Movie Reviews
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 Wind That Shakes the Barley
Ken Loach is an unapologetic lefty socialist Brit who is much more popular in Europe than in his own country or in America. It’s not hard to see why many Brits don’t like him and accuse him of hating his country; his portrait of the British occupying forces in Ireland in 1920 is about as brutal as it gets. But it’s one thing to hate your country, and quite another to hate its government, ... 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 »
Winchester ’73
Jimmy Stewart and his trail buddy come a-ridin’ into Dodge City on the day of the Centennial, July 4, 1876. (Not much over a week after the Battle of the Little Bighorn.) They meet Wyatt Earp (Will Geer, in a bit of castin’ even he thought was odd) and have to surrender their shootin’ irons, as all citizens do when in town. And a good thing, too, because the polecat Jimmy was a-lookin’ to ... Read more »
Win Win
I hate boxing. I kind of like wrestling. In boxing your objective is to damage your opponent to the point he can’t go on. Knock him out if possible. Wrestlers try to overpower their opponents with strength, agility, craftiness, strategy. It’s a pretty pure sport, going all the way back to the original Greek Olympic games. It’s damn ironic that so-called professional “wrestling” has ... 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 »
Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
For some reason neither of us ever got around to seeing this, so we decided to rent it so we could compare it with the new version. I read up on it a little, discovered that though the screenplay credit is to Roald Dahl, he was extensively rewritten and hated this movie so much he wouldn’t sell the movie rights to the sequel. Now I suspect I’ll have to read the book.
Without even ... Read more »
Wild Target
Bill Nighy is a hit man who puts me in mind of Lawrence Block’s series of stories about a man named Keller, who kills people but, in most other respects, is just like you and me. The guy next door, maybe. He’s conflicted, undergoing analysis, has a dog, passionately collects stamps. Victor Maynard is a killer because it’s the family business. Dad gave him a Beretta for his seventh ... Read more »
Wild Strawberries
Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället) (1957) During my brief stay at Michigan State University—1965-1967—I did a lot more movie watching than studying. (The last term, no studying at all.) Between the local art houses in East Lansing, the film society, and various other programs in some of the dorms, you could see a film every night and only occasionally have to pay for it. It was here I was ... Read more »
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Yes, it is about parrots, and they are wild (though they will eat out of your hand), but it’s really about Mark Bittner, who is the birdman just south of Alcatraz. There are small flocks of escaped tropical birds all over the US, including a bunch of parakeets in Chicago until the city evicted them. Apparently they can withstand the cold climate, but often have trouble finding the ... Read more »