I knew I really liked this film the moment I stopped breathing.
Well, maybe it wasn't exactly that moment, maybe it was a few moments later. Maybe it was when I started breathing again. When I realized I had been holding my breath watching what was going on.
The film is about a dance marathon taking place during the Great Depression. Couples have signed up for the chance to win $1500 (and doing the math that's about $24,000 US in…
This movie felt like
1) A very unhappy photo shoot for Architectural Digest.
2) A feature long trailer for another film. (My wife five minutes in: Oh, this is the actual movie.)
3) A feature length commercial for some sort of fragrance. Ennui Blanc by Malick.
4) A dream, except without all the normal character development and backstory and narrative drive that dreams usually come with.
Listen:
I'm old enough to remember a time when there were no new Terrence…
Last week I was talking to a friend. She said her husband was so stressed the night before that he had to take a Xanax.
I said, he has a prescription for Xanax? How did he get that?
She said, he told his doctor he got nervous flying.
Well then, I said, do I have the comedy special for you.
Rod Steiger was such a convincing asshole in so many roles that I find it hard to sympathize with him when he's not a heel. Still an asshole at times here, but a pained one -- there's a moment of silent agony here (you'll know it when you see it) that's one for the ages.
The shadows are sharp here. The movie is capital 'B' for Bleak, and rightly deserves credit for being one of the earlier American films to…
Breathe.
You sit down in the theater and wait and get fat off of the popcorn and watch the pre-show you've already seen twice this month thanks to The Avengers opening and you listen to the preteens behind you talking and you worry that they are going to be speaking throughout the entire fucking movie and you kind of wish you were seeing this in the States where it is restricted and at least there they might be accompanied by…
I watched this again as I prepare to go to Hawaii. I have never been there before and I think this movie makes it feel like a real place and not just some kind of paradise advertised in a travel agent shop.
This is the second time I've seen it and I had forgotten completely about the voice over. I usually am not a fan of it, but here it works. Matt King (George Clooney) is a character that for…
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