The Matrix

I thought it was wonderfully imaginative. For once, it actually made sense that characters could fly through the air, or run through a hail of bullets and never get hit, because it was all actually a video game. Then I saw The Matrix Reloaded. Bah. Claptrap, though it had a freeway car chase that almost made it worth seeing just for that. Almost, but not quite. I ... Read more »

A Matter of Life and Death

Released in the US as Stairway to Heaven. I can’t say the title change is inappropriate—there is a huge, infinite stairway in the movie—but the writing-directing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger didn’t like it, so I’ll go with the original. (MP and EP worked under the name of their company, The Archers.) The Archers were sort of the George Lucas and Stanley Kubrick of their ... Read more »

The McKenzie Break

I had heard about this for years, but never saw it. Interesting idea, following an escape by German POWs from a prison camp in Scotland.

The situation is out of control at the McKenzie camp. The inmates, all of them fucking Nazi officers mostly from the U-boat corps but with some Luftwaffe mixed in, are refusing orders to report for roll call. They are so threatening that the ... Read more »

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Just what the title says. Greg’s pushy mother insists he drop by the house of Rachel, a girl he barely knows, to “cheer her up,” and “hang out,” because she has leukemia. Naturally, he would rather have his tonsils pulled out through his asshole. But against all odds they eventually hit it off. Greg and his friend Earl make funny little movies parodying great films, such as Read more »

Me and Orson Welles

Before he was a household name, before the famous “War of the Worlds” broadcast (which apparently didn’t cause nearly as much panic as legend has it), Orson Welles founded the Mercury Theater with John Houseman. Their first production was Julius Caesar, cut down and set in fascist Italy. This movie is a recreation of the genesis of that production, seen through ... Read more »

Me and You and Everyone We Know

Miranda July, the writer, director, and star of this movie, is a performance artist, which, in my book, is strike one. I know there is a bit of interesting work done in that field, but 99% of it is pretentious bullshit. This film is an attempt to inject an element of poetry, maybe even magic into the lives of a group of ordinary people. It shows us some interesting scenes, some quite good ... Read more »

Mean Creek

Hollywood makes about 100 teenage fantasy films every year, and I like them if they’re done well. You know the sort. The dweeb gets his revenge. The quiet girl torpedoes the awful clique of cheerleaders. Things come out well at the end. Fun, a pleasant night’s entertainment. They seldom make a film like this one, where real teenagers face real situations, where even the “bad” guy is real, ... Read more »

Mean Girls

Every once in a while in the continual eruption of primordial stink that are “teen-age” movies, somebody gets it right. Clueless was one. This is another. Lindsey Lohan is 16, home-schooled in Africa all her life, and now has to cope with … High School! Africa was a piece of cake by comparison. She hasn’t a clue about the anthropology of American teenagers. ... Read more »

Mean Streets

Just because a movie is seminal, doesn’t mean it will hold up forever in my esteem. There is no question that this was one of those films that changed the movies forever. It took us down the mean streets, with guys so penny-ante that they would rip off some teenagers for $15, guys who never even rose up to the Sopranos level, much less the Corleones. There was the usual fuckup, the kid who ... Read more »