North Country

I was expecting to like this a lot more than I did. It got off to an okay start, then completely crashed and burned in a ridiculous courtroom scene. Now, I understand that real courtrooms are the dullest places on the planet 99.9% of the time, Perry Mason notwithstanding, and that some dramatic license is allowable. But this was not only over the top, it would have skimmed right over Mount ... Read more »

North Face

I enjoy standing at the foot of a mountain and looking up at it. And judging from the movies I’ve seen of such an event, I think I would greatly enjoy standing at the summit of a towering mountain like the Eiger and looking down. It’s all that stuff in between that holds no attraction for me …

SPOILER WARNING: … though this film is closely based on an ... Read more »

Northfork

Another critical darling. Lee and I found it absolutely impenetrable, a huge, baffling, bore.

Not Fade Away

It’s 1964, New Jersey, and the British invasion is underway. Beatles, Stones, and all the rest. Some boys form a garage band (actually a basement band, which is the same thing) and start performing for friends. At first it’s just covers of other groups, but soon one of the members is writing stuff, and they are outgrowing their lead singer.

This movie was written, produced, and ... Read more »

Not the Messiah: He’s a Very Naughty Boy

Eric Idle seems to be the ex-Python most invested in Python nostalgia. The others have largely stayed away from it, but Idle wrote the very successful Spamalot, based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and tours singing songs from the series and movies, along with new stuff. When I first heard of this I thought it might be a try-out ... Read more »

The Notebook

This movie got off on the wrong foot for me from the opening credits, with three things that set off alarm bells in my head: A mournful piano solo, a beautiful sunset, and slow motion. A man rowing. Birds flying. Oh no! We’re back On Golden Pond, a movie I really didn’t like. (“Norman! The loons! The loons!”) Then the hero showed up, and he was that goofball from ... Read more »

Notes From the Field

I don’t really know much about Anna Deavere Smith, except that she played a hospital administrator in Nurse Jackie. This is a filming of her one-woman stage show where she dramatized what she calls the school-to-prison pipeline, where poor young black kids seem to have little or no choices in what happens in their lives. I don’t entirely buy the premise, but I ... Read more »

Notes on a Scandal

Based on a novel by Zoe Heller with what I think was a better title: What Was She Thinking?

The old double standard works most often against the female of the species, with men getting all the breaks, women being held to a higher standard. And in the case of a female teacher having sex with her 15-year-old student it may seem on the surface that this is ... Read more »