Blink–or, more likely, doze–and you will miss it, this tiny, beautiful oasis in the middle of an otherwise barren wasteland. For a moment–a precious, frustrating moment to be treasured in a movie that flaunts its disposability–Cage reminds us of how good an actor he can be, when he attempts to…
Apart from mass cultural annihilation, beatniks, Hee Haw, some dumbass sports, and the freak shows of Brentwood, most pop-culture trends are not homegrown but imported to America after prolonged cultivation overseas. Take that novelty food tofu, for instance, dubbed le curd du soy by uncredited Belgian sailors exploring China centuries…
Could there be any less appealing image than that of an obese, dress-wearing Martin Lawrence scratching his ass, as featured on the poster for Big Momma’s House? The idea of sitting through any movie promoted in such a fashion brings to mind the hideously awful It’s Pat: The Movie or…
It’s hard to imagine a more relentlessly somber basis for a movie than Jane Hamilton’s 1994 novel, A Map of the World. In it, Alice Goodwin is a small-town school nurse whose neighbor’s 2-year-old daughter accidentally drowns in the backyard pond. Alice blames herself–punishes herself, in fact, with guilt. Since…
It is difficult to reconcile American perceptions of Iran–a rigidly authoritarian fundamentalist Islamic society–with the captivating and compassionate films that emanate from the country. Most of these pictures, including the 1995 Cannes Film Festival Camera d’Or winner The White Balloon and the 1998 best foreign-language film Oscar nominee Children of…
The moody, feverish images that fill Running Free are so exquisite, they almost make up for the film’s disastrous auditory misstep: the decision to cast Lukas Haas as the voice of Lucky, the chestnut foal that narrates this unusual adventure story. A cross between Nicholas Roeg’s Walkabout and Jean-Jacques Annaud’s…
Early on in Mission: Impossible 2 (or M:I-2, as the confident Paramount now calls it), hero Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) complains to his boss about his new assignment: “It’s going to be difficult.” “It’s not mission difficult, Mr. Hunt,” the boss icily replies, “it’s mission impossible. ‘Difficult’ should be a…
Do not judge Shanghai Noon by its trailer, which serves as the very antithesis of advertising: It begs you to stay far away from any theater in which this film is screening. Laden with dreary sight gags (a horse that stays by sitting…just like a dog) and woeful puns (“Your…
To begin, let us discuss puking. You know, upchucking, barfing, yacking, Technicolor yawning, blowing cookies, driving the porcelain bus, screaming at one’s shoes, and, for you Aussies, chundering. Always unpleasant–and yet usually a great relief to a queasy gut–a nice vomit can be provoked by just about anything, but a…
“Industrial-strength boredom” is a vicious term to unload on anybody–friend, foe, or former actress. Considering the lingering discomfort it inspires, one must beware of its impact, even around a seemingly invulnerable producer returning to the screen to melt our hearts in yet another variation on the emotional doppelgänger narrative, à…
Woody Allen is back on screen in Small Time Crooks, a bittersweet comedy that in many ways could have been lifted straight from the ’30s. For the most part, it’s Woody Allen Lite, which is not at all a bad thing. While one doesn’t want to penalize Allen for his…
If you had asked me in 1969 what was the best movie ever made, the answer would likely have been The Valley of Gwangi, in which a group of cowboys in the Mexican desert find a gully full of leftover dinosaurs, animated by Ray Harryhausen, and lasso a tyrannosaurus rex…
Road Trip makes American Pie look like Fast Times at Ridgemont High; Fast Times look like Animal House; and Animal House look like Citizen Kane. It ranks (indeed, it is rank) among the most soul-deadening movies ever made; it has no pulse and seeks to steal yours with a cynical…
Yet another version of Hamlet? Will they never stop? Ah, well, at least Michael Almereyda’s new adaptation is one of those really different takes on the venerable play. While the last two widely seen versions–the 1990 Mel Gibson/Franco Zeffirelli film and the four-hour-plus 1996 Kenneth Branagh/Kenneth Branagh version–were relatively straight…
Digital video is poised to become a major factor in commercial filmmaking, and Time Code, the new feature from Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas), could be used as a commercial for the process, which is its greatest point of interest. The movie is not so much an intriguing story as…
Silence, you who will dismiss Tom Tykwer’s lugubrious follow-up to Run Lola Run as a sophomoric step backward, because Winter Sleepers, shot before Lola in 1997, is a step backward, literally. With this in mind, it’s easier to assess this heady precursor to Tykwer’s later fireworks for its own successes…
When stars get popular enough (or win enough Oscars), they begin to get to call their own shots: Thus we have The Big Kahuna, the debut release of Kevin Spacey’s production company. Kahuna also marks the film debut of stage director John Swanbeck and screenwriter Roger Rueff. And boy, can…
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 and Donald Sutherland in Don’t Look Now or that indelible image of Kathleen Turner in Body Heat, standing just inside her house, silently…
Given that most film studios have multimillion-dollar marketing budgets with which to target 18- to 25-year-olds, it’s astonishing how little they seem to know about the everyday life of those they’re supposed to be studying. Drew Barrymore has never been kissed? Please. Rachel Leigh Cook undatable until Freddie Prinze Jr…
There is a killing late in Gladiator, Ridley Scott’s new heroic epic, and it is one of those wonderfully cathartic slayings that makes a wide-eyed audience rise and cheer. After several brutal battles, after much bloodshed, after considerable suffering both needless and entertaining, a blade finds its mark, and a…
Everybody’s a princess at one point or another. Rich girls work it from birth to final crack-up. Bourgeois girls play the precious ‘n’ misunderstood game through adolescence, shifting it into ruthless ambition shortly thereafter. Poor girls can blow an entire lifetime just screwing up their hair and pretending they’re Galadriel…
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 Picture and Best Director as well), Kim Basinger trembles with fear. Notoriously insecure about appearing on camera, Basinger looks paralyzed by the prospect of doing a…
