Email Author Bill Gallo

2005 Stories by Bill Gallo

• The War on Film

  published December 22, 2005

  War is hell, but it can also be high drama. In boots-on-the-ground documentaries like Gunner Palace and Occupation:... More >>

• Backhanded Slapstick

  published December 22, 2005

  The Jerry Lewis chromosome is running amok again inside Jim Carrey, and if you don't feel like getting clubbed half to death with a slapstick,... More >>

• Smiles to Go

  published December 22, 2005

  We popcorn-chomping hitchhikers never know who will pick us up on the roadside. In Flirting With Disaster, it was a neurotic Manhattan... More >>

• Beautiful Dreamer

  published December 22, 2005

  The gifted Irish novelist and filmmaker Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Michael Collins) says that his overriding concern is "how... More >>

• The Nude Bomb

  published December 22, 2005

  The studied British theatricality and sharp wit of Mrs. Henderson Presents are likely to make it a favorite among... More >>

• Homo on the Range

  published December 15, 2005

  It's not hard to predict how Ang Lee's controversial Brokeback Mountain will play in John Wayne country. This romantic tragedy about... More >>

• All Yours

  published November 24, 2005

  Most movies intend to entertain or inform us, or maybe take our minds momentarily off personal problems--that bullet-riddled body in the trunk,... More >>

• Off the Tracks

  published November 10, 2005

  Moviegoers with a taste for nasty villains will get all they can handle from the heavy in Swedish director Mikael Håfstrom's... More >>

• Foiled Again

  published October 27, 2005

  It's been 85 years since Douglas Fairbanks slashed his way into the top tax bracket as the masked hero Zorro, and Hollywood still can find no... More >>

• Queasy Pieces

  published October 27, 2005

  Devotees of Asian cinema--especially those with a thirst for blood--will probably delight in the unofficial sequel to 2002's horror sampler... More >>

• Mine Kampf

  published October 20, 2005

  When we first see the protagonist of North Country, a working-class heroine portrayed by a deglamorized Charlize Theron, she's... More >>

• Played for Fools

  published September 29, 2005

  Anyone vaguely familiar with the rules of golf knows that you may not improve your lie, ground your club in a sand trap, or--most grievous of... More >>

• Love in Gloom

  published September 22, 2005

  By conservative estimate, Tim Burton stands to rake in half a billion dollars at the box office this year, thanks to a childlike chocolate maker... More >>

• Flower Power

  published August 4, 2005

  The contentedly independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has brought his restless energy to a series of surreal road movies that move nicely along on... More >>

• Bombs & Bikinis

  published July 28, 2005

  If the Navy is looking for splashy recruiting tools, it could do worse than Stealth, a zillion-dollar action movie stuffed with... More >>

• Chocolate Kisses

  published July 14, 2005

  Roald Dahl's inner child was evidently a contrary lad--precocious, dark-minded, contemptuous of adult supervision and fueled by a sense of justice... More >>

• Could Be Verse

  published July 7, 2005

  The British indie filmmaker Sally Potter, a former dancer, lyricist and performance artist, clearly has a taste for adventure. In 1992 that led... More >>

• Problems at Home

  published June 9, 2005

  The consequences of marital discord in Mr. & Mrs. Smith go way beyond sleeping on the couch or maintaining icy silence at the... More >>

• Whatever Happened to Lady Jane?

  published May 12, 2005

  Jane Fonda comes from a good Hollywood family and used to be a pretty fair actress herself. Klute, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?... More >>

• War: What Is It Good For?

  published May 5, 2005

  Whatever you do, don't accuse Ridley Scott of turning his back on a fight. Doesn't matter if it's slimy-fanged space aliens attacking Sigourney... More >>

• Scoundrel Time

  published April 28, 2005

  Alex Gibney's Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a thoroughly professional, frequently spectacular piece of muckraking. But any... More >>

• Mind Gamey

  published April 14, 2005

  Matthew Parkhill's Dot the I is the kind of tricked-up mental exercise that may intrigue the most impressionable film school... More >>

• Head in the Sand

  published April 7, 2005

  If nothing else, give Dana Brown credit for enthusiasm. A documentary filmmaker in name only, he is really the camera- and microphone-equipped... More >>

• Love in Gloom

  published March 24, 2005

  Despite the sunshine of the Stalin years and the carefree frolic of the oligarchs, the words "Russia" and "romantic comedy" don't exactly come... More >>

• Out Like a Lamb

  published March 10, 2005

  The chilling oddity of Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall is not limited to the fact that it's the first mainstream German film to... More >>