Movie Reviews
Titles starting with P
Phone Booth
At 81 minutes this might have been a one-hour TV drama, and might have worked better that way, though the commercials would have cut the tension a lot. It moves at breakneck speed and I enjoyed it most of the way. Got to be a little too much there at the end, though.
The Pianist
One of the harshest tales of survival I’ve ever seen. Fascinating and horrible to watch a man degenerate from a cultured pianist to a ragged animal desperately trying to open a can of peaches. Based on fact, hard as it is to believe. This guy had more luck than any ten men.
Pickpocket
Alternate title: Night of the Living Dead Goes to Paris! Every once in a while all the critics steer you wrong. This movie got 100% at Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert couldn’t say enough good things about it. Robert Bresson, the writer/director, is a darling of all cinephiles. And guess what? They’re all full of ... Read more »
Picture Day
Once more I’m struck by how happy Tatiana Maslany must have been to finally graduate from juvenile roles into playing grown-ups. Here she is Claire, a spunky and brash girl who is just beginning what she calls the 13th grade, having to repeat a year. (Maslany was twenty-seven!) At the rate she is going she might as well prepare for the 14th, if she intends to graduate at all, because she ... Read more »
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The IMDb lists five versions of this, including one just last year, 2018, and a sixth in development, where they plan to do the old gender switcheroo, making Gray a woman. None of the others seem to amount to anything, but I thought this one was a doozy. Gray is played by the devilishly handsome Hurd Hatfield, and devilish is the key word. There is just something in that face that tells me ... Read more »
Pieces of April
We enjoyed this one a lot. Concerns a black-sheep daughter trying to prepare a Thanksgiving meal for her family, including her mother who refuses to cut her any slack, and is dying of cancer. Sounds awful, but it works very well, particularly Patricia Clarkson, who was nominated for a supporting Oscar.
Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman
There’s some confusion about the title; I’m going with the one on the DVD release. I hate to say any movie is a true story. Let’s say it’s based on fact. It concerns Albert Pierrepoint, who was not England’s last hangman, but certainly the most prolific, with either 608 or 680 deaths to his credit, depending on which source you believe. Naturally such a story will be a meditation on ... Read more »
The Pilgrim
I have seen all of Charlie Chaplin’s feature-length movies at least once, and the large majority of his two-reelers, but every so often a short one comes to my attention that I’ve never seen. Here is one. He had already made two features: Shoulder Arms, and The Kid. After this one it would be all features. And this isn’t really a ... Read more »
The Pillars of the Earth
TV Miniseries. Here’s a wild and woolly and very violent film about … the building of a cathedral. Because cathedrals fascinate me (ever since I visited some in France and Germany and read the book Cathedral by David MacAuley), I read the book, and didn’t recall so much violence, but maybe I’m wrong. The author, Ken Follett, is said to be pleased. It takes place ... Read more »