Linda Linda Linda

I had sort of mixed feelings about this one. It gets off to a slow start, but then you have to get used to that if you’re watching serious Japanese films. Apparently they don’t mind that over there; if they want instant action they go see Godzilla. An all-girl rock group at a Japanese high school lose their guitarist and then their singer, to a broken finger and ... Read more »

Lion

Dev Patel has been all over the place since his first movie, the surprise smash hit Slumdog Millionaire. (Eight Oscars, including Best Picture!) He has been very good in several movies, including the crowd-pleasing The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its sequel.

Usually when a film is “based on a true story” it is really better ... Read more »

The Lion King

I’m on record as saying that I have been surprised at how well the recent tide of live-action remakes of Disney classics have come out, by and large. Some actually rivaled the originals. But I’m not surprised that they eventually came a cropper, and it arrived in the shape of this wet hairball. (I mean that artistically speaking. Financially, it was a very smart decision, having made $1.6 ... Read more »

Lions For Lambs

Reporter Meryl Streep is interviewing Senator Tom Cruise (now there’s a frightening thought!) about a new, “guaranteed to work” strategy in Afghanistan. In the meantime, two grunts on the ground are getting killed implementing that strategy as it fucks up from the git-go. At the same time, poly-sci Prof. Robert Redford is trying to convince a disillusioned ... Read more »

Little Big Man

There was a real Little Big Man, but he was a Lakota who rode with Crazy Horse (whose name apparently translates literally as “His Horse is Spirited”; I like the traditional name better, don’t you?).

I can’t say this was the very first movie to treat Indians as complete and interesting human beings, but it had to be one of the first, and is still one of the best. It’s based on a ... Read more »

Little Children

Here’s a movie with characters so unlikable that the one I had the most sympathy with was the town weenie-wagger. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I don’t think there was anybody here we were supposed to like, as they were all self-obsessed suburbanites who seemed to have missed out on understanding what life is all about, and how to find a place in it. Kate ... Read more »

Little Dieter Needs to Fly

Werner Herzog likes to make movies about the extremes of human behavior and endurance. This is a documentary about Dieter Dengler, a US Navy pilot who was shot down over Laos in 1968 and managed to escape after unbelievable privations. It is narrated by Herzog, and told by Dengler, and it is a truly terrifying tale. Dieter’s life even began badly, in post-war Germany where, at the age of ... Read more »

Little Fish

When I saw a movie I’d never heard of starring Cate Blanchette, I assumed it was something from early in her career when she wasn’t well-known. Not so. She was already a big star with an Oscar nomination for Elizabeth and a win for playing Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator. (She has since won another for Blue ... Read more »

The Little Giant

Edward G. Robinson is always good, and in this one he does a little take-off on his gangster image. He’s still a hood, but Prohibition has ended and he feels that the bottom has dropped out of the illicit beer business. He decides to move to Santa Barbara and join the upper crust. His attempts are comical, and of course the upper crust wants only his money, since the family of the girl he ... Read more »