Licia Maglietta, a more loosely wound and comfortably upholstered Natalie Wood, warm and womanly, with a lived-in face and body but an undimmed sparkle, plays a Pescara housewife and intermittent klutz who gets separated from her tour group, including her husband and teenage son, while fishing an earring out of …
The latest from Cartoon Saloon points up one of the major differences between animation and cartoons. Hit Wile E. Coyote in the face, and by the next scene, all traces of a black eye have disappeared. But those regenerative powers don’t always apply to animated features, as when your lead …
A devoted car salesman's wife lands a massive business deal on Shark Tank that requires her to go on a prolonged business trip, throwing him into the deep end of parenthood. The traditionally employed father must learn how to take care of their three daughters and manage the comically chaotic …
Thrills built on a sound psychological foundation: the unease of being a stranger. A Massachusetts yuppie couple, driving cross-country, become separated by car trouble, and the husband afterwards can't find the wife. This situation might call to mind the Dutch suspense film, The Vanishing, except that the trail never cools …
Another truckload of dirt dumped onto the British Empire, with three loyal Aussie soldiers made scapegoats for the sins of British colonialism and militarism in the Boer War. It's sort of an Australian Paths of Glory, and the arguments are presented in a manner difficult to take exception to, or …
Howlingly miscast travesty of the Truman Capote novella: starting at the top with Audrey Hepburn as a backwoods waif turned big-town party girl, down through George Peppard as the heterosexualized neighbor, all the way down to a squinting Mickey Rooney as the Japanese landlord — more Mr. Magoo than Mr. …
Howlingly miscast travesty of the Truman Capote novella: starting at the top with Audrey Hepburn as a backwoods waif turned big-town party girl, down through George Peppard as the heterosexualized neighbor, all the way down to a squinting Mickey Rooney as the Japanese landlord — more Mr. Magoo than Mr. …
Improbably heterogeneous group of high-school students at an improbable all-day (Saturday) detention hall, improbably unsupervised. A detention hall, without all the improbabilities, would not seem to have much chance at drama. But with all the improbabilities it does not have much chance at Albee-esque group therapy, either. And in point …
A portrait of a fictional town in the mid west that is home to a group of idiosyncratic and slightly neurotic characters. Dwayne Hoover is a wealthy car dealership owner that's on the brink of suicide and is losing touch with reality. Directed by Alan Rudolph.
Odyssey of a transvestite, self-christened Saint Kitten, from postwar Irish Catholic orphanhood to Swinging London in the Sixties and on through the Disco Daze into the Thatcher era. Cillian Murphy, speaking at the breathy top of his range, is so obnoxiously overconfident, dauntless, irrepressible, etc., as to not only renounce …
The familiar Alistair MacLean strategy (lie, cheat, and conceal as long as possible, and finally deliver the revelations in staggering flurries) is put to work in a Wild West setting. The sense of exasperated mystification --- what the hell's happening here? -- is nicely set up in the briskly edited …
The only, and ample, reason to see this is the dancing. And even that, as directed by Joel Silberg, is often badly framed and parcelled out in mere snatches rather than fully formed sequences. One such sequence, in which a dancer identified as Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers performs a pas-de-deux …
Adolfo "Shabba-doo" Quinones and Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers, promoted to the status of break dancers emeriti, are content for the most part to rest on their laurels. Or as one of them expresses it at one point: "Look, we're not gonna waste any of our moves." They do dole out …
Filmmaker Anthony Minghella rounds up a cast from past Anthony Minghella films, Jude Law from Cold Mountain and The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ray Winstone from Cold Mountain only, Juliette Binoche from The English Patient, Juliet Stevenson from Truly Madly Deeply, plus new recruits Robin Wright Penn and, in an entertaining …