked gang enter a Manhattan bank, lock the doors and take hostages, the detective assigned to effect their release enters negotiations preoccupied with corruption charges he is facing.
Inside Out want to like Spike, I really do. He has a natural cinematic imagination, something you can see from the very beginning. And he is flamboyant with the camera which I appreciate when the confidence is rewarded. Plus other things. He seems to have backed...
A compilation of erotic films intended to illuminate the points where art meets sexuality.
Holy of the films in this collection are simply silly. One is at least artistic in the old, wan sense of visual oddity. There is one interesting one, though. Larry Clark’s “Impaled”. It is rather clever: young men seeking to get into the “business” are...
Diego, Manny and Sid return in this sequel to the hit animated movie Ice Age. This time around, the deep freeze is over, and the ice-covered earth is starting to melt, which will destroy the trio's cherished valley. The impending disaster prompts them to reunite and warn all the other beasts about the desperate situation.
Two Paths feature animation has settled into two paths which will never again pass. One is the long form narrative which makes animated films no different than most other movies, real movies. The other is a collection of jokes. Now there are lots of non-animated...
With his eye on a lovely aristocrat, a gifted illusionist named Eisenheim uses his powers to win her away from her betrothed, a crown prince. But Eisenheim's scheme creates tumult within the monarchy and ignites the suspicion of a dogged inspector.
Flight Club know what's coming with this and we even know how. At least I think most viewers will. It is a con movie, but with more explicit folding. In the usual con genre, there is a mark who is fooled along with us the viewers....
