Movie Reviews
The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
During the War, Judi Dench played the tenor sax in an all-girl swing band. (Well, they couldn’t find a girl drummer, so a guy dressed in drag. And eventually ended up fucking every one of them.) Her husband has just died, and she realizes that those days were the best of her life. She runs into the drummer, now played by Ian Holm, who was always in love with her (or she was the only band ... Read more »
Knowing
I can’t review this one without some spoilers, including the ending, so be warned. It is full of ups and down. It begins well enough in 1959 when an elementary school is burying a time capsule. It’s going to be filled with drawings the kids did, imagining the future fifty years hence. One strange little girl is writing a long list of numbers instead of drawing a picture. So far, so ... Read more »
Push
It’s kind of sad, because this could have been good, except for a basic flaw: It never should have been made. Made as a two-hour movie, that is. It’s all about people with extra-sensory powers, living among us. But the trouble is, there are about nineteen different kinds of powers here, and they have to tell us about all of them in two hours. It’s not possible. The plot involves people ... Read more »
Danny Collins
When I see a new Al Pacino movie I always wonder which Al I’ll be getting. Will it be the icy restraint and menace of Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part II? Or will it be the wildly over-the-top screaming of Tony Montana in Scarface? I’m happy to say that this time it’s the more subdued Pacino, who can be very, very good when he ... Read more »
Little Fish
When I saw a movie I’d never heard of starring Cate Blanchette, I assumed it was something from early in her career when she wasn’t well-known. Not so. She was already a big star with an Oscar nomination for Elizabeth and a win for playing Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator. (She has since won another for Blue ... Read more »
Grown Up Movie Star
Tatiana Maslany has mentioned in an interview somewhere that, aside from the delights of being able to play five major characters and a dozen minor ones in Orphan Black, another reason she was happy to take the job is that she would be playing adults. She has one of those faces, as well as the terrific acting talent, to pull off playing ... Read more »
Mad Men
It’s 1960, and men are still men, by golly! Well … actually men are pigs, as we still are today, the difference being that back then there was absolutely no reason to pretend that we were not pigs, as who in the world was going to call us on it? Not women, who were subservient by necessity. The most they might do was slap a wandering hand, and laugh about it, ... Read more »
See No Evil, Hear No Evil
Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor made four films together. They weren’t exactly Hope and Crosby on the road, but they were a good comedy team … for two movies: Silver Streak and Stir Crazy. (Blazing Saddles doesn’t count; they had no scenes together.) This one was the third. It’s pretty bad. I haven’t seen the ... Read more »
Chappie
There is something called the “idiot plot,” which means a story that only works if everyone in it is an idiot. This is a prime example. From start to finish, no one does anything remotely smart. If that weren’t enough, I didn’t for one millisecond buy the “AI” robot that cringes in fear though he can’t feel pain, who picks up English very, very quickly but never ... Read more »
Love and Other Catastrophes
Young Aussies in college trying to deal with their problems. On another night I might have enjoyed this, but they just all seemed so trivial. Again, the problem might be with me rather than them. As I get older it’s hard to see the problems of twenty-year-olds as something to get really excited about, but of course I did, just like them. I know I shouldn’t let being an old fart interfere ... Read more »