Linklater tries to break out of the slacker doldrums, but misfires
By Peter Rainer,
March 26, 1998
Probably every film director itches to make a western, so let's be thankful that, with The Newton Boys, Richard Linklater has scratched his itch.... More>>
John Sayles brings us another helping of blunt didacticism--this time with subtitles
By Michael Sragow,
March 26, 1998
Lovers of American movies used to joke that foreign films wouldn't look so good if you saw them without subtitles. John Sayles' latest movie, Men... More>>
Mr. Nice Guy deserves to be the film that finally breaks Jackie Chan
By Andy Klein,
March 19, 1998
The American reissues of Jackie Chan films have met with declining box-office success since Chan burst onto the scene in 1996 with Rumble in the... More>>
Primary Colors mixes comedy with civic-minded goo and revue-sketch impersonation
By Peter Rainer,
March 19, 1998
If ever there was an Op-Ed movie--a movie destined to be written about in an "elevated" realm beyond just the movie pages--it's Primary Colors.... More>>
For all the major American film critics who conspired to cram the ludicrously overpraised L.A. Confidential down the country's throat, I have... More>>
This slow, meditative Woolf adaptation captures Woolf's mood and her genteel era
By Elana Roston,
March 19, 1998
Though critics often compared Virginia Woolf's nonlinear, almost cubist narratives to the then-burgeoning cinema's use of montage, close-ups,... More>>
Altman uses his magic to distract us from the same old Grisham-isms in The Gingerbread Man
By Peter Rainer,
March 12, 1998
The John Grisham industry has claimed another heavyweight. A few months back, Francis Ford Coppola delivered up John Grisham's The Rainmaker, and... More>>
Carrot Top offers up vulgar humor about bodily functions and castration
By Skylaire Alfvegren,
March 12, 1998
On the surface, Chairman of the Board, the film debut of comedian Carrot Top, seems perfectly aimed at young, creative, slacker types. It's about... More>>
Jeff Bridges' wacked-out stoner carries the Coens' The Big Lebowski
By Michael Sragow,
March 05, 1998
Jeff Bridges is so euphorically wacked as a social dropout in The Big Lebowski that you get a secondhand high just looking at him. Padding around... More>>
This Dangerous Beauty is nothing more than a one-night stand
By Michael Sragow,
February 26, 1998
Dangerous Beauty presents a 16th-century Venice filled with statesmen who hop from bed to bed without fear of "bimbo eruptions." That's because... More>>
His eye trained on the manic collision of Catholicism and consumerism, Pedro Almodovar has made some of the most lively, genre-bending films of... More>>
A Brazilian political potboiler paints an ambiguous portrait
By Paul Cullum,
February 19, 1998
Bruno Barreto is the heir apparent of Brazilian cinema; he's known on these shores for the lush romanticism of the Sonia Braga travel brochures... More>>
In Palmetto, everything is as it seems to be--transparent and dull
By Peter Rainer,
February 19, 1998
Palmetto is a film noir set in a torpid seaside Florida town. It's based on the James Hadley Chase novel Just Another Sucker, and when we first... More>>
The Only Thrill proves you can grow old gracefully
By Scott Timberg,
February 19, 1998
The Only Thrill, directed by Houston native Peter Masterson, is a conventional, sentimental movie that nonetheless hits where it aims. The film,... More>>
The Borrowers is fun enough, but gives nothing back
By Michael Sragow,
February 12, 1998
In these paradox-ridden times, producers on the hunt for cutting-edge fantasies look back: They visit their boyhood or girlhood rooms and ransack... More>>
Ma Vie en Rose is a colorful meditation on the price of femininity
By Jimmy Fowler,
February 12, 1998
Ludovic, the fiercely determined young hero(ine?) of writer-director Alain Berliner's half-hilarious, half-tragic feature debut Ma Vie en Rose... More>>
This "official" John Woo knockoff is less than dazzling
By Andy Klein,
February 05, 1998
John Woo has generated plenty of American disciples in the decade since his Hong Kong action films began playing film festivals in the West. Even... More>>
The transparent Oscar and Lucinda drowns in symbolism
By Michael Sragow,
February 05, 1998
Set in 19th-century Australia, this tale of two gamblers--Oscar, a failed minister, and Lucinda, a glassworks owner--is too wispy to be an art... More>>
The Apostle's road to hell is paved with good intentions
By Robert Wilonsky,
January 29, 1998
As The Apostle's title character, E.F. "Sonny" Dewey, writer-director Robert Duvall never stops moving and never speaks in a voice lower than a... More>>
