Email Author Jean Oppenheimer

2000 Stories by Jean Oppenheimer

• Eye of the Beholder

  published December 21, 2000

  In Hollywood, all it takes is one big hit. Sandra Bullock's ticket to stardom was the 1994 sleeper Speed, a rip-roaring action/crime... More >>

• The Kindness of Strangers

  published November 2, 2000

  Fascinating and engrossing on every conceivable level, this beautifully constructed feature-length documentary opens with the mournful sound of a... More >>

• Portrait of the Artist as Old Man

  published October 26, 2000

  Early in Spanish director Carlos Saura's stunning new film, the 82-year-old protagonist, the great 19th-century painter Francisco de Goya, awakens... More >>

• Not-so-Funny Lady

  published September 21, 2000

  I didn't know about comedienne-actress Margaret Cho's struggles with depression and drug and alcohol addiction, nor about her near-death from... More >>

• Bad day, Sunshine

  published June 22, 2000

  I never imagined the day would come when I would cringe to see Ralph Fiennes onscreen. Not only is he shamelessly good-looking but, whether... More >>

• Sheer Paradise

  published June 1, 2000

  It is difficult to reconcile American perceptions of Iran--a rigidly authoritarian fundamentalist Islamic society--with the captivating and... More >>

• Horse sense

  published June 1, 2000

  The moody, feverish images that fill Running Free are so exquisite, they almost make up for the film's disastrous auditory misstep: the... More >>

• Red Shoes 2000

  published May 11, 2000

  When asked to name the most erotic sequence they have ever seen in a film, people tend to pick moments like the love scene between Julie Christie... More >>

• Safari to nowhere

  published May 4, 2000

  In her first role since bagging the 1998 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (for L.A. Confidential, the film that should have won Best... More >>

• Busted Keaton

  published February 17, 2000

  Even at just 92 minutes, this film feels endless. Intended as a humorous, heartwarming take on dysfunctional family relationships, Hanging... More >>

• Holy crap

  published February 10, 2000

  Jane Campion's 1992 film The Piano was an intoxicating work of art, a film of such beauty and power, it literally took my breath away.... More >>

• Hair to die for

  published February 10, 2000

  La crème de la coiffure! A mock documentary about, of all things, a Scottish hairdresser who travels to America to compete in an... More >>

• By a nose

  published February 3, 2000

  Sharon Stone doesn't appear on-screen until halfway through this tale of three lives unraveling, but when she does, she makes quite an impression... More >>

• Pass the Prozac

  published January 13, 2000

  Some people really are crazy; then, "crazy" is a relative term. Does it apply to someone who feels he might spin off into outer space and never be... More >>

• A father's... love

  published January 13, 2000

  The War Zone opens with a black screen and the sound of waves gently crashing against the shore. The methodical ebb and flow of the water... More >>

• Ha-Ha-Holocaust

  published January 6, 2000

  The spirit of Fellini hovers over Train of Life, the third so-called Holocaust comedy to come down the pike. Far superior to either Life... More >>