Category: Movie Review

BIRD *** (A must-see) Directed by Clint Eastwood Written by Joel Oliansky With Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora, Michael Zelniker, Samuel E. Wright, Keith David, and Damon Whitaker. CELEBRATING BIRD ** (Worth seeing) Directed by Gary Giddins and Kendrick Simmons Written by Gary Giddins. Two telling documents that we have about Charlie Parker, both from the […]

TRACK 29 ** (Worth seeing) Directed by Nicolas Roeg Written by Dennis Potter With Theresa Russell, Gary Oldman, Christopher Lloyd, Colleen Camp, Sandra Bernhard, and Seymour Cassel. As a rule, I tend to be favorably disposed toward non-American movie depictions of American life, at least as a source of fresh perspectives. If we accept the […]

RUNNING ON EMPTY ** (Worth seeing) Directed by Sidney Lumet Written by Naomi Foner With Christine Lahti, River Phoenix, Judd Hirsch, Martha Plimpton, Jonas Abry, Ed Crowley, and Steven Hill. It’s a truism that the distant past is easier to see clearly than the more recent past, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that current […]

GORILLAS IN THE MIST ** (Worth seeing) Directed by Michael Apted Written by Anna Hamilton Phelan With Sigourney Weaver, Bryan Brown, and John Omirah Miluwi. In Hollywood there has always been more marketing than actual belief behind ethnic stereotyping. While the white men who ran the old studio system may have believed that Stepin Fetchit […]

1. A front-page story in the August 24 Variety begins, “Last week’s Republican National Convention garnered the worst network ratings of any convention in TV history.” An interesting piece of information, but not, as far as I know, one that was noted in daily newspapers, weekly newsmagazines, or on TV. Why does one have to […]

CASTAWAY *** (A must-see) Directed by Nicolas Roeg Written by Allan Scott With Oliver Reed and Amanda Donohue. ASSAULT OF THE KILLER BIMBOS ** (Worth seeing) Directed by Anita Rosenberg Written by Ted Nicoleau, Rosenberg, and Patti Astor With Christina Whitaker, Elizabeth Kaitan, Tammara Souza, Mike Muscat, Nick Cassavetes, Dave Marsh, and Patti Astor. A […]

BETRAYED ** (Worth seeing) Directed by Costa-Gavras Written by Joe Eszterhas With Debra Winger, Tom Berenger, John Heard, John Mahoney, Ted Levine, Maria Valdez, Betsy Blair, and Richard Libertini. Although I liked Betrayed enough to make it a Critic’s Choice last week, a second look has convinced me that it has a fair number of […]

UNCOMMON SENSES Directed and written by Jon Jost. The film essay, as opposed to the documentary, remains in some respects the most neglected of contemporary film genres, by filmmakers and audiences alike, perhaps because it is seldom acknowledged as a film form at all. The only recent mainstream examples that come to mind are the […]

TUCKER: THE MAN AND HIS DREAM *** (A must-see) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola Written by Arnold Schulman and David Seidler With Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Martin Landau, Frederic Forrest, Mako, and Dean Stockwell. THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST *** (A must-see) Directed by Martin Scorsese Written by Paul Schrader With Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, […]

CANDY MOUNTAIN *** (A must-see) Directed by Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlitzer Written by Wurlitzer With Kevin J. O’Connor, Harris Yulin, Tom Waits, Bulle Ogier, Roberts Blossom, Leon Redbone, and Dr. John. Is it my imagination, or has “60s” become less of a dirty word lately? Appearances can be deceptive, but in recent movies as […]

THE DEAD POOL ** (Worth seeing) Directed by Buddy Van Horn Written by Steve Sharon With Clint Eastwood, Patricia Clarkson, and Liam Neeson. If Clint Eastwood seems a little bored in The Dead Pool, the fifth outing for the flinty San Francisco detective Dirty Harry Callahan, perhaps he has a right to be. It has […]

MONKEY SHINES: AN EXPERIMENT IN FEAR *** (A must-see) Directed and written by George A. Romero With Jason Beghe, John Pankow, Kate McNeil, Joyce Van Patten, Christine Forrest, Stephen Root, Stanley Tucci, and Janine Turner. You’ve got to get through a few layers of foam rubber before you reach what’s good (or better than good) […]

MIDNIGHT RUN ** (Worth seeing) Directed by Martin Brest Written by George Gallo With Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto, John Ashton, and Dennis Farina. There’s a certain unavoidable imposture in the way critics (and the Academy Awards) generally break commercial movies into constituent parts and distinct contributions. To do this is to assume, […]

WINGS OF DESIRE *** (A must-see) Directed by Wim Wenders Written by Wenders and Peter Handke With Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois, and Peter Falk. They all have weary mouths, bright souls without a seam, And a yearning (as for sin) often haunts their dream. –Rainer Maria Rilke, “The Angels” Damiel (Bruno […]

JOHN HUSTON & THE DUBLINERS ** (Worth seeing) Directed by Lilyan Sievernich. The on-location production documentary, a movie chronicling the shooting of a movie, is a fairly recent phenomenon, although its equivalent in print has been around much longer. (For instance, Micheal MacLiammoir’s Put Money in Thy Purse, about Orson Welles’s Othello, and Lillian Ross’s […]