Movie Reviews
Titles starting with P
The Phantom of the Opera
It all boils down to whether or not you like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music. Lee and I do, though from his television appearances he strikes me as a conceited British snot and bore of the kind I find most tiresome. Opera-lovers hate him. Most lovers of Stephen Sondheim (and I am one) hate him. The critics have complained that the story is over the top, that the movie is full of ham acting—but ... Read more »
The Phantom of the Opera
The IMDb lists eleven versions of this story. There is a German one from 1916 and of course the musical version from 2004. This is the most famous, the one everybody remembers … but I don’t think many people have actually seen the movie. What we all know is the famous scene of Lon Chaney being unmasked, and the horrific ordeal he had to endure to look like that.
It’s actually hard ... Read more »
Phantom of the Paradise
This movie has the distinction of being one of only two that I saw at a science fiction convention. (The other was The Terminator.) It was in Oakland, at a WesterCon, actually my very first SF con. It hadn’t gotten much distribution—it was a flop when new; now it’s a cult favorite—and I really wanted to see it. Other than that, I’ve never much seen the point of ... Read more »
Phffft!
The title alone would make me interested in seeing it. I always wondered about it, and now I learn that this was what Walter Winchell would write in his gossip column when a couple’s marriage was on the rocks. It’s a George Axelrod script that looks a little stagy, but it was written for the screen. (Axelrod wrote some very good romantic comedy plays, and some excellent original ... Read more »
Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune
Phil Ochs was proof that it is possible to care too much. All of my generation were stunned and depressed by the murders of John, Martin, and Bobby, by the police riot at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention, by the CIA-sponsored coup and resulting mass murders in Chile. Phil was shattered by these events. He was bipolar and schizophrenic, and it grew worse and ... Read more »
The Philadelphia Experiment
During World War II they conduct an experiment that is intended to make a destroyer invisible to radar. Stealthy, as we would say today. Something goes haywire, and two sailors end up in Nevada in the present day (1984). The best parts are their reactions to the things they see. Some of the special effects are pretty good for their time, but I kept getting the feeling they were missing the ... Read more »
The Philadelphia Story
One of the best romantic comedies of all time, and to my surprise, I had never seen it. I guess I was under the impression that I had because I had seen the famous wordless opening scene dozens of times in one documentary or another. (Katherine Hepburn breaks Cary Grant’s golf club and he starts to hit her, then changes his mind and puts his hand on her face and shoves her backward, Read more »
Philomena
What would you call a group that imprisons pregnant women at slave labor in unpaid workhouses, indistinguishable from debtor’s prisons in that you can’t get out until you pay an impossible amount? All without the slightest due process of law? What would you call a group that forces pregnant women to undergo childbirth without pain medication of any sort, and without the presence of a ... Read more »
Phoenix
An interesting idea here. Nelly was recently released from a concentration camp, probably around 1946. She had been shot in the face by a fucking Nazi, and left for dead. This screwed up her face pretty badly (and we never see that), but a very good plastic surgeon re-builds her. She wanted to look just like she did before, but that is beyond his powers. Still, she is quite pretty. Her ... Read more »