Movie Reviews
Joe Versus the Volcano
This is one of those divisive films. By and large, you either love it or hate it. I’m one who loves it, madly. It was written and directed by John Patrick Shanley (the only film has he directed, as this one flopped), best known for Moonstruck and the recent Doubt. It is a fable that requires you to suspend your disbelief, as many things ... Read more »
Jindabyne
… is a small town halfway between Sydney and Melbourne. It sits on a lake that didn’t used to be there, created by a dam. The chief industry seems to be sport fishing. There are trout the size of atomic submarines in the rivers feeding the lake.
Digression: The first thing you see in this movie is an announcement that says something like “Aboriginal and Torres Strait ... Read more »
Identity
Seems to be a rather bloody variant of the English drawing room mystery, with 10 characters stranded by a storm at night in an isolated motel. Then they start dying gruesomely. Can’t say much more, but all is not what it seems, and the ending will leave you looking back over the whole thing in a different light. It worked for me.
Ice Princess
Hollywood churns out about a dozen sports movies a year, and the most you can expect of most of them is a mild rush of euphoria when the underdog wins. They take the same basic plot, file off the serial numbers, and make the same movie whether the sport is football, baseball, golf, tennis, arm wrestling, badminton, ping-pong, or barrel jumping. I think it’s time for a curling movie, ... Read more »
Jesus of Montreal
I’ve been interested in this film for years, and now it’s out on DVD. The interest comes because it was filmed at about the same time as Millennium was filming in Toronto. I was nominated for a Genie Award for best screenplay for a Canadian play, and Jesus of Montreal was my main competition. The voters wisely chose to give just about ... Read more »
The Ice Harvest
Directed by Harold Ramis, who co-wrote and directed the staggeringly good Groundhog Day, screenplay by Robert Benton, starring Billy Bob, John Cusack, and Oliver Platt … how bad can it be? Not too bad, but not very good, either. It’s not a caper where everything goes wrong; these guys have already stolen $2,000,000 in the first scene. Then things go ... Read more »
I’ve Loved You So Long
I’ve Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t’aime) (France, 2008) Two women meet awkwardly in an airport in France. It’s obvious they haven’t seen each other for a long time. Soon we discover they’re sisters, and the older one is going to be living with the younger one and her family for a short time. It’s obvious she’s just gotten out of some sort of institution. Prison, or ... Read more »
Jersey Girl
It’s funny to compare the careers of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon after their breakout co-production Good Will Hunting. Both have made some turkeys, but Damon seems to have been more astute at choosing his scripts. Affleck has spent entirely too much time making by-the-book schlock like this. Oddly, the movie did perk up a little when Will Smith showed up, and I ... Read more »
I’m Not There
I’m Not There (2007) About halfway through this “rumination on the life of Bob Dylan,” I asked myself, what would be the point of making a standard biopic about the former Mr. Zimmerman? I mean, it would be largely guesswork. No one has worked harder to be obscure in all aspects of his life, to be incoherent and stumbling in interviews to the point that we wonder, could this disheveled, ... Read more »
Japon
We hereby bestow the coveted “Gerry” Award for Cinematic Pointlessness to Mexican director Carlos Reygadas. This is a new award, nominated and voted on solely by Lee and myself, for the most egregious example of pretension, sloppiness, artsy-fartsyness, and most of all being the boooooriiiingest movie of the year (or month, week, depending on how often we decide to give it out). Named in ... Read more »