Movie Reviews
American Buffalo
I’ll admit I’m conflicted about David Mamet. He has scripted some movies that I thought were really good (though I wasn’t as taken by Glengarry Glen Ross as a lot of others were), but his dialogue can drive you a little bit crazy. Then you add in his 2008 conversion to the most insane conservative positions, passionately endorsing Mitt Romney, in favor of ... Read more »
Harry in Your Pocket
I believe some people are born with an inherent talent. Maybe it’s for math, maybe for music, maybe you’re a born runner or swimmer. And I think it’s the same with non-violent crime. (Violent criminals may be born, too, but it’s a case of born to be a psychopath.) People discover these talents in themselves, and they stick with them. Thus, a con man will probably not dabble in burglary, a ... Read more »
Rosewater
In 2009 an Iranian-Canadian Newsweek reporter named Maziar Bahari appeared in a spoof segment of Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” pretending to be interviewed by a “spy.” What he didn’t count on was the motherfucking degenerate Iranian Islamic State’s total lack of a sense of humor. He was picked up and imprisoned for six months, physically beaten and mentally ... Read more »
1941
Contrary to what you may have heard, it was not a commercial flop. The budget was $35,000,000. The world box office was $92,455,742. No flop even by Hollywood studio bookkeeping. The thing was, it just wasn’t a mega-blockbuster like his previous two movies. However, it is true that it ran way over time and budget, and Spielberg himself ... Read more »
Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip
Whenever I see Richard Pryor, the first thing I think of is Lenny Bruce. Oh, man, the persecution, the agony that man went through for routines that were so tame, so bland by today’s standards! With Pryor, every other sentence contains the word motherfucker, which Lenny didn’t even try to use. Well, it’s a sad world, but in some ways it gets better with time. His ... Read more »
Nightcrawler
Did you know there is actually a level of “journalism” lower than celebrity-driven paparazzi? It is the people who listen to police scanners all day and night, ready to hurry to the locations of fires (preferably fires where children get killed), car wrecks (ditto), and shootings. And, it must be said, the people at the news stations who buy this shit so they can grab your attention at six ... Read more »
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
This is one of those movies, like The Age of Innocence and New York, New York, that Martin Scorcese did, far out of his normal comfort zone, just to show he could do it. There’s no mean streets here, no Mafia, no crazed taxi drivers. It’s a chick flick, pure and simple, and one of the best of that maligned genre.
Ellen Burstyn ... Read more »
Derailed
Clive Owen is a more-or-less happily married man with a daughter who needs a super-expensive kidney transplant. He meets Jennifer Aniston on a commuter train to Chicago, and a romantic spark is kindled. They go to a seedy hotel and are about to get it on, when a mugger breaks into the room, beats him up, and rapes her repeatedly. He thinks it is over, but the mugger calls him up and ... Read more »
The Boxtrolls
Down below the town of Cheesebridge, “Eggs” is a young boy rescued by underground creatures and raised as a boxtroll. Which are … human-shaped, but they wear boxes with holes cut out for the head, arms, and legs. When threatened, they pull into the boxes like hermit crabs. At night, they emerge to raid garbage in search of junk they can make into clever but largely useless machines. Each ... Read more »
John Wick
I wasted two hours of my time watching this, and I almost hate to waste any more writing about it. But I will.
We all know by now that there is some sort of checklist producers hand out to writers and directors of films like this. These are plot and action points that must be followed to the letter. Things like:
The good guy is tied to a chair while the Big Bad Guy gloats ... Read more »