Movie Reviews
Frozen
Kristen Bell voices and sings the part of Anna, the younger sister of Elsa, wonderfully sung by the great Adele Mazim. (Oh, wait, that was actually Idina Menzel. Oh, John Travolta, is your face red!) Both are princesses, with Elsa the older. Elsa is also afflicted with the magical, or paranormal, power to freeze things. Whatever it is, it’s a big nuisance, ... Read more »
What Maisie Knew
What I didn’t know is that this is based on an 1897 novel by Henry James. Not that it would have made any difference, but it is surprising. It has been updated to the modern day, and I guess the lesson is that a hundred years ago, divorcing parents could be as narcissistic, selfish, heedless, and just as generally fucked-up as they often are today. ... Read more »
American Hustle
So now we’ve seen another of the nine films nominated for Best Picture, and this one’s a doozy. I still believe {{Gravity} should have won, but in another year this one would have been a worthy winner.
It was originally titled American Bullshit, and was apparently a pretty accurate re-creation of the whole Abscam business from the early ‘80s. David O. ... Read more »
2 Days in New York
A sequel to 2 Days in Paris, but you don’t have to have seen the first one to enjoy this one. That’s because in the first, Julie Delpy and Adam Goldberg are a couple, but it’s falling apart. In this one, he’s history, and she is in a new relationship with Chris Rock. They have a young boy child (which is not his) and he gets visits from an older girl child from a ... Read more »
Orphan Black
A woman on a subway platform sets down her purse, takes off her shoes and carefully sets them down on the ground, folds her coat and leaves it on the purse. Then she quickly steps in front of a speeding train. This is Beth, who we will later learn is a cop upset from having shot an unarmed woman. Very quickly Sarah, a streetwise hustler, grabs the purse and hurries away. We soon discover ... Read more »
Saving Mr. Banks
My friend Harlan Ellison has posted a diatribe about just how phony this whole story is. (Harlan is the biggest anti-Internet person I know, but when he discovered YouTube he just couldn’t resist pontificating … and I say that with the utmost respect; no one can pontificate like Harlan.) And he is absolutely right. The story is of the creation of the movie Mary ... Read more »
Young Mister Lincoln
John Ford had to convince Henry Fonda to take this part by dressing him up as Lincoln, and by golly, once he puts on that stovepipe hat, he really, really looks the part. It is comical to see him riding into town astraddle a mule, his boots almost dragging the ground. (He wore special lifts in his boots to make him look even taller, and he towers over everyone else in the picture except ... Read more »
The Wolf of Wall Street
It didn’t take me long to start comparing this to Scorsese’s Goodfellas. That one was narrated by Ray Liotta, detailing his life of petty gangsterism. This one is narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, detailing his life as the Wall Street version of gangsterism. Both are fast-paced, and amoral, and celebrate the good things that can come to those with no scruples, until ... Read more »
Sherlock (Third Season)
“The Empty Hearse.” Oh please!!! A bungee cord? Sherlock bouncing down and then up, crashing through a window? Remember, Watson watched him fall, he saw the whole thing before the cyclist knocked him down. And he didn’t see the bungee cord? If this was their explanation for how Sherlock staged his own death … well, I was about to toss ... Read more »
Continuum
Vancouver, BC, has been many things in the movies, but seldom itself. Many movies have been shot there, pretending to be some other location, usually in the USA. Here is a television series that makes no bones about it. It’s Canadian, it’s set in Vancouver in 2012 and 2077, and I like that. It’s a lovely city, one of my favorites.
The premise is that in the future, traditional ... Read more »