Contagion

(cough) Excuse me. (cough, cough) Sorry … That’s how this picture opens. Can you imagine that that might be the most frightening sound you ever heard? Well, it could be, and it could happen overnight …

Here’s one of the best movies of the year, and it completely slipped under my radar. Didn’t they promote it enough, or was I just nodding off? Whatever, it is by Steven Soderbergh, ... Read more »

The Contender

What a script, and what a story! The writing is incredibly sharp, and the cast of Joan Allen, Gary Oldman, Jeff Bridges, and Christian Slater, has never been better. This movie shows just how dirty politics can be, in a way that has seldom been done so convincingly, and then drives the knife deeper into the back, and then twists it. And then … it goes all soft and mushy, sort of a ... 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 »

Control

Rented this one on the strength of the cast: Ray Liotta and Willem Dafoe. Got off to a bang-up start. An unrepentant killer is being put to death by lethal injection. His life flashes before his eyes: his mother’s murder, abuse, juvie hall, it’s a real horror. We see him committing his murders. Then they wake him up. He’s been chosen to test a new drug that could make him a good citizen. ... Read more »

The Conversation

This is simply a masterpiece, and probably the best film Francis Ford Coppola has made. And that is saying something, because he has made some doozies. It is probably the best performance Gene Hackman ever turned in, and that also is saying something. The opening sequence, set in Union Square in San Francisco, is pure genius, as Harry Caul tries to record a moving conversation between ... Read more »

Conviction

Based on a true story, and it’s an incredible one. Betty Ann (Hilary Swank) and her brother (Sam Rockwell) are very close. They come from trailer trash, their mother was good at getting pregnant and nothing else. They had seven siblings, and the nine of them had seven different fathers. (Sounds like a Grimm fairy tale, doesn’t it? With emphasis on the grim.) He is convicted of murder, ... Read more »

Cookie’s Fortune

I’ve seen most of Robert Altman’s movies, but as with most directors, there are a few gaps here and there. For some reason I had pigeonholed this one as being not one of his best. Don’t know why. And while it is not one of his very best—a high standard indeed—it sure ain’t the worst. In fact, I liked it a lot.

Patricia Neal is Cookie, an aging woman in ... Read more »

Cool Hand Luke

Back in the late ‘60s we didn’t have much money, and so we seldom got out to see first-run movies. But that was okay, as there were several places in the Haight-Ashbury that showed movies for free. One of them was a Methodist church on Waller Street, a few blocks from our flat. It was pretty basic stuff: A large sheet, a 16mm print and one projector, so there was a wait while reels were ... Read more »

The Cooler

Just as good as everybody said it was going to be. I don’t believe for an instant that luck can rub off, but accepting that one unlikelihood, this is exactly how the life of a professional Jonah would be. The theme of luck, getting it and losing it, even justifies the highly unlikely happy ending.

Cop Car

My advice to you as this holiday season approaches (other than to buy more Varley books here at the website to give to your friends!) is to stroll right by all the big and usually stupid summer blockbusters that are appearing on Netflix and Redbox now, and rent this little gem. I can’t find out what the budget was, but it couldn’t have been much, and it barely appeared in theaters at all. ... Read more »