Terrence Malick, an auteur in every sense, has both written and directed just five films in his since 1969. As such each new work, staggeringly original in its scope and in its approach, is a cause for eager anticipation. Each finds new truths and new meanings in events that had seemed familiar, combat during World… Read More »
ANNAPOLIS
The first question that comes to mind after watching ANNAPOLIS is this. If the powers behind this pasteboard mockup of a film wanted to remake AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, why didn’t they just go ahead and do that? The second question, why if they wanted to remake ROCKY, didn’t they just go ahead and… Read More »
THE WAR WITHIN — DVD
THE WAR WITHIN deserved a lot more attention than it got when it was released last year. This brave film took on complex issues surrounding suicide bombers and the radicalization of moderate Muslims without pandering to any special interest group. Instead, it trusted to an intelligent, compassionate script with a searing message and no easy… Read More »
FREEDOMLAND
In FREEDOMLAND, Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Lorenzo, spends a great deal of time professing his belief in God. There is nothing in his life or in the lives of anyone around him that would back up that belief, never mind that at one point he proclaims that after 22 years of being a cop, he… Read More »
THE LIBERTINE
Johnny Depp, an actor who not only takes chances, but seeks them out with a ferocity to match the considerable talent at his disposal, is not, alas, enough to save THE LIBERTINE. Adapted from the play of the same name by its author, Stephen Jeffreys, this intimate look at John Wilmot, the second Earl of… Read More »
THE ZODIAC (2006)
It is the stuff of gazillion urban legends, two kids making out in a car on a deserted country road only to be attacked by a psychopath. Only this is true. The psychopath was THE ZODIAC, and he started his killing spree in 1968 and, depending on whom you talk to, continued on for another… Read More »
V FOR VENDETTA
This is a dangerous film. Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, V FOR VENDETTA is a medieval mystery play re-imagined for the 21st century and spiffed up with some nifty, but not overbearing, special effects. A political thriller enhanced with a healthy dose of both fantasy… Read More »
TSOTSI
With TSOTSI, Gavin Hood has taken the liberty of updating the timeframe of South African writer Athol Fugard’s only novel. In doing so, the politics of apartheid that spurred the story in the book has given way to the tragedy of AIDS. Changing the circumstances of its title character’s orphaning, though, doesn’t affect the nature of… Read More »
AKEELAH AND THE BEE
What AKEELAH AND THE BEE offers is a sweet, unpretentious, and positive affirmation in the very best sense of that phrase. While the specifics are the struggles of a kid from the ‘hood to make it to the national spelling bee, at heart, and it has a lot of heart, it’s about learning to be… Read More »
UNITED 93
UNITED 93 begins and ends with prayers in Arabic. Those are offered by the terrorists who seized the plane. There are prayers throughout the film as well, some offered in English and all mouthed in wonder, or in terror, or in fear, or in anger. Writer and director Paul Greengrass has kept politics, at least… Read More »
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