Long Way Round

I wanted to see this after reading Long Way Down, a book which documents a motorcycle trip taken by Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman, son of director John Boorman. They started out at John o’ Groats (the northernmost point of the island of Great Britain) and went all the way through Africa to the Cape of Good Hope. You can hardly imagine how hard a ... Read more »

The Long Walk Home

Before there was The Help, there was The Long Walk Home. It’s about all the working black people of Montgomery, Alabama, who boycotted city buses for 381 days in reaction to the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. (It makes you cringe to see how this monstrosity operated, with black passengers getting ... Read more »

The Long Voyage Home

If I’d had to guess whose stories were being adapted for this tale of a tramp steamer carrying high explosives through Nazi-sub-infested waters, Eugene O’Neill would have been way down on my list. But it’s true, these were very early one-act efforts by him. They are “The Moon of the Caribees,” “In The Zone,” “Bound East for Cardiff,” and “The Long Voyage Home.” The screenplay is by Dudley ... Read more »

The Long, Long Trailer

I remember seeing this when it was new, so I must have been about six. It’s all about the misadventures of Lucy and Ricky (sorry, actually Tacy and Nicky, though everybody knew who they really were) in a 40-foot trailer. I wouldn’t want to tow one of those even today, with a truck, and it was much harder back then. I recall laughing a lot when Lucy was trying to ... Read more »

The Long Kiss Goodnight

Supremely silly, but fun. Geena Davis is a housewife who has had amnesia for some years. Now her memories are coming back to her, and it seems she was a highly trained assassin. The conflict between her two personalities are fun to watch, and she is assisted, reluctantly, by a sleazy private eye played by Samuel L. Jackson. The ending is way over the top, I got quite bored, but what ... Read more »

The Long Goodbye

We’re going on a bit of an Altman binge, picking up the ones we missed over the years. Because Altman was so experimental, he made a few stinkers, but this isn’t one of them. In fact, its reputation has grown over the years. I think that in 1973 a lot of critics just didn’t get it. We’ve seen a lot weirder stuff than this in 33 years, and now it’s got a ... Read more »

Little Voice

Remember the old Andy Kaufman SNL routine where he’s that wide-eyed little guy from some other country, trying to do standup and failing miserably? Then he says he’ll do his impression of Elvis Presley, turns his back on the audience, combs his hair, and when he turns around he is Elvis. Or when Gomer Pyle suddenly begins singing in his Jim Nabors voice? Those ... Read more »

A Little Romance

How you react to this film will depend on your tolerance for sweetness. I’ve got a fairly high sugar index, despite being diabetic. I loved this when it first came out and now, thirty-four years later, though I have in some ways soured on many things, I can still love a sweet little love story. Which is what it is, exactly as the title days. I believe it holds up well.

This was ... Read more »

Little Miss Sunshine

… or JonBenet Ramsey Meets The Griswolds. A dysfunctional family (and what family isn’t?) sets out to take their 10-year-old (or so) daughter to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant in California. Everything that can break down does break down, including the family van which must be pushed to ... Read more »