SLITHER has perhaps the worst poster of any terrific film released in 2006. It may have actually kept people away, what with the way its space slugs converging on a bathtub cradling a classically nubile nymphette. It fails in every respect to convey the wicked humor and superbly self-aware irony that permeates every frame of… Read More »
BORAT
The most important thing to know about BORAT is that you will be appalled by what you see, and then you will be appalled by the way it makes you laugh. Uproariously. And with wild abandon. The only down side to seeing this film based on a character by Sacha Baron Cohen, and played by… Read More »
HARSH TIMES
In HARSH TIMES Christian Bale and Freddy Rodriguez troll the seamiest streets of Los Angeles looking for trouble and usually finding it. If this sounds very much like writer David Ayer’s earlier screenplay, TRAINING DAY, that’s because it is. In fact, it plays like the bits and pieces that didn’t make the final edit of… Read More »
SHADOWBOXER — DVD
SHADOWBOXER is that most wonderful of films, the kind that works on every level, but can’t be easily pigeonholed. If the usual pitch session is one line to sum up a script, the pitch for this would have to run to several pages and even then wouldn’t capture what is best about it. Director Lee Daniels… Read More »
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION, like the other films co-concocted by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy, WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, BEST IN SHOW, and A MIGHTY WIND, is a wry exercise in improvisation by an intrepid cast working from scenarios and guided only by their imagination and daring. These pieces (Guest deplores the word “mockumentary”) tell the tales of ordinary-seeming folk… Read More »
JONESTOWN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE PEOPLE’S TEMPLE
It seems odd that there hasn’t been a film made about what happened in Jonestown in 1978 since the early 80s, the events of that time put such a scar on the national psyche. Whatever the reason for that, Stanley Nelson’s JONESTOWN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE PEOPLE’S TEMPLE more than makes up for… Read More »
DEJA VU
The best thing that can be said about DEJA VU is that it pumped some much needed revenue into New Orleans and its environs. The second best thing that can be said about this otherwise benighted exercise is that by filming a few scenes in the ravaged Ninth Ward of that city, the devastation that… Read More »
BOBBY
It pains me to have to slam a film that so obviously has its heart in the right place, but BOBBY is such an inept and misguided effort that there’s no other option. Taking place on the day when and in the place where, the Ambassador Hotel, that the title character was assassinated, it’s a… Read More »
STRANGER THAN FICTION
In STRANGER THAN FICTION, Will Ferrell bravely sets aside the manic side of his personna in favor of that personna’s innate sweetness. It’s a bold move and one that is not without charm, but it’s also one that should have been better served than it is by a script that takes far too long to get… Read More »
BLOOD DIAMOND
BLOOD DIAMOND wants to be so many things, including an action film, an adventure epic, a love story, and an indictment of what soulless exploitation has done to Sierra Leone. It takes 2 ½ hours or so, but still doesn’t have the emotional tug that it should by the time the final credits roll. Set… Read More »
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