Movie Reviews
Germany, Year Zero
The film is in German, the third of what was known as the “War Trilogy” by Italian neo-realist Roberto Rossellini. The first two were made about the Italy during the war; this is about Germany after the war. The exteriors were shot in Berlin, which provided endless backdrops of skeletal ruins. There was very little left of the city after Allied Bomber Command got through with it. Food was ... Read more »
Georgia O’Keeffe
A rather routine biopic showing her long and contentious relationship with Alfred Stieglitz, who discovered her, tried to manage her, and seems to have had about a tenth of her talent. It is redeemed by the two lead actors, Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons.
George Washington Slept Here
George Washington Slept Here (1942) Here we have The Egg and I with the roles reversed. In that one Fred MacMurray did an incredibly stupid and inconsiderate thing. He bought a dilapidated chicken farm without telling his new bride, plopped her down there on their honeymoon. She is long-suffering from that point on. In this one, Ann Sheridan buys a house in the ... Read more »
Genghis Blues
I sat down to write about this highly-acclaimed (and Oscar-nominated) documentary, and remembered that it was Spider Robinson who originally recommended it to me, back in 2005. I finally got around to watching it. I’m going to let his words speak for the movie. Don’t wait two years to see it.
GUEST REVIEW BY SPIDER ROBINSON:
Richard Feynman for ... Read more »
Gates of Heaven
I’ve been hearing about this one for a long time, and was finally inspired to rent it after seeing Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. Errol Morris is a great documentarian. In The Thin Blue Line he actually made a difference, getting a man wrongly convicted of murder freed from prison and exposing the real killer. In Read more »
Hellboy
Seems to me there’s entirely too many comic book movies lately. Maybe because that’s I’m not a fan of comic books. However, if you’re going to make one, it seems best to have reasonably good source material, and this is superior. Hellboy is a troubled and witty and flawed hero, his origin is imaginative, and the movie is well-executed. Nothing is going to make this seem like a serious ... Read more »
Heights
Lee pretty much summed it up: Forgettable. I just know that if you ask me about this movie a month from now, I won’t have a clue what it was about. It’s based on a play by Amy Fox, a first-time playwright, and some of the cast are great. Glenn Close (no surprise) and Elizabeth Banks are very good. It’s nice to see George Segal again … whatever happened to him? (I ... Read more »
The Heat Is On: The Making of Miss Saigon
Here is one of the Broadway smash hit musicals I’d most like to see. No movie has ever been made from it (nor Sunset Boulevard, as well), unlike The Phantom of the Opera and The Producers. I recently saw a story that suggested the investors are waiting to see whether or not Les ... Read more »
Heartbreakers
I most often associate Sigourney Weaver with roles where her femininity is, if not precisely suppressed, is not exactly emphasized. Her famous Alien action-adventures, of course, but also more thoughtful parts like in The Guys, The Ice Storm, The Year of Living Dangerously (at the ... Read more »
Hearts of the West
I love movies about making movies. Nickelodeon, The Stunt Man, Singin’ in the Rain, Ed Wood, 8½, Day For Night, Adaptation … these movies vary in quality, and some of them are completely wrong about how ... Read more »