A New York romantic comedy that's truly romantic and truly comic -- and truly New Yorkian for that matter. Can a pretty, early-thirties, somewhat starry-eyed bookstore manager (and personal organizer of "the most prestigious reading series in New York City") find happiness with a second-generation pickle vendor on the Lower …
Sean Penn's second effort behind the cameras, after the narrowly released Indian Runner, is an effort indeed. It shows the writer-director at full stretch and on tiptoes, even though in artistic terms he is not yet a mature and well-developed adult. A heavy dependence on slow-motion for extra emotional and …
Unctuous liberalism and clumsy manipulation on the broad subject of illegal aliens: Mexican, Australian, Iranian, Korean, Nigerian, the whole rainbow, in multiple plotlines with a Crash-like incidence of coincidence. (The physical beauty of the female aliens helps, of course, to fuel liberality.) Embarrassment eclipses enlightenment. Harrison Ford, Cliff Curtis, Ray …
Amiable romantic comedy about "the all-important third date" -- a sort of D-Date -- and about the deceptions undertaken for the sake of a Good Impression. The borrowed car and apartment are such large deceptions as to border on mere distractions (the subsequently stolen car is beyond the border), and …
French children encore. The story -- a boy is left an orphan when his single parent dies, and his classmates close ranks behind him to keep it a secret -- generates more interest than most times. Not as much interest, however, as the same situation in the British Our Mother's …
Sam Peckinpah's WWII message movie, set in the Nazi trenches outside Stalingrad, is not exactly anti-war (under fire, the infantrymen learn to cultivate profound, soul-searching eye contact), but it is explicitly anti-officers. In one of their unending bunker debates, the aloof, aristocratic commandant asserts that all men of quality come …
Detroit streetball plus Sunday sermon. The scale of operations -- the volume of wagers, the population of cheerleaders -- is preposterous to begin with, and the climactic grudge match is nonsensical. With Anthony Mackie, Wesley Jonathan, Wayne Brady, Kristen Wilson, Alecia Fears; written and directed by Preston A. Whitmore II.
Amiable little backstage musical about a handsome salsa singer in East Harlem (Ruben Blades, who also co-wrote the script and the music), who wants to hit it really big: "Who the fuck do you think you are? Julio Iglesias?" The general structure is as weather-beaten as can be (singer gets …
Ry Cooder, a lifelong Californian who has cut a sort of musicological path through blues, jazz, Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, and heaven knows where all, is responsible for the (very good) country-blues soundtrack here, and is also a sort of soul mate to the hero. The latter (Ralph Macchio) is a Long …
Dramatic acting debut of Britney Spears, that Pied Piper of Girl Power. It definitely gives the pop star more latitude than her Pepsi commercials, to which homage is paid when she sashays past the vending machine at a gas station. But that's just another way of saying more rope with …
Ang Lee's hommage to the martial-arts fairy tales of his heritage, especially perhaps to the splendrous period pieces of King Hu, is a beautiful bore. The costumes, the sets, the scenery, the wide-screen photography, the mature leading lady, the China-doll ingénue -- beautiful. The talky script, the uninflected unpunctuated narrative …
Didactic, moralistic, blaringly metaphorical character study of a would-be serious writer who loses himself in the job of a casino dealer. (Fertile ground for themes of chance, risk, cheating, betrayal.) A little thin in atmosphere and opaque in plot, but highly creative in its voice-over narration, the hero relating events …
The comic-book fantasy during the filming of which Brandon (son of Bruce) Lee was shot to death with a prop pistol. We have been assured that the fatal accident has been left out of the final cut, but that doesn't eliminate the ghoulishness of the thing. It's an essential element …