With the gender-bending Mulan, Disney's head is in the right place, but the heart is missing
By Michael Sragow,
June 18, 1998
It's Christmas vacation, 1958. The movie my dad has chosen for a first-grade pal and me to see is the new Disney live-action adventure, Tonka,... More>>
This indie film sends us in a pansexual, Fassbinder-like direction
By Peter Rainer,
June 18, 1998
High Art is a low-budget, American independent movie about a junkie, lesbian photographer, Lucy Berliner (Ally Sheedy), who spends most of her... More>>
The X-Files reveals enough good stuff, but offers more questions than answers
By Andy Klein,
June 18, 1998
The X-Files is a movie that answers questions...No, wait a minute. The X-Files is a movie that asks questions...Hmmm. OK. The X-Files is a movie... More>>
The cocktail party never ends in le cinema du Henry Jaglom
By Scott Timberg,
June 11, 1998
Henry Jaglom's movies offer everything that Americans hate about French films, but with little of the philosophical depth or visual daring that... More>>
With a tired plot and cutout characters, Six Days, Seven Nights seems longer
By Scott Kelton Jones,
June 11, 1998
Early on in Six Days, Seven Nights, Harrison Ford's drunken beach pilot Quinn Harris offers some advice to Anne Heche's vacationing Robin Monroe.... More>>
Warner Bros. celebrates its 75th birthday with a weeklong best-of fest
By Scott Kelton Jones,
June 11, 1998
Star Wars notwithstanding, film revivals rarely work on a large scale anymore. Blame it on cable or videotape, or just the ever increasing number... More>>
Time is on nobody's side--including the filmmakers'-- in Clockwatchers
By Paul Cullum,
June 04, 1998
It's a truism that unless your film picks up momentum as it goes along, you'd do well not to put a ticking clock in it. Thrillers like The Big... More>>
We don't like any of these people-- and the movie's ugly too
By Jean Oppenheimer,
June 04, 1998
Rule number one: when crafting a thriller, make sure the audience can relate to, identify with, or empathize with at least one of the characters.... More>>
Lawn Dogs promising premise fades into a predictable fairy tale
By Scott Kelton Jones,
June 04, 1998
Lawn Dogs doesn't start with the words "Once upon a time," but it might as well. The film is a fairy tale, plain and simple--and if you argue... More>>
In The Truman Show, a hypernormal Jim Carrey dives into the world of TV--and brings us a "message film" that almost works
By Peter Rainer,
June 04, 1998
The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey, is the zeitgeist movie of the hour. How could it not be? It's all about the omnipotence of television and... More>>
The preppies all look alike in the disappointing Last Days of Disco
By Gregg Rickman,
June 04, 1998
Most people associate the disco era with hedonism, homosexuality, a sense of community, tacky fashions, and awful music. But in The Last Days of... More>>
On film, on vinyl, and in print, the late Chairman of the Board offers pleasurable surprises
By Michael Sragow,
May 28, 1998
Frank Sinatra never gave a better performance as an actor than he did in The Man With the Golden Arm (1955) as Frankie Machine, a hot-shot poker... More>>
Fear and Loathing is the latest in Terry Gilliam's cinematic revolution
By Skylaire Alfvegren,
May 21, 1998
Could it have been all the drugs that kept Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas from being made into a movie? Whatever the cause, journalist Hunter S.... More>>
This Tex-Mex fable breathes new life into the romantic comedy
By Paul Cullum,
May 21, 1998
No genre of film is quite as beleaguered as the humble romantic comedy. Ideally suited to the modest budgets and limited chops of the burgeoning... More>>
Redford's new film is like a horsey Bridges of Madison County--and it's way too long
By Andy Klein,
May 14, 1998
The Horse Whisperer, the latest film from Robert Redford--and the first of his directorial efforts in which he also stars--could almost serve as... More>>
Larry David brings his Seinfeld-ian perspective to film
By Michael Sragow,
May 14, 1998
Not since the death of Diana has there been a pop phenomenon as cataclysmic as the demise of Seinfeld. The surrounding hoopla has reached such,... More>>
In Barbara Kopple's new documentary Wild Man Blues, we follow Woody Allen around Europe on a whirlwind concert tour with his New Orleans jazz... More>>
Most disaster movies would be a lot better with more disaster and less "human drama." In Deep Impact, the impending obliteration of much of earth... More>>
This solidly retro Oscar winner will satisfy nostalgia for old-fashioned melodramas
By Andy Klein,
May 07, 1998
One of the few seemingly spontaneous bursts of energy at this year's Oscar ceremony was provided by motor-mouthing Dutch director Mike van Diem,... More>>
Director Tim McCanlies makes a deal with the devil, but keeps his soul
By Scott Kelton Jones,
April 30, 1998
Since the ballyhooed independent filmmaking movement birthed an instant sub-genre of movies about hip, angst-filled young people pontificating on... More>>
Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 is a nice little movie.
That probably sounds like an insult, but it's not meant to be. It's a genuine sentiment, one not... More>>
Spike Lee tosses up a brick with his bleak He Got Game
By Joe Mader,
April 30, 1998
In the production notes for Spike Lee's new movie, He Got Game, the filmmaker is quoted as saying, "I don't think I've ever done a film that is... More>>
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