Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Once Were Warriors

(New Zealand, 1994)

New Zealand is a fabulously beautiful country. (I’ve never been there, but everybody I’ve ever spoken to who has is rapturous about it.) It’s so beautiful that, in the opening shot here, Lee said “It looks like a painting!” Well … what it was, was a billboard advertising “Beautiful New Zealand!” What’s behind the billboard as we pull ... Read more »

Ondine

(Ireland/USA, 2009)

Neil Jordan is a terrific director, with movies like The Crying Game and Mona Lisa. Here he tries to mix myth with reality, and it doesn’t quite work, but it’s good up until the very end. Colin Farrell is a small-time fisherman in a small Irish village. One day he hauls in a beautiful woman (Alicja Bachleda-Curuś), near death, in his ... Read more »

One False Move

(1992)

This was Billy Bob Thornton’s first starring role, a few years before he broke out in Sling Blade. He also co-wrote the script, and it’s a dilly. A white psychopath (Billy Bob), and black psychopath (Michael Beach) and a really, really stupid half-black woman (Cynda Williams) rip off a lot of cocaine in Los Angeles. In the process the black guy kills three people ... Read more »

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

(1975)

The first face you see on the screen in this movie is my old friend Peter Brocco. He is lying down in bed. Later we see him quite a few times, in a wheelchair, playing a character named Colonel Matterson. He looks totally befuddled, suffering from some sort of senility. Believe me, Peter was never befuddled, he was one of the sharpest and sweetest guys I’ve ever known. He was in well over ... Read more »

One From The Heart

(1982)

Francis Ford Coppola was said to have directed this entirely from a trailer, watching on TV. Huh? The sets are fabulous; nothing else is.

One-Hour Photo

(2002)

Robin Williams stretches himself here, and the plot doesn’t unfold quite as you would expect it to. But not real memorable.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians

(1961)

Cruella De Vil, Cruella De Vil
If she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will
To see her is to take a sudden chill
Cruella, Cruella De Vil.

Oh, Cruella, my divine Cruella! My heart belongs to you, and always has. Maleficent tried to seduce me away from your cruel embrace, and I admit I was tempted, but I always came back to you. Briar Rose? Cinderella? Snow White? ... Read more »

The One I Love

(2014)

What a find! I have concluded that if you want to see good science fiction in the movies, you should walk right past the multiplex showing the latest $250,000,000 Avengers-style dumbfests, movies that measurably lower your IQ as you’re sitting there, and seek out the low- or no-budget little ones, like Primer, Read more »

One Magic Christmas

(Canada, USA, 1985)

For about a month I worked in Vancouver, B.C., with Philip Borsos, who was set to direct Millennium. He was the third director we tried, but the deal fell apart. I was saddened. I liked the guy a lot, liked his ideas for the film, would have been happy to collaborate with him on the script. The failure of the project had nothing to do with him, it was some arcane ... Read more »

One of Our Aircraft is Missing

(UK, 1942)

I’ve always like British movies from WWII better than American ones. Ours are always relentlessly gung-ho, I guess because that’s how we built morale in 1940s America. The Brits always go the other way. They understate it all, with droll wit and “Do duck your head, old chap!” “Oh, I say, thanks, you old thing!” sang-froid. Here we have the story of a crew of six on a bombing mission to ... Read more »