The Great Gatsby

If you’re going to make Gatsby for the third time (actually, fifth, but the first one is lost and the second is unavailable), you must think you have something new to bring to the story that many call the Great American Novel. Baz Luhrmann is a crazy Aussie, and I love him. He has made only five films so far, and three of them are seriously twisted in one way or another. (Ways that I like, ... Read more »

Gabriel Over the White House

A very strange movie. Walter Huston is the newly-elected president. He seems a jovial fellow, a back-slapping politician. Then he gets a head injury in a car crash, and when he comes out of the coma he is a changed man, a driven man, a man who is determined to get America out of the Great Depression by any means necessary. And oh brother! The means …

First he fires his entire ... Read more »

Gaily, Gaily

Ben Hecht was a journalist, novelist, and playwright, but is probably best known for his screenplays. He is possibly the best screenwriter who ever worked in Hollywood. I won’t list his credits, there are just too many of them, and an amazing percentage of them are bona fide classics, things you must see if you are a movie fan.

This Norman Jewison movie ... Read more »

Galaxy Quest

Here is one of my favorite … well, I was going to say little movies, but judging from the special effects it must have had a respectable budget. It is a send-up of SF TV shows in general, and of Star Trek in particular. William Shatner could probably sue for defamation, but he’s so conceited he probably thinks it’s an homage. What happens is, twenty years after ... Read more »

Game 6

It’s October 25th, 1986. In the sixth game of the World Series, the Boston Red Sox are leading the New York Mets 3 games to 2. The score is Sox 5, Mets 4 in the bottom of the 10th inning. There are two outs and two men on base. Mookie Wilson comes to the plate for the Mets. The count is 2 and 2, and then a wild pitch scores the fifth Mets run. All tied up, 5 and 5. It’s 3 balls and 2 ... Read more »

Game Night

Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman headline a cast of people who are deeply into games, and gather once a week to play. Any kind of games, with cards, on a board, charades … you name it. But this evening they are all being treated to a role-playing game.

There are actually companies who do things like this, where actors put you into a scenario whereby you have to work to solve a ... Read more »

Game of Thrones (Season One)

George R.R. Martin is a friend from way back, albeit one I haven’t seen in a long time. We first met when both of us were new to the SF scene, each having sold a few stories here and there, each of us working the convention circuit. I think he worked it harder than I did, and suspect he enjoyed it more. He was, and still is, one of the very best stylists and storytellers in the ... Read more »

Gangs of New York

Beautifully composed, nicely written … and a big yawn, as far as I was concerned. Too bad.

Gangs of New York

The first time I saw this, when it was new, I didn’t like it. I can’t recall precisely why. It seems much better on a second viewing, but it is still flawed. And the flaw is something I almost hate to bring up, because it has to do with the ending.

This two-and-a-half-hour movie builds from the very first scene to a confrontation between Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis, in his ... Read more »

The Garden

Nominated for Best Documentary Feature. The 14 acres of land in the middle of one of the most desolate districts of Los Angeles has a checkered and complicated history, and I’m not sure I have it all right. But, more or less … After the Rodney King riots the owner sold it to the city, and the city allowed people—almost all of them Hispanic—to open a community garden there. Each person had ... Read more »