Movie Reviews
At Long Last Love
One of the very few movies that, as far as I can tell, has never been released on VHS, much less DVD. I suppose that’s because the director, Peter Bogdanovich, actually apologized for it in an open letter published in many newspapers. I first saw it when HBO was a baby. I don’t recall much about it. Now ... Read more »
The Astronaut Farmer
How can a movie go wrong in so many ways? It’s about a man building his own spaceship and taking off into the unknown. There must be a good story in there—I ought to know, I wrote one. But this ain’t it. I’d usually insert a spoiler warning here, since I’m going to give it all away, but I’ll just give a ... Read more »
Assassination Tango
Robert Duvall likes to act, and he likes to dance the tango. Every once in a while he likes to direct, too, and not surprisingly, actors and acting are the most important elements in his films. In this one he tries to combine the acting part and the tango, with mixed results. It’s really two ... Read more »
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
I wonder if Sam Byck might be better known to Stephen Sondheim‘s music than to historians. Byck plays a role in Sondheim’s Assassins, along with other wannabes like Read more »
Assassination of a High School President
Aspires to be a sort of black comedy noir combination of Chinatown, All the President’s Men, and Heathers, but doesn’t make it. Everybody looks way too old for high school. Maybe if ... Read more »
The Asphalt Jungle
Can you believe I never saw this? Directed and co-written by John Huston, solidly in the middle of the film noir period, one of the very first caper/heist films, shown from the criminal’s POV, which was revolutionary and controversial at the time … and I’d never seen it. Well, I finally caught up, and ... Read more »
As you Like It
I’ve liked all of Kenneth Branagh‘s Shakespeare movies, even the one the critics all hated, the musical version of Love’s Labour’s Lost, where he took considerable liberties by adding musical numbers from the great songwriters of the 1930s ... Read more »
The Artist
I loved it. From the first frame right up to the end. But does it deserve its Best Picture Oscar? Well, I can’t say right now, because I haven’t seen all of them. It’s the best of the ones I have seen. And from what I know of those I haven’t seen, I don’t think it’s likely this one will be pushed aside in my ranking. A lot of the others sound reasonably ... Read more »
Artemisia
If you’ve ever wondered why women are so lightly represented in the history of art until the 20th Century, the reason is simple. They weren’t allowed to participate. There is no way of ever knowing how many works of genius the human race never got to see because of this stupidity. Artemisia Gentileschi was the ... Read more »