Memoirs of a Geisha

It’s a good story, though melodramatic. It is totally gorgeous to look at … though it is often a cold beauty, like Geishas themselves.

There’s this endless and heated debate as to the nature of a geisha. Some say she’s a prostitute, pure and simple. Maybe so. The only thing I’m sure of is, she’s not anything like a prostitute as we know it in the ... Read more »

Memories

Okay, I give up. I was resistant to Japanese anime for years. I guess I was prejudiced against it. Which isn’t fair, because it’s such a broad term. Basically, it’s the Japanese term for animation, and I love animation … but I don’t love Spongebob Squarepants, and I don’t love Speed Racer, and I don’t love The ... Read more »

Men in Black

Every once in a while a fairly new idea pops up in a film. (Probably not a completely new idea; there are very few of those going around. But we are grateful for what we can get.) Ghostbusters was such a idea. This one was another. For around two hours we are introduced to a new universe, a place where things are not what they seem, or not what we have always ... Read more »

Men in Black II

I would say this is a reasonably entertaining sequel, though it has all the flaws that sequels usually have. There is simply no way to re-capture the delight you get when you see an original idea, like the original Men in Black. Illegal aliens! Real aliens! Aliens posing as humans: Sylvester Stallone, Steven Spielberg, Al Roker, Dionne ... Read more »

Men In Black III

Every once in a while an SF movie comes along that shows us something new. It can be a new visual idea that, in no time at all, everyone is copying, like Alien. Maybe it’s just a new slant on an old story, but that’s good enough for me. The point is, it’s fresh. Men in Black was such a movie. Everybody loved the idea that not only have ... Read more »

The Men Who Stare At Goats

The opening title reads something like “More of this story is true than you would believe.” The US military, hearing that the Russians were looking into psychic powers and their possible uses on the battlefield, really did start an ESP unit to look into the possibility of remote viewing, invisibility, walking through walls, stunning or killing people (or in this ... Read more »

The Merchant of Venice

This is the first theatrical movie of this play since the silent era. Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles have done it for television, but lately people shy away from it because of the anti-Semitism. I think this is a mistake. You can’t deny it’s there, it was an anti-Semitic age Shakespeare was writing in … but you know what? I’m on Shylock’s side. I think he’s a genuine hero, and I ... Read more »

The Messenger

What’s the worst job in the world? Lindsay Lohan’s publicist? Rand Paul’s press secretary? Any job that involves being around Sarah Palin? I don’t really know what is the worst, but all kidding aside, notifying next of kin that their son or daughter or husband or wife has been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan has to be in the Top 10. They used to send out telegrams: ... Read more »

Metropolis

(Restored Version) I wonder if some of the scenes in this movie might have had as much of an impact on contemporary audiences as Star Wars did on us? Or if, lacking the background in thinking of the future that we have, if it was all merely baffling? I recall that audiences in 1936 laughed in Things to Come at the scene where airplanes ... Read more »