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!
Before There Was “The Tudors”, There Was France’s “Queen Margot”
The 1994 Queen Margot, adapted from an Alexandre Dumas novel, is about Margaret of Valois (Isabelle Adjani), who during the 1500s was forced to marry Henri the King of Navarre (later the King of France) in the midst of post-Reformation violence and conflict. The...
OK, So “The Girl Can’t Help It”
The old movie The Girl Can't Help It played in the Big Apple in 2006 and was intelligently reviewed in the Village Voice. So I saw it on DVD, impossible though that makes it to judge the cinematography. Frank Tashlin's film is brazen with color, with "laminated...
Drugs & Thugs & “Maria Full of Grace”
Because she is poor and pregnant and refuses to marry her irresponsible boyfriend, Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino Moreno, in a so-so performance)---the protag of Maria Full of Grace (2004)---agrees to become a criminally active "mule" who smuggles drugs from Colombia...
A Comment on “Easter Song”
How many a cappella pop songs exist in the world I don't know, but "Easter Song" by Glad is likely to be one of the best. The lead singer is enthrallingly good, both sober and cheerful, while collective vocals fill the bill superbly. (This on the studio recording.) ...
A Look at the Late ’60s Film, “Bullitt”
Peter Yates's police drama Bullitt (1968) is poorly written in several ways but is engrossing nonetheless. It has to do with killers and witness protection, and it contains enjoyable action, but it's a mostly quiet film. Proceedings are quiet, as they frequently are...
Back to 1996 and Woody Allen’s Nonsense
Woody Allen's musical comedy, Everyone Says I Love You (1996), is a catastrophe. Frequently it is not very funny because comedy and undistinguished dialogue don't exactly go together unless the comedy is physical. The movie features songs by Cole Porter, Rodgers and...
The New “Jack Reacher” Feature
However many improbabilities arise in Jack Reacher (2012), it's a vigorous, reasonably intelligent, engaging crime thriller starring Tom Cruise. It works because I assume its source material, a Lee Child novel titled One Shot, is well-crafted. (Am I wrong?) Jack...
Take Out the Deputy Secretary, Will You? “Red Eye”
Both truthful and nonsensical, the Wes Craven thriller Red Eye (2005) is solid entertainment. Rachel McAdams is more than suitable as Lisa, a hotel manager needed by Jackson Rippner, acted by a nuanced Cillian Murphy, for a cruel assignment: assistance in murdering...
A Word About the Film, “Unfaithful”
Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful (2002) is loosely based on a good 1969 Claude Chabrol film, La Femme Infidele. There are many things wrong with it, but for the most part Lyne's directing is not one of them. He and film editor Anne V. Coates understand pacing and suspense,...
