Rick NYC-2 Reviews

About Time (I) (2013)

A happy little tearjerker that presses all your buttons

[20 November 2015]

10 stars! About Time is the Ultimate chick flick. The love match between Tim and Mary, Domhnall ("DOUGH-i-null") Gleeson and Rachel McAdams, will be a thing of legend. They are not A- list heartthrobs like Pitt and Jolie, but their off-beat adorableness makes them lovable and relatable. We, ourselves, with proper diet and exercise, could possibly be as lovely as they are. So we identify with them from the get-go.

The gag is that Tim and all the men in this family have a special gift of being able to go back in their own past just by wishing to do it (but not the historic past--only the past that they are personally part of) whenever they feel the need to, so that they can redo things, to correct anything that went wrong. Sound familiar? Yes, this is definitely a rip off of Groundhog Day, and some purists may find it to be an artistic no-no to borrow from a film so beloved, but it's not exactly the same because they don't only redo the same day. They can go back to their childhood, or yesterday. Of course, as with all time-travel movies, we have to avoid asking any of those annoying "Butterfly" questions about screwing up world reality, or the reality of what is in the time traveler's mind after he comes back from changing the past. Like what else changed in between? But Tim never changes anything too far back, or world shattering--mostly recent little things, like changing the way he talked to a girl or moving strategically to a different room in order to avoid meeting somebody.

There are two major relationships in this movie: the boy-girl love affair, and the father and son's mutual adoration. We may cry a lot--not for them, but for ourselves, thinking, maybe unconsciously, how much better we wish our father-son relationships were/had been. Boy oh boy! Tim and Dad hug a lot and even kiss and we love them for it. If we can get past our own pain.

Dad doesn't use his time travel power to make a killing in the stock market. (His uncle got filthy rich and ended up miserable and alone.) No, Dad goes back to summer afternoons so that he can read more of the classics than it's humanly possible to read in a normal life time. He's a retired professor. (How did he buy that house? Old money?)

There is one little beef I have with this idyllic tale. This is a privileged family of leisure, with a small mansion on the beach, and they don't have seem to have any of the problems that we huddled masses have (except for the relentless march of time that we are all subject to). They are White, thin, healthy, comfortable, well employed (Tim goes to London to become a lawyer), and they are all able to enjoy games of tennis and walks on the beach and seemingly without any stress from one another or the outside world. Okay, the daughter drinks a bit too much, but the family remains loving and happy like the Nelsons or the Cleavers. (Sorry for the old reference. I'm 62.)

This privileged life allows Tim to worry about girls without being troubled by all the nuisances that may bother the rest of us. And the two leads are so infectiously adorable, and their friends and colleagues are so much fun, that we go on the ride that sails by like a dream. It's a cinematic delight, with beach landscapes, cliffs, the ocean, beautiful homes and apartments in both London and Cornwall, and parties filled with lovely furnishings and sexy lads and lasses. The two lead actors are top-notch, and so is Bill Nighy as Dad. They are so invested in one another, so we smile, we laugh, we get misty-eyed, we cry, and finally, we sob if we are not afraid to, over their triumphs, joys, infatuations, loves, and the pains that even the privileged are occasionally heir to.

I'm glad I watched it at home, alone, because I dread coming apart--like I did--in a crowded theater. I imagine that many manly young men will slake this movie because of how expertly, and relentlessly, it presses one's buttons. But I, for one, think Richard Curtis is a genius, and I'm glad he pressed mine.

Bye Bye Birdie (1995 TV Movie)

George Costanza and Miss America?

[8/10 · 22 November 2011]

It's not a minor problem that ten minutes into the opening, I had trouble buying the premise, that Vanessa Williams had waited eight years for Jason Alexander to become an English professor and marry her. In the original, Dick Van Dyke and Chita seemed like a match made in heaven, so I was on board from the word go. Otherwise, I thought the casting was great, although Chinna Phyllips didn't have the voice of either Susan Watson (stage) or Ann Margrett (screen), and she couldn't do her songs justice. I thought Reinking's choreography was a bit claustrophobic, although the kids were energetic and adorable and really evoked a sixties innocence. Strouse was about 30 when he wrote the music, which I think epitomizes the melodiousness of the best of Broadway musicals. Every number is catchy and so many remain in the canon of unforgettable theater hits. As for the book, the farcical treatment of small town America is hilarious, but I think you need to have been alive in the early sixties to appreciate it fully. Finally, if you need the best excuse to check out this version, it's Tyne Daley as Alexander's bullying mother. Having played in Birdie and Gypsy (as Mama Rose), she has established herself as the comic mother from hell, her franchise for all time. It's like she's possessed, and her performance is mesmerizing.

Six Degrees of Separation (1993)

This film feels incredibly relevant today, nearly 20 years

[21 November 2011]

Occupy Wall Street might use this film for fund raisers. It presents the livIng hell of being rich and shallow, and it gives me the creeps much more today than it did when I first saw it. There are some interesting references that date it. For example, the Rainbow Room ejects Will Smith for dancing the tango with a male friend, an act which no such NYC establishment would likely do today. Along those lines, Michael Anthony Hall hands in a very courageous performance as the gay kid who falls for Will and sets his antics in motion. I remember how sensational that kiss between them seemed at the time. Will's character has universal appeal. He is the ultimate con man and hustler, but he is so successful because he is charming. Maybe if rich people today would allow themselves to fall for what is charming, they would delight in helping the struggling people of the world today rather than worrying so much about selling their Kandinskys. Stockard Channing turns in one of the great film performances of the century, showing how a One-Percenter can experience a spiritual epiphany. In this sense, Guare is a modern Dickens, deserving of all the accolades he received for this script and screen play, which reminds us that we are six degrees of separation not only from Kevin Bacon but of every kid in Zuccotti Park or Tahrir Square. "How much of your life can you account for?" With tears in her eyes, Stockard Channing asks Donald Sutherland this question with the same direness in her voice that Jesus must have had when he addressed the rich guys in the Holy Land.

Freaky Friday (2003)

This is a perfect movie!

[21 October 2011]

There is such chemistry between Lohan and Curtis that I was sucked into this fantasy lock, stock and barrel. The two divas do not miss a trick when it comes time to convince us that they are indeed the other person trapped in a new body. Curtis winces, sashays, smirks, wails and gasps like a teenager, and Lohan captures every nuance of a beleaguered middle-aged professional struggling to maintain control In a situation that defies her every attempt to cover up one wacky trap after another. She has to let her daughter, who now inhabits her body, represent her as a psychotherapist, both in the office and on a TV talk show to discuss her book. The results are always hilarious, with Curtis acting exactly like a teenager attempting to navigate through session after session with her Mom's nutty patients. Equally wacky are the scenes of Lohan, with her mother's uptight personality trying to fit in as a high school student deflecting the amorous advances of Jake, the daughter's motorcycle-riding stud boyfriend. Underneath all these hijinks is the serious part of this, and every, switch movie, the journey that mother and daughter take that gives each a firsthand understanding of what makes the other tick. I'm a 58-year-old guy, not a fan of most chick flicks, funny or otherwise, but I was crying like a kid when Curtis and Lohan finally "got" each other and reached a point of mutual admiration and love that, unfortunately, seems to be possible only in movies. That's why they make them, why we see them, and why we are grateful when one of them turns out to be a timeless classic, like Freaky Friday.

Epic Movie (2007)

I was entertained throughout

[7/10 · 4 December 2010]

Pre-Glee Jayma Mays is a delight. All of the celebrity spoofs are terrific. The art direction is wonderful, and no expense is spared in re- creating the sets of Narnia, Pirates of the Caribbean, Snakes on the Plane, and Willy Wonkaland.

The musical numbers are colorful and good take-offs of the stuff they're mocking.

There are 100 talented actors doing bits and cameos and this montage is a career- starter for many of them, deservedly so.

While it's not as raucously hilarious as Airplane, it is good fun for a rainy day, and it made me feel good.

Putney Swope (1969)

Happy 40th Anniversary!

[10/10 · 7 November 2009]

This movie got better with time. I can't believe that it has been forty years since I saw this at the age of 15. Yes, that's right. Movie ratings were not yet a reality, so any teenager could walk into any movie. Imagine what it was like for a kid my age to see both Midnight Cowboy and Putney Swope in the same year. Imagine the times. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King has just been killed but the following summer had a man walking on the moon and Woodstock. Putney Swope was the Woodstock nation's chance to stick it to the man. You'll see where Robert Downey, Jr. got his sardonic brilliance. His old man was an instant hero to kids like me. No punches are pulled in this classic, and aging hippies will rejoice when they relive this era. Hopefully, new flower children will be emboldened by it, and this current era of fascism will come under the same scrutiny my era was subjected to.

Paranoid Park (2007)

Chicken hawks will be sorely disappointed

[6/10 · 9 March 2008]

Somebody had to write this kind of review, so it might as well be me. Gus is usually stingy on the pulchritude, and this movie is the stingiest ever. The camera focuses lovingly on teen boy and girl faces, all of which are lovely, but there is absolutely no sex or skin in this flick. The protagonist occasionally takes off his shirt, and that is the end of the erotica. Sorry. Having said that, there is a lot going for this little film.

First of all, it's a great date movie. Nothing much happens, so if you spend time making out, you won't miss anything. There is little action even though the plot ostensibly centers around resolving a violent crime and/or accident (which is displayed quickly, but rather starkly, thus making it not a film for the kiddies...or squeamish adults).

As a skateboarder movie, it's to skateboarding what "Endless Summer" is to surfing. There is a lot of boarder park footage, both of actors and real Portland kids, and it is all stunningly hypnotic, with guys defying death, and gravity, with every turn.

The cinematography is gorgeous. Every shot is carefully mounted and the Oregon and Portland scenes are exquisite. Even the indoor shots are sheer poetry, especially a shower scene (which focuses only on the guy's face...sorry again), which is an homage to dripping water.

The soundtrack is terrific, a riveting and eclectic mix of every kind of contemporary music (pop, rock, punk, folk, rap, country) and a lot of the magnificent (Fellini composer) Nino Rota's canon. If nothing else, because of the visuals and song track, this picture works as a fancy, extended music video.

There are a couple of future stars to keep track of. Gabe Nevins, as protagonist Alex, has an angelic face and is a mini-Brando in his sultriness. His two romantic interests, Taylor Momsen, as a bitchy cheerleader, and Lauren McKinney, as a Jodie Foster-like cool chick, are both wonderful actresses, and lovely to gaze at. All the other teens, mainly guys, are handsome and hot, and the camera spends ample time ogling their faces as well as their athletic escapades.

It is nice to see that condoms are mentioned as a necessary adjunct to teen sex, but parents may be upset to see that the dare-devil skateboarders do not wear protective gear, neither padding nor helmets. Yikes!

Put that's part of the fun, isn't it? Most of these boarders are throwaways and outcasts, so safeguarding their doubtful future is the last thing on their minds.

Apocalypto (2006)

A Brilliant Message About Civilization

[10/10 · 8 December 2006]

Say what you want about Mel Gibson, but he knows how to make an authentically real statement about the human condition. The movie is about civilization and how smaller is better. There are some rain-forest dwelling American natives, somewhere in America where there are jaguars and monkeys. Then there are some "civilized" natives, with a huge society of nobles, serfs, slaves and sacrificial victims who get their hearts torn out and heads chopped off on top of a pyramid, for the appeasement of their gods and for the sake of controlling and entertaining the "citizens." Our noble small villagers of the forest are ultimately hunted down and enslaved by the more organized, and totally vicious, pyramid builders. This is a story of how one of these villagers deals with the horrific trials that his captors heap upon him. The whole movie is in an ancient native language, subtitled in English, and it lends an air of excruciating authenticity to the happenings. One gets the feeling of being a time traveler, as this 500-year-old world seems so real, with every detail of weaponry, cookware, clothing, jewelry, labor practices, buildings, village characters, and sacrificial ceremonies so obviously researched that it made me feel uncomfortably like I was involved in it all. We are constantly getting the crowd's point of view of all the empire's activities and abuse of its captives and underlings. There is a lot to look at here, from God's beautiful nature to man's nightmarish creations, so it deserves to be seen on a big screen.

Loverboy (2005)

heartbreakingly beautiful

[10/10 · 16 June 2006]

Loverboy brilliantly lays parental love out on the table for all of us to observe in two of its twisted, unbalanced forms. The first is that of young Emily's parents, played sublimely by both director Kevin Bacon, and Marisa Tomei, who think that parenting consists of modeling love by bathing together with the door open and constantly cuddling in front of the child, as though she would be nurtured by having a pair of super-sexed hippie babysitters for guardians. The two are a riot, as is Sosie Bacon, playing with her real-life dad, a girl who sings a Bowie song in a school show in order to shock her parents into caring about her. These flashbacks are intricately woven together with the scenes of the adult Emily, played by Bacon's real wife, Kyra Sedgwick, as she raises her six-year-old Paul (Dominic Scott Kay) on her own, calling him Loverboy. Master Kay holds his own as the increasingly suffocated son, trying to escape his mother's web of the other kind of unbalanced love, being kept "safe" and "smart" and unsullied by society. We feel deeply for Paul, hoping that he will be allowed to stay in school as Emily descends heartbreakingly into madness, fearful that the school is poisoning her child. We pray that Matt Dillon, as a friendly fisherman, will be allowed to take Paul for a "boys only" fishing trip, but even then, the desperate Emily stands on the shore screaming at them to be safe while they're trying to have a few bonding moments together. The movie moves and looks like a dream, and like a dream, it has an explosive, cathartic ending that you have to wake up from. The Bacons in every way have put together a searing work of art, beautifully acted, shot and mounted, that should haunt anyone who can identify with its universally tragic themes.

The Da Vinci Code (2006)

A waste of time and money

[1/10 · 29 May 2006]

Tom Hanks should get an Oscar for pretending he was in a movie. I can't believe this dull turkey is still selling out. It can't possibly be getting good word of mouth. Maybe it's okay for someone who hasn't read the book and doesn't know what is going to happen. Maybe finding out what's going to happen is reward enough. But for someone who has read the book, there are no other attractions to the film. There is no serious excitement, suspense, emotion, love interest, action, cinematography, acting, social message, or anything else that makes a movie worth lining up for. It might have been more interesting if they had concentrated on the historical events leading up to the present and made it a saga of the activities of the Roman Catholic church from the time of Constantine, through the Holy Roman Empire, then the Crusades, then the plague, then the renaissance, then the industrial age, and finally the last century. If they had done that, with lots of context and verisimilitude, then it might have been intriguing and exciting. As it turns out, the flash backs were low-budget scenes like the kind you see in cheesy History Channel documentaries. Maybe I'm disappointed because I had just seen Sir Ian in X-Men, and I expected that anything he would do with Tom Hanks would have to be even better. Well, I guess even Opie is entitled to sleep walk through a certain percentage of projects. Let's just hope he takes Viagra and not Ambien for the next one.

Giuliani Time (2005)

a bit long, but chillingly revelatory

[10/10 · 14 May 2006]

It's a must-see for every New Yorker. It helps us re-focus on what went on over the past two decades and clarifies just how the life blood of the city has been sucked out of it by the vampire passing for a priest. Giuliani mollified, MALLified and mummified the city, destroying every shred of creative, interpersonal and humanitarian energy that used to make the city great. Now Disneyfied, the Tragic Kingdom has turned into an armed camp of private parties for the rich, where people pay twenty dollars admission to a bar with beds and no dance floor passing for a club. Celebrations are staged police-managed barricaded photo-ops for the mega media, where tourists pretend to be New Yorkers having a good time. This documentary wakes us up to the reality. We see how the homeless have been placed in shelters in outer boroughs, out of sight and out of mind, penned in sterile internment barely better than prisons. We see how artists are rounded up like terrorists for displaying their work on what used to be the festive sidewalks of the Village. If you are one of those who has been zombified by the past twenty years of celebrating the antiseptic city, then you need to see this film. If it doesn't make you shed a few tears, then you are lost.

Sir! No Sir! (2005)

a must-see for vets and dodgers alike

[10/10 · 21 April 2006]

I sat in my college dorm room in 1972, after student deferments had been discontinued under political pressure, and I watched TV with my roommates as the man pulled birthdays out of a bowl in order to put them in numerical order to determine who would get called up first, second, and so on, according to their date of birth. Some of us drew lower numbers and started to sweat, not knowing if we would end up running to Canada, maybe forever, or if we would try to find a doctor who would give us an out (flat feet, allergies, homosexuality), but the medical excuses were getting harder and harder to pull off. By 1972, the draft boards were getting tired of everybody claiming to be gay or psychotic, so they drafted the weirdos and sissies anyway. It was a time when the fear became so palpable, that it drove me bats insane, so I hope people can understand why some of us protested, even violently. Now, to see that soldiers in Vietnam resisted the war even after they had been sent over there comes as something of a revelation because that fact has been glossed over by revisionist historians working for the power elite. This documentary shows how some guys resisted fighting and were court-martialed for it, in some cases being put on trial for treason, with a possible death sentence. Then there were the underground presses. Tons of homemade newspapers were circulated under threat of dishonorable discharge or even court martial for merely having a copy of a rebellious rag. The GI's who published these things were heroes in the truest sense. Jane Fonda, who is mostly remembered for her visit to Hanoi, was actually in Nam entertaining the troops in a bizarre parallel to Bob Hope. He would put on "patriotic" USO shows while Fonda and her troupe were invited by soldiers who liked her politics better. And it drove the officers crazy, but they couldn't stop her from going where she was invited. God has blessed me by allowing me to meet Ms. Fonda. She was presenting this film in NYC, and she hung out at the cafe in the IFC movie theater, where it is now playing. I pulled out my draft card, which I have been carrying in my wallet for 34 years. I asked her to autograph it, and she said, "Oh, cool!" Her signature is on the card right above that of S. Witherspoon, the local draft board administrator. Email me if you want me to send you a jpeg of this little artifact of history.

C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004)

A film to choose your friends by

[16 April 2006]

This reminded me of Pink Flamingos. Some people thought it was ridiculous, obnoxious and tawdry. Others thought it was brilliant and wickedly hilarious. The people you considered your friends tended to think like you did--they either hated it or loved it. CSA is that same kind of movie. It's brilliantly insightful to some and tediously vindictive to others. I know that my friends will love it. There is an enormous amount of historical and social introspection that went into it, and its underlying message is that tendencies in societies don't evaporate simply because one group of advocates wins a war or an election. The dialectic of how we see each other as souls on this planet is the search for God itself, and a journey we spend a lifetime on. If my comments make sense to you, you will love the film. If it all seems like old hippie mumbo jumbo, you will probably hate it. In any case, it will help you sort out your friends.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

not for the kiddies

[10/10 · 20 November 2005]

We middled-aged Harry Potter fans loved it, but the nine-year-old godson fidgeted throughout. It has lots of exposition and dialog, and the action sequences were downright dark and creepy. Mr. Fiennes, as Voldemort, will give me nightmares for years to come.

The romance angle was charming, and Hermione has turned into a gorgeous young woman, doing a Cinderella turn in the ballroom scene. Master Radcliffe shows off his torso in a naughty bathtub scene with the girl ghost. Clearly, these three kids are going to be a bit old when it comes time to play 17-year-olds in Movie 7. Only some extraordinary witchcraft in the make-up department will allow these young adults to come off as teenagers in a few years' time.

Already, it was a bit of a stretch to buy Harry as only 14 years of age in this one, but it wasn't impossible, so this outing was by far the most successful rendition of Rowling's words. I'd call it a masterpiece.

Cinderella (1957 TV Movie)

Hard to Believe They Did It Live

[10/10 · 27 December 2004]

Boy, those were the days, weren't they? They did the musical live before millions of Americans. All that choreography, singing, staging, lighting, props getting set, happened live before the cameras, a TV musical with no net. Julie Andrews was granted a short leave of absence from My Fair Lady in order to do it. Lucky for us Lerner and Loewe were so generous to their American counterparts, Rodgers and Hammerstein. I was not quite four when this show appeared, but I was blown away enough to want to go into musical theater from that point on. Yes, those were the days...when TV was used for something more important than selling Viagra.

Alexander (2004)

The movie emphasizes brain over brawn

[26 November 2004]

Don't go looking for three hours of blood and guts. The Greeks were philosophers and there is lots of talk, about everything from moral virtue to sin, to greed and hubris, friendship and love...you get the idea. People who liked Humanities and Contemporary Civilization in college will like this film a lot more than people whose idea of a good time is three hours of Mel Gibson causing bloody havoc. The battle scenes, while gory, are not as explicit as many blood-and-guts fans might be hoping for. Then, the male-male romance was tough on a lot of young guys on dates with their girlfriends. There were lots of nervous titters from young men. This film is ground-breaking, and for those who haven't come to terms with the fact of our universal innate bisexuality (re-read your Freud), it can be troubling. See this film in a trendy neighborhood with highly educated snobs, especially gay ones. You'll be a lot happier.

Monster (2003)

I totally lost it

[10/10 · 4 January 2004]

By the time the movie was over, I was sobbing. Maybe because I knew Michael Alig, another "monster" who fell from grace, but I don't think you have to have a friend who became a murderer to be deeply touched by Theron's amazing Oscar-winning performance (you can bet grandma's farm on this one; sorry, Diane). Bring a handkerchief. If you don't need to use it, shame on you.

Something's Gotta Give (2003)

Oscar City, Baby

[10/10 · 14 December 2003]

You may not like how it's manipulative and makes you cry on cue, but this is the Baby Boomer's movie, and we all need a good cry every now and then, especially now that we're not so young and pretty as we used to be and we're often running out of hope for a chance at happiness. Apparently, if you're Jack Nicholson or Diane Keaton, there's always hope, especially when you're in a Hollywood Depression era comedy romance like this one. You can bet the family farm on Keaton's Oscar, and on the following nominations: Nicholson, Keanu, Amanda Peet, cinematography, art, screenplay, score.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

an imbedded movie

[6/10 · 15 November 2003]

I guess I enjoyed myself in the same way that I enjoyed being imbedded with the troops in the Iraq war. It's not exactly a drama, but if you had a time machine and sent a camera crew to be imbedded with British seamen at the turn of the nineteenth century, this is what you'd get. It was constantly interesting, often exciting, but it wasn't exactly a movie if, by movie, you expected to be moved.

Party Monster (2003)

Mac "acts"

[12 September 2003]

The movie's lines are interesting and the film is never dull, but it doesn't have much verisimilitude; you don't know where or when anything is happening. There are no characters other than the club kids and [the Limelight boss] Gatien, except for an occasional bemused "drearie," and there is very little sense of the time and what else is going on in New York (AIDS, ACT UP, gay activism, erotic clubs, Ed Koch, OutWeek, Republicans in the White House, Musto at the Voice, coked-out Wall Streeters).

The real Alig has a very subtle, slightly sardonic, dry and understated personality, which is what makes his flights into fantasy and lunacy so interesting. I had a cable program ("The Closet Case Show") on Manhattan Public Access from '84 to '94, so I had occasion to tape a lot of Alig's activities, including parties at Tunnel and Limelight, and his infamous Burger King [Times Square] Outlaw Party (restaurant name changed in the movie). In 1989, after getting serious coverage in The New York Times, Michael and Keoki appeared for a half-hour interview on my show. I gave a tape of this show to Mac so that he could study the subtle ways in which Michael spoke and gestured. Apparently, Mac felt that Alig's dry wit was less interesting than a more theatrical flamboyant queeniness would be, so Mr. Culkin degrades the movie by making Alig an evil faggot, overplaying the character, I guess, so that everybody would be sure that the once-married Mac was only "acting" and by no means gay himself. [Mac, as Michael A. taught everyone, and as Michael J. no doubt taught you, there is no such thing as "gay" or "straight," only sexual, with the unfortunate majority being repressed away from normal bisexuality until temporarily liberated by mood drugs.]

A more secure Mac would have played a more real Michael, and that would have helped the film immeasurably. Alig, as I told Mssrs. Bailey and Barbato, is a true tragic hero. He contributed in a positive way to the Age of Aquarius, but he was brought down in the end by excessive pride and the faulty belief that he was, as a super celeb, invulnerable to the world's evils. Aeschylus could have written the screen play.

That said, the costumes will get an Oscar nod, and probably a win, which should be shared by all the kids who created and sported the originals.

Seabiscuit (2003)

tea biscuit

[6 August 2003]

I thought it was kind of bland. Forgive me, but I felt like it was a McFilm. If Adobe had software for making Oscar-style movies about horses, and you simply had to plug in all the variables, a big rich horse owner with a good heart, a poor little feisty jockey with a good heart, a big poor wise horse trainer with a good heart, a feisty little horse with a good heart, a big fat other horse owner with not such a good heart with a big black horse to beat, and a lot of fall foliage, this is the movie that it would pump out. But software is only as good as the data that goes into it. I'm sorry, but I feel like robots could have made this film. It was lovely to watch but I wasn't moved. Perhaps if the humans had been allowed to have frailties and foibles slightly more complex than the horse's, I would have gotten involved in the film, but I didn't shed any tears despite all the obvious cues by the music, camera shots, and script that were asking me to have specific moments of catharsis. For the same ten bucks, I could have had the fortune cookie telling me not to give up on underdogs and a whole chow fun dinner on top of it.

Capturing the Friedmans (2003)

Arthur Miller would love it

[2 June 2003]

This is The Crucible for modern times. A little bit more of late '80s verisimilitude would have been helpful to give a backdrop to how this family was destroyed by a society bent on burning paedophiles at the stake. Remember that there was AIDS hysteria, the Meese porn commission, the right-wing anti-gay "pro-family" anti-libertarian fear-mongering agenda, just-say-no-to-everything, and a nation ready to burn witches at every turn. Enter a warm, nebbishy computer teacher and his teenage son who attract a following of boys more interested in learning about computers than baseball after school, and you just know that all hell is going to break loose when the teacher orders the wrong kind of Dutch magazine (offered to him by the Post Office, of course). That launched a police investigation in which the computer students were tracked down, interrogated, and even hypnotized so that they could "remember" the sexual abuse that the DA knew must have gone on during the computer classes in the Great Neck home, never mind that no boys or parents ever made a complaint of any kind. This is America at its most hellish, and someday (hopefully soon) we will be in awe at how easy it was to replay the Salem witch trials in 1988 Nassau County.

Winged Migration (2001)

mesmerizing

[10/10 · 26 May 2003]

I was stunned by the privileged look we got at all types of birds, in all the elements, land, sea, and air. Some of the shots seemed impossible. How does one get the airborn point of view of flying among a flock without attaching a camera to some bird's neck? Maybe that's what they did, and I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for cranes and gulls sporting campacks. I noticed that the over-50 set rated this movie much higher than the under-18's, possibly because there are no car chases and no dialog (only a very occasional comment by an unseen narrator). At a certain age, a movie-goer finds enough awe in nature to be kept spellbound, I guess, and I have never seen a more entrancing animal documentary.

Deuces Wild (2002)

needed more verisimilitude

[17 May 2002]

There is promise here. The screenplay works. The characters are real, the stakes are real, the momentum is there, but the thing I was most missing is that it didn't quite bring me back to the fifties. There were insertions of history, like the Dodgers, the soda fountain prices, the costumes, and sets, but I kinda felt like I was in a cartoon version of the fifties, not the real fifties. More research could have added more details, more references to what was going on in the world around them at the time, and I might have believed I was in that space and time. But I didn't. Still, like Greek tragedy, the dynamics work and I was riveted to the screen. So I think I'm gonna watch Paul Kimatian & Christopher Gambale and see what they do next.

Sorority Boys (2002)

What Shakespeare Might Have Written Today

[23 March 2002]

This is the kind of fluff that you might dismiss until you realize that you sat through the thing smiling, laughing and feeling pretty damn good, despite its silliness. The thing chugs right along breezily, with twists and turns and subplots and lots of likable characters. The premise, which is ridiculous, that three boys dress up as girls in order to gain entrance into a sorority, through which they will gain entrance (as guests) into a fraternity house, in which there is an important video tape that they need to steal in order to serve vengeance on a really evil frat brother who did them ill is nothing less than Shakespearean. Once you let yourself go with the premise, which is made easier by the high farce pitch of everyone's character, you can really enjoy yourself. There are many Midsummer Night's Dream type of encounters, like the lesbian sorority sister who falls for the boy in drag, but then has to decide when he reveals himself to be male if she loves about him/her beyond his/her gender. There's a delightful mishap when a frat boy, who only goes for dogs in order to deflower and then humiliate them, has an encounter with his older brother who, while in drag, becomes his next prey. The older brother needs to get the video tape from the younger brother in the frat, and they both have a plot involving "rufies" to knock each other out. This type of stuff had them roaring in the Globe Theater, both the groundlings and the patricians, and I found myself (a middle-aged English teacher) enjoying this happy flick right along with the teenagers in the house. I recommend it for its snappy plot development, lots of laughs and moral lessons, and lovely subplot resolutions in the finale.