Russian Doll

The story idea explored so wonderfully in Groundhog Day, of someone who dies repeatedly and wakes up on the same day the “next” morning has been used in several other films, some of them good, some not so good. It has even been used in a slasher movie which, I’m told, is actually a very black comedy, something called Happy Death Day, ... Read more »

The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming

The era of glasnost was still decades away when this little comic plea for understanding between nations was made. It was during the bad old days of the Cold War, which was the war I grew up under. Nikita the K. had said “We will bury you!” and pounded his shoe on the table at the U.N. Our own side was not much more conciliatory, with our talk of “Godless communism.” Stockpiles of nuclear ... Read more »

Rust and Bone

This one is a strange sort of mix of different elements. It sort of pops in and out of the story of these two people and when it reaches a certain point, it just stops.

The most dramatic part concerns Stéphanie (Marion Cotillard), who is an orca trainer at a French Marineland. There is a terrible accident and she loses her legs. It’s too chaotic to see what actually happens, if the ... Read more »

Ruthless People

This has to go on my list of best comedies of all time. I had forgotten just how good it is. It was written and directed by the team of Jim Abrahams and the Zucker Brothers, David and Jerry, who were responsible for another of the funniest movies of all time, Airplane!, and some that were in the same broad lampooning style but not as funny, like Read more »

RV

Here’s about half of a funny movie. The funny parts mostly are physical comedy. The not-so-funny ones are where Robin Williams seems to be improvising. His routines were funny for about a decade, but now they’re getting tiresome. And this movie has to contend with a big obstacle as soon as they crank up the engine of that big ol’ RV: National Lampoon’s Vacation. ... Read more »

Ryan’s Daughter

David Lean was best known for masterful versions of the Dickens novels Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, and Brief Encounter. Small-scale, black and white pictures. Then he made five large Technicolor films, beginning with The Bridge on the River Kwai, ... Read more »