Movie Reviews
The Adventures of Tintin
Computer-animated movies really can’t continue getting better and better, because there’s simply not much more they can do. (I’m speaking of technically; the stories can still be dumb.) I suppose that eventually I’ll be jaded to the incredible levels of complexity we can see these days, and I suppose a lot of people who see more of these animated ... Read more »
Adaptation
Simply one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, written by the most imaginative screenwriter working today: Charlie Kaufman, who wrote Being John Malkovich . I laughed my head off, even though it’s not primarily a comedy, ... Read more »
Act of Violence
Pretty interesting noir film. Van Heflin is a successful businessman in California with a young wife and son. Robert Ryan is an obsessed man with a grudge. He intends to kill Van, and he is relentless, but has enough bad luck that Van learns of his intentions, and flees. I ... Read more »
Across the Universe
You don’t so much watch this movie as you drop it, like a tab of Owsley‘s Finest Acid back in the ‘60s. Roger Ebert said in his ... Read more »
Ace in the Hole
Billy Wilder co-wrote and directed this examination of press excesses when confronted by the “big story.” The media circuses we see these days are of course a lot higher tech, and assemble faster, but don’t think they’re anything new. There have been things like the Read more »
Absolut Warhola
A few German filmmakers go to Andy Warhol’s ancestral home in Ruthenia, which is a part of Slovenia close to Ukraine. Warhol is the local boy who made good. Everybody knows of him, or is part of his family, though they only learned of him in 1987; decadent western art, I guess. The government has built a museum to Warhol in ... Read more »
A
I saw this animated short in film history class at Michigan State in about 1966. A writer is tormented by a giant letter A. After battling it in various ingenious ways for 10 minutes, he defeats it. Then a giant B appears. Cute.
The Internet Movie Database lists movies with the titles Read more »
10,000 Black Men Named George
George Pullman seems to have been a bit of a progressive, at least at first, for his day. (Never mind that Pullman strike nastiness in 1894.) The country was filled with ex-slaves with no jobs, so he decided to hire Negroes, and only Negroes, as porters on his Pullman cars. ... Read more »
2010
It seemed appropriate that the first movie we would see in 2010 would be … 2010. I always felt this was a misbegotten project. I can’t say it’s a bad movie, because it is honestly made, not stupid, and is that rare thing, real SF. (Though the director could not stop himself from having things make sounds in vacuum, something we are probably stuck with forever, in ... Read more »