Movie Reviews
Titles starting with B
Breakfast on Pluto
Made by Neil Jordan, of The Crying Game fame, it’s another gender-bending story, and it even has Stephen Rea in it. It’s based on a novel by Patrick McCabe, though it seems they changed a huge number of details. Cillian Murphy is a transgendered Irishman who has never tried to conceal her sexual identity. She sets out for London to find her mother, who abandoned ... Read more »
Breakin’ All the Rules
Reviews were not very good, and I was dubious. But this little trifle is fun. The key is to appreciate it as farce. With different language and a cast of aristocracy, this story would not be out of place on the French stage in the 18th century. Sure, the characters are all shallow and one-note. So is everyone in The Importance of Being Earnest. I’m not saying ... Read more »
Breathless
Some films are timeless, and some are of their time. I never saw this one when it was influencing every filmmaker on the planet; we only rented it this year. And I have to say, it’s of its time. Watching it, I can see that it would have blown my mind in 1960, but it doesn’t now. All the things that made it so startling then have become total clichés by now, they’re been overused so much. ... Read more »
Breezy
This was Clint Eastwood’s third time out as director, a role which I now think he’ll be will be remembered for even more than his iconic roles as an actor. It’s not as good as Play Misty For Me, but it’s not bad. It takes place in Los Angeles and features the usual hippies like no one I ever knew: Hollywood movie hippies. Breezy (Kay Lenz) is 19, and gets ... Read more »
Brewster McCloud
I was surprised to learn that of all the films Robert Altman made, this was his favorite. It is the one he chose to make when he could have made almost anything right after his breakout hit with M*A*S*H. And it is one weird little film.
It was shot in Houston, the big city I was most familiar with when I was going to school. It all looked very familiar, ... Read more »
Bride and Prejudice
Wow! Uh … gee! You’ve probably heard of “Bollywood,” the term for the Indian film industry based in Bombay (Mumbai). They make more films in India in a week than Hollywood makes in a year. My understanding is that most of them are very cheap and very formula, and don’t travel well. Here in the west we seldom see them. But there are also big-budget musical extravaganzas, which are ... Read more »
Bride of the Monster
AKA The Atomic Monster, The Monster of the Marshes, Bride of the Atom. Ed Wood had the astronomical (for him) sum of $70,000 to create this gobbler. The sets are much better than in any of his other films, but the script and the acting are just as stunningly awful. This is basically Bela Lugosi’s last film, though he had a few seconds in Plan ... Read more »
Bridesmaids
Marketed as The Hangover for women, and it worked about as well as that one did, which is to say I got a lot of laughs. It’s fully as raunchy and gross, but I think it has a better heart. The guys were on a bachelor party. The girls are preparing for a big wedding, a nightmare that so many women convince themselves will be the most magical moment in their lives. ... Read more »
The Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most beautiful, most perfect large objects ever made by humans. I lived in San Francisco for five years, and I never got tired of seeing it, or crossing it, in a car or on foot. Every picture of the bridge is a postcard; it doesn’t have any bad angles. It spends half its time shrouded in fog, partially visible, and it’s just ... Read more »
The Bridge
When it was decided to make an American version of this story, there was the matter of picking a bridge. Canada was considered, in particular the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, which I crossed a hundred times in 1965 when I was working in the Motor City. (Back then, they just waved you across in both directions. Can you believe it?) Bad idea. The whole thrust of these of ... Read more »