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 »

Genius

Colin Firth. Jude Law. Nicole Kidman. Guy Pierce. Dominic West (from The Wire). For this quintessentially American story, all about Americans writing great American literature, who do they cast in the major roles? Three Brits and two Aussies. You have go all the way down to sixth billing to find an American: Laura Linney. What’s up with that? Now, I’m not one of ... Read more »

Genius: Picasso (Second Series)

The first of these planned series on the National Geographic Channel covered Einstein, who I think no one will disagree was the genuine article. Series three will be about Mary Shelley. I really wonder about that. Clearly they were desperately casting about for a female genius, and there’s no denying Ms. Shelley was smart, but genius? I don’t think so. A genius ... Read more »

George Gently

Another of those cop shows the British do so well. Martin Shaw portrays Gently, an Inspector for the constabulary of Northumberland, the northernmost county in England. He is assisted and supplied with a lot of very good comic relief by Sergeant John Bacchus, who is ambitious, impulsive, and no better than he has to be. Gently is a fully realized character, devoted to his job but seldom ... Read more »

George Lucas in Love

I almost passed over this title on the DVD shelf at Goodwill, but then my eyes snapped back, wondering what the hell this could be. What it is, is a USC student film that very cleverly combines Shakespeare in Love with just about every Star Wars reference you could imagine. It’s 1967 and poor George is banging ... Read more »

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 »

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.

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 »

Gerry

This movie immediately sank into the mire of my Bottom Ten Worst Films of All Time list, a list I don’t actually keep and which probably holds a lot more than ten awful films. It’s an honor I don’t bestow lightly. The first five minutes is shots of a car. Driving through the desert. Driving and driving and driving. Then two assholes, both named Gerry, get out and ... Read more »

Get Low

Robert Duvall decides to hold his funeral before he is dead. We’re not sure why, but it turns out he has some things to say to the rest of the small town on whose outskirts he lives, and with whom he has barely interacted for 40 years. I thought the revelation at the end was a little long-winded. Duvall is always worth watching, and there is a very nice smaller, quirky role for Bill Murray ... Read more »