Movie Reviews
Titles starting with M
The Music Man
I have always had a soft spot for this one. I’ve seen it once on the stage, in Eugene, Oregon, where the end of the first act was the arrival of the Wells-Fargo wagon pulled by a real horse. I know every note of the music and can bore my friends and family endlessly with my spot-on rendition of “Trouble.” (Right here in River City!) The movie is one of the more scrupulous adaptations ever ... Read more »
The Music Man (Second Review)
I love musicals, and this is a damn near perfect one. I can’t think of a single musical number that I didn’t care for. The plot is terrific and funny and touching. It gets right into it with a great opening number, “Rock Island,” with all the traveling salesmen talking along with the rhythm of the train they are on, and it just keeps on coming at you with songs like “Marian the Librarian,” ... Read more »
Must Love Dogs
But you don’t have to, you know. Not every dog. Especially this one. Don’t let this DVD into your house or it will piddle all over your carpet and hump your leg.
My Afternoons With Margueritte
We started this one and got about half an hour into it. Gérard Depardieu stars as a rather simple and illiterate laborer who strikes up a friendship with 96-year-old Gisèle Casadesus (who doesn’t look a day over 80) on a park bench. They have names for all the 19 pigeons that gather there to be fed by her. There’s a cast of characters that frequent a bar, where Depardieu hangs out. Some of ... Read more »
My Architect: A Son’s Journey
Nathaniel Kahn is a bastard. Literally. He is the barely-acknowledged son of Louis Kahn, the famous architect, who had one real family and two illegitimate ones. Louis only visited sporadically, and died when Nathaniel was 12. So the kid has a unique perspective on the great man, and sets out to learn more about him. No one else could have made this movie, and that’s both good and bad. ... Read more »
My Beautiful Laundrette
When Lee suggested we rent this one I thought I had already seen it, but it turned out I hadn’t. Must have had it mixed up with something else. Anyway, it is one of the excellent Stephen Frears’ first movies (Dirty Pretty Things, The Grifters, Dangerous Liaisons) and also one of Daniel Day-Lewis’ first appearances. The Rotten Tomatoes site gives it 100%, so I was ... Read more »
My Brilliant Career
Aside from a small role in a forgotten film, this was Judy Davis’s first movie. And what a movie it is. She quickly became an international star, to the point that I’ll bet a lot of people have no idea she is Australian, born in the beautiful city of Perth, where I spent a week some years ago. She is equally good at drama and comedy, and it’s about time she won an Oscar. She’s one of my ... Read more »
My Brilliant Career
Judy Davis was twenty-four when she appeared in this, her first starring role and only her second movie. She can’t really pull off playing a girl who was actually in her late teens, but it doesn’t really matter. She is great as the willful, passionate young woman living in the Australian bush. All you need to see is a 360˚ pan around the totally flat, treeless landscape to see why she ... Read more »
My Cousin Rachel
It’s from a novel by Daphne du Maurier, a novelist who I have not read. Her short story was the source material for Hitchcock’s The Birds and Rebecca. It takes place in Cornwall, at a time that is not quite specified, but I assume is the Victorian Era. It concerns the strange relationship of Rachel and young Ambrose, named Upper Class ... Read more »
My Cousin Vinny
How long does it take before a movie becomes a “classic?” A lot of reviewers are fond of the phrase “instant classic,” which strikes me as a total perversion of the whole idea of classics. How about “a brand new antique?” Is 28 years enough? Probably not, I’d opt for more like 50 years before that word could be applied. But this is pretty close to a classic, one of our favorite comedies. ... Read more »