Donnie Darko
I suppose some people will find this film very meaningful. Set, for whatever reason, in October 1988, Donnie Darko's story tracks four weeks in the life of its eponymous hero (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), an alienated teenager living in the ubiquitous Posh American Suburb we see in movies but never in real life, and struggling with the normal issues teenage… read more!
Eureka
Are you the sort of person who is open to the idea of sitting through a 3-hour, 40-minute, black-and-white Japanese film? If so, then keep reading. If not, then nothing I can say will get you to watch Eureka, because that's exactly what it is. This film offers many rewards for its viewers' patience, both aesthetically and emotionally. And it… read more!
Faithless
Lengthy, endlessly depressing saga of infidelity written by film god Ingmar Bergman. On a remote Swedish island, a lonely old writer named "Bergman" (Erland Josephson channeling you-know-who) is visited by Marianne (Lena Endre), a 40-year-old woman who is a mixture of artist's muse, wandering ghost, and psychiatrist's patient. She proceeds to tell the old man the tragic tale of the… read more!
From Hell
Much has been made of the "surprise" that Albert and Allen Hughes, two African-American filmmakers who made the urban crime dramas Menace II Society and Dead Presidents, would helm a film set in Victorian London, working with an all-white cast. As if they were only allowed to make "black" films! Some critics tried to justify it by saying the Hugheses… read more!
Ghost World
After the success of his documentary about comic book artist Robert Crumb, Zwigoff turns again to the world of comics for his first fiction film, adapting Daniel Clowes' graphic novel Ghost World (Clowes cowrote the screenplay), which follows two directionless teenage girls (Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson) during the summer after their high school graduation. The film mostly focuses on one of… read more!
Gosford Park
Robert Altman is definitely one of those hit-or-miss directors, his stinkers far outnumbering his classics. (Note how everybody still lauds him as "the director of Nashville and The Player" while glossing over lesser recent efforts like Dr. T and the Women and The Gingerbread Man.) But he scores a direct hit with Gosford Park, a wry take on Agatha Christie… read more!
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Writer/director/star Mitchell takes his lauded Off-Broadway musical to the screen, with all the accolades in tow. You know to be suspicious when a film wins two major awards at the often-misled Sundance Film Festival, and although Hedwig is getting positive press, I fear much of it is knee-jerk – not enough people are taking a step back and asking, "But… read more!
In China They Eat Dogs
Denmark's dark comedy In China They Eat Dogs owes much more to Quentin Tarantino than to Lars von Trier. Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a good thing, but here it works – however slightly – and the film was a big hit with the Danes when it was released there over a year ago. For the most part, though, it's just… read more!
In the Bedroom
In the Bedroom is a film broken into three distinctive acts: the first is a family drama about a college-bound Maine boy (Nick Stahl) who falls in love with a much-older married local (Marisa Tomei), against the cautious tut-tutting of his cozy parents (Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson); the second act focuses on the trials the parents must endure when their… read more!
In the Mood for Love
Bar none, this is the most romantic motion picture I've ever seen. No big surprise, considering it's the latest from writer/director/producer Wong Kar Wai, who has proven adept at capturing the essence of heartbreak in his previous films (especially Chungking Express and Fallen Angels). But this film shines as the culmination of his work: as sophisticated and moody as, yet… read more!
Intimacy
A French film starring English-speaking actors and set in London, Intimacy has been getting a bit of attention in art house circles for its frank sexuality: At last! High art porn! This shouldn't be that big an achievement, yet there's been nothing close to this since the Japanese film In the Realm of the Senses heated up art house screens… read more!
Iris
Unhappy document of the decline of British novelist Iris Murdoch's mental acuity due to Alzheimer's, and the stress it put on her loving husband John Bayley. Based on Bayley's memoir, the film seems almost too intimate a look at their relationship: not because it's shocking, but because nobody stopped this project along the way to ask, "Do you really think… read more!
Iron Monkey
A full eight years after its initial release in its native Hong Kong, one of the finest – and final – examples of HK's "golden age" of action cinema finally sees the light of mainstream American movie theatres, thanks no doubt to the acclaim Yuen Woo-Ping has recently earned for his martial arts choreography in The Matrix and Crouching Tiger,… read more!
Josie and the Pussycats
This played at the $3 theatre in my neighborhood, and, while walking to that theatre, I found two $1 bills on the sidewalk. Thus, the movie wound up only setting me back a dollar, which makes it officially worth it. Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson star as the titular rock band that was made famous (sort of)… read more!
K-PAX
Or, "Mork from Ork stars in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". I didn't know much about this film before I saw it, except that Kevin Spacey plays a guy who may or may not be a visitor from outer space, Jeff Bridges plays the psychiatrist assigned to him, Spacey eats an entire banana, peel and all, and it's probably… read more!
A Knight’s Tale
Breezy romantic comedy/adventure set in Medieval Europe about a young peasant (Heath Ledger) who, aspiring to be a knight, pretends that he is of noble birth so that he can compete in royal jousting tournaments. Naturally, he's good at what he does, falls in love with a hot babe, and has his goofy but well-meaning buddies to back him up… read more!
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
From the get-go, it's clear that this film was really made by a studio marketing department, not by people who wanted to make a great movie. Take a high concept (a female Indiana Jones), throw a hot star at it (Angelina Jolie), make sure it's a safe sell (the video game it's based on is a big hit), and advertise… read more!
Last Orders
A dream cast of England's finest (Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings, and Ray Winstone) is assembled for this very British merchant class drama about a tight-knit group of old farts who gather together after one of their own (Caine) dies, and embark on a road trip to deliver his ashes to the seaside town of… read more!
Little Otik
In a contemporary Czech city, an ordinary couple is desperately trying to have a baby, despite their own stubborn biology. In a lighthearted effort to cheer up his wife, the husband, a wood-carving hobbyist, fashions a baby out of an uprooted tree stump. To his dismay, his wife, whose sanity had apparently long been on the breaking point, starts treating… read more!
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
I don't know what to say about this film other than it is, as expected, perfectly made. But I will fill a little column space with biographical trivia: When I was a kid, I saw Ralph Bakshi's animated Lord of the Rings several times. It was a feature film that only covered the first book and a half of the… read more!