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Avatar (2009)
Enter the world of Pandora.
Filmmaker(s): James Cameron

In the 22nd century, a paraplegic Marine is dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission, but becomes torn between following orders and protecting an alien civilization.

Pocahontas of the Southern Hemisphere This comment is on the IMAX 3d version. There aren’t many stories, are there? There are not many good storytellers either. Nor, it turns out, many filmmakers who can make even moderately big movies with a single governing imagination. That is the...


Published May 16, 2023
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As You Like It (2006)
Romance...or something like it.
Filmmaker(s): Kenneth Branagh

Witty, playful and utterly magical, the story is a compelling romantic adventure in which Rosalind and Orlando's celebrated courtship is played out against a backdrop of political rivalry, banishment and exile in the Forest of Arden - set in 19th-century Japan.

Katachi Words Here’s one of the most intriguing challenges in all the lands of imagination. Shakespeare invented much of what it means to be a modern human. But he did so in a very constrained way of communicating. The plays were all about language and geometry on...


Published May 16, 2023
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The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975)
Wanted: For chicanery, skulduggery, tomfoolery and habitual bungling!
Filmmaker(s): Norman Tokar

A roving bachelor gets saddled with three children and a wealth of trouble when the youngsters stumble upon a huge gold nugget. They join forces with two bumbling outlaws to fend off the greedy townspeople and soon find themselves facing a surly gang of sharpshooters.

Good Three-way Storytelling I’m usually appalled at how vintage Disney (of about 1940-80) ignored the basics of good storytelling, relying instead on cinematic gimmicks. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not, but when you just simply don’t invest in good storytelling, you plant poison that somehow catches up with...


Published May 1, 2023
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Angels and Demons (2008)
The holiest event of our time. Perfect for their return.
Filmmaker(s): Ron Howard

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is recruited by the Vatican to investigate the apparent return of the Illuminati - a secret, underground organization - after four cardinals are kidnapped on the night of the papal conclave.

The Simplest Professor, Antimatters Pointing out that Ron Howard is incapable of making a good film is too ordinary and obvious a thing to say. This time he got a cinematographer that at least frames things well. You don’t have to read me to learn that this...


Published April 4, 2023
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American Strays (1996)
Love 'em or Kill 'em.
Filmmaker(s): Michael Covert

The desert can be a lonely place for the people who live there or for those who are traveling through. It is also the teller of different stories including the story of a traveling salesman whose only commodity is death and the story of a young man who finds that the death that he wishes for is difficult to find. Others are just traveling through, on their way to another place when they stop to eat at Red's Desert Oasis. The food may not be great, and the waitress may be surly, but those who stopped at Red's will find that they are involved in the showdown of their life.

Cutie Cleaner Quentin Tarantino gets under my skin, where Richard Rodriguez does not. It is a corner of myself I do not quite understand. If you have QT wonder, this could help. Tarantino places the viewer as a sort of museum visitor. He has this virtual video...


Published March 27, 2023
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American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile (2006)
This Summer It's All About Sticking Together.
Filmmaker(s): J.B. Rogers

After a year apart - attending different schools, meeting different people - the guys rent a beach house and vow to make this the best summer ever. As it turns out, whether that will happen or not has a lot to do with the girls. Between the wild parties, outrageous revelations and yes, a trip to band camp, they discover that times change and people change, but in the end, it's all about sticking together.

A Little Humour Gosh, I was surprised at finding something clever. Yes, most of this is a stroll through a museum of obsolete 7th grade hummer. This is so tame and lame that it blends into the background like so much graffiti. The “nudity” is goofy. But...


Published March 26, 2023
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Jade (1995)
Some fantasies go too far.
Filmmaker(s): William Friedkin

Someone does a nasty hatchet job on a San Francisco big shot and the Assistant D.A. takes charge of the investigation. Through a web of blackmail and prostitution involving the Governor, an old lover of the lawman emerges as a prime suspect and he has to deal with his personal feelings as well as the case.

Sprung Rites I think this may have been successful in its day, simply because of the sex. There is the appearance of some sex acts on the screen presented in a couple voyuerist contexts, but I think the target was a much deeper appeal: a whole...


Published March 12, 2023
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Knowing (2009)
What happens when the numbers run out?
Filmmaker(s): Alex Proyas

A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.

The Cleansing Timing is everything. I saw this in a stressed state, looking for escape. I saw it in a grand old theatre with large, excellently tuned equipment. I saw it not knowing anything at all about it. And I loved it. Yes, I know people do not like...


Published March 2, 2023
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Adaptation (2002)
From the creator of Being John Malkovich, comes the story about the creator of Being John Malkovich.
Filmmaker(s): Spike Jonze

Nicolas Cage is Charlie Kaufman, a confused L.A. screenwriter overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, sexual frustration, self-loathing, and by the screenwriting ambitions of his freeloading twin brother Donald. While struggling to adapt "The Orchid Thief," by Susan Orlean, Kaufman's life spins from pathetic to bizarre. The lives of Kaufman, Orlean's book, become strangely intertwined as each one's search for passion collides with the others'.

Abject Folding I am writing a book about “folding” in film. That’s a term I have coined to describe all the parallel levels that have become part of the film vocabulary, among them self-reference, reflection self-aware irony and timeshifting. I love these films. They are always...


Published February 27, 2023
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Adam (2009)
A story about two strangers. One a little stranger than the other...
Filmmaker(s): Max Mayer

Adam, a lonely man with Asperger's Syndrome, develops a relationship with his upstairs neighbor, Beth.

Stuttered Beginnings I found this to be offensive in that mild way that occurs so often. Storytellers sometimes have to make decisions that cost the viewer something — the worst kind of cheat because it pushes the pain onto the unwitting. Is it a net good...


Published February 27, 2023
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