Blog
These stories have been around a long time. Some of them I have updated. Many of them I haven’t. This started out when blogs were like, new!
“Aloha” Is As Bad As The Critics Say It Is
I fell asleep for a minute or so during the first quarter of Aloha (2015), a Cameron Crowe picture, because I didn't know what was going on. Later, after I got some idea of what was going on, it was easy to see how insipid and unlikely this Crowe-written stuff was. ...
Tsk, Tsk: Bruce Beresford’s “Black Robe”
Based on the novel by Brian Moore, author of the film version's screenplay, Black Robe (1991) deals with French missionary efforts among the Algonquin and Huron Indians in the 17th century. Lothaire Bluteau is miscast as the Jesuit priest Father Laforgue merely...
Old West, “Slow West”
The title of John Maclean's Slow West (2015) may refer to the implacable slowness of the Old West in becoming civilized. To be sure, the film's characters have it bad precisely owing to an absence of civilization, too often spelling violent death. The chief figure,...
Not The Bottom, Not The Top: The Movie, “View From The Top”
Gwyneth Paltrow dreams of being an ace flight attendant in the insignificant View from the Top (2003), directed by Bruno Barreto. Fizzy fluff, it fails to maintain the tone it begins with and is boringly acted by Paltrow miscast as a backwater gal. Does it embrace...
Focus On The Geek: Wes Anderson’s “Rushmore”
Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is a poor student but a very bright, nigh adult go-getter at Rushmore Academy, the geeky hero of Rushmore (1998), the second of Wes Anderson's filmic oddities. The movie follows the boyish love for an honorable school as it gives way...
Afternoon Abstract: “Meshes of the Afternoon”
The 14-minute Meshes of the Afternoon (1942), by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, is as abstract a film as one can find, which nevertheless evokes a sphere of real meshes for the central figure played by Deren herself. Meshes are things that ensnare, and the...
On Kelly Clarkson And The Radio
I don't understand radio stations. The Kelly Clarkson hit, "My Life Would Suck Without You," came out in 2009 and only now, in 2015, is a local contemporary-pop station playing it. It is every bit as catchy as other pop singles released in '09 and yet it was ignored....
The Huston Caper, “The Asphalt Jungle” (1950)
In the 1950 John Huston film, The Asphalt Jungle, we get an idea of what society is up against when a witness is too scared to finger the petty thief Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden) in a lineup. Afterwards, however, conditions prove to be even worse when we learn that...
Go See “Avengers: Age of Ultron”
Unless, that is, you detest superhero movies. But if you don't mind them, Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) is a pleasurable ride. Artificial intelligence in this Joss Whedon flick is not very interesting, but the Avengers themselves are (up to a significant point) and...
