Movies Archive |
The Lives of Others - Guess what city has more surveillance cameras than another other? Would you believe... London? In East Germany in the 1980s, there was no tech, so the Stasi --- the secret
The Love Machine, directed by Jack Haley - As Jacqueline Susann was writing "The Love Machine" in the late '60s, legendary TV exec James Aubrey called her. "Jackie, make me mean," he said. "Make me a son-of-a-bitch." And
The Nutcracker - Our daughter hated ballet school, maybe because she started before she was three years old. She hid in our arms during class, refusing to take her turn. The other
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Do you remember “Dear Evan Hansen?" It was a monster hit on Broadway, winning 6 Tony Awards and, starting in 2016, filling the Music Box Theatre for almost six years.
The Red Balloon - It's amusing to read Web reviews of “The Red Balloon.” I gather that, in the Before Times, many American 4th to 8th graders saw the movie in school. Which makes sense
The Searchers - We open on a man and his 13-year-old son fleeing the death squads in El Salvador [population: 6.3 million; there are between 30,000 and 60,000 gang members, and another 500,000
The Snowman - The best holiday stories are fables. “Believe,” they instruct us. “Love,” they dare us. “Trust,” they implore us. And the child in us --- connecting with the child who inspired the
The solution to Hollywood’s troubles: low-budget, high-quality movies about real people, like Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone” and “Leave No Trace” - I’ve known Joan Juliet Buck for more years than many of you have been alive. I’m an admirer of her memoir, The Price of Illusion. The other day I read
The Soul of a Farmer - If you were going to bet on the prospects of a Roger Sherman film to win an award, you would be smart to bet it would. He’s been nominated twice
The State Within - I, who never binge, binged "The State Within." There are, I know, many multi-episode intellectual thrillers with British stars who talk smart. Most have the same theme: what’s really going
The Tree of Life - In 2011 “The Tree of Life” won the Palme D’Or for Best Picture at Cannes, but even with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn in the film, it didn’t lure crowds
The Triplets of Belleville (Les Triplettes de Belleville) - Les Triplettes de Belleville (The Triplets of Belleville) is a sassy, surrealistic, 78-minute romp and a deliciously old-fashioned creation that harkens back to the heyday of animation, when music and
The Weekend Binge - It's that time of the movie year. Just before the seriously awful action movies with simple dialogue --- because: the foreign market --- and the few films so good that
The Weekend Movie: Long Shot - I tend to go to foreign films, the longer and more lugubrious the better, but last weekend I saw a really funny American movie. Would you believe: A rom-con. Here's the
Top of the Lake - Jane Campion created “Top of the Lake” and directed several episodes, and that’s where any piece about this 7-episode BBC series needs to start. In 1993, she was the first
Tous les Matins du Monde - It is 1660, and we are at the home of Sainte-Colombe, probably the greatest French musician and composer for strings of the 17th century. But no
Troubled Water - Alec Baldwin says that Trine Dyrholm is “the best actress in the world.” Michael Moore has said “Troubled Water” was the best film he saw in 2009. Never heard of it? Well,
Two Catholic Girls: Philomena Lee and Ann Medlock - Guest Butler Ann Medlock is a writer and activist who founded the Giraffe Heroes Project, a nonprofit that encourages people to stick their necks out for the common good and
V for Vendetta - 1997. London. Sixteen-year-old Evey Hammond, short of cash, walks the grim back streets in search of a man who will pay her for sex. It's her first time.
