A chewable bone thrown to the famished fans of Ghost World, with a protagonist closely related to the latter's Steve Buscemi in his marginal existence, his menial job, his obliviousness or out-and-out resistance to fashion, his patronage of yard sales, his esoteric record collection, his congenital negativity. One difference, of …
In America, little Fievel Mousekewitz learns while growing up in Russia in 1885, "there are no cats. And the streets are paved with cheese." This establishes, immediately and neverendingly, the monotonous pattern of rodentized clichés and stereotypes: especially ethnic clichés and stereotypes, Jewish, Irish, French, Italian. There has been no …
In America, little Fievel Mousekewitz learns while growing up in Russia in 1885, "there are no cats. And the streets are paved with cheese." This establishes, immediately and neverendingly, the monotonous pattern of rodentized clichés and stereotypes: especially ethnic clichés and stereotypes, Jewish, Irish, French, Italian. There has been no …
Robust, fast, reckless (unafraid, for example, of giving offense to Native Americans), funny, punny, with much of the footloose imagination of an old Looney Tune: the Land of Plenty is envisioned by the immigrant rodents as a U.S. map with bas-relief plateaus of cheese; a roadside sign of "You Are …
A slice of sociology. Documentarian Nanette Burstein follows four principals through the stresses of senior year in Warsaw, Indiana: the Jock, the Princess, the Nerd, and the Rebel, all quite touching in different ways and degrees. Despite some stabs at MTV commercialism (animated fantasy sequences in contrasting styles), it’s in …
Such expectations of John Landis as have been bred by Animal House and The Blues Brothers might prompt one to overemphasize the humor element here. That element is not far to seek, but much of it is limited to the inveterate wiseguyism of a couple of happy-go-lucky American backpackers afoot …
A cursory crisscross of the country, from sea to shining sea, in glossy coffee-table photography, for a gallery of portraits of ordinary citizens: a cowboy, a Cajun, a gospel singer, a weaver, a dairy farmer, a hatmaker, a vintager, a bicycle messenger, a klezmer musician, a salsa dancer, a blind …
An alternative-universe Hollywood where a married pair of superstars -- it will not be helpful to think of Cruise and Kidman, Burton and Taylor, Bogart and Bacall -- have appeared together in nine consecutive boffo blockbusters (the samples we see of their work are on a par with the standard …
Informal, rambling, personalized documentary by Darryl Roberts (director, producer, narrator, and on-screen presence) on America’s presumed “obsession” with beauty, a wide-ranging skim over interesting waters: the fashion industry (specifically an underage model named Gerren Taylor), dieting, eating disorders, beauty products, cosmetic surgery, the whole ball of wax. The slovenly film …
Just as Steven Spielberg followed Jurassic Park (very soon) with Schindler's List, he follows the Jurassic Park sequel (equally soon) with something to do with the African slave trade: these would be the Good Works that counterbalance the Money Lust. The true case of rebellious, slaughterous blacks on a Spanish …
Completely credulous (not to say credible) haunted house thriller, based on a documented case. The spacious Long Island house -- an attractive object which favors the side, or profile, view -- seems to affect devout Catholics (a priest and a nun have to vomit after merely breathing its air) more …
Business mixed with pleasure: a breakneck project to paint several miles' worth of power-line pylons across the bleak Yorkshire landscape, and a romance between the foreman of the crew and a peregrinating, rock-climbing Aussie lass who hires on for pocket money. The camaraderie and conflict among the laborers (a strained …
Upper-middle-class Jewish kids on Long Island descend into an unelucidated underworld, in pursuit of lives of crime. Low-low-budget sub-sub-Scorsese: "Hey, fuck fuckin' Hollywood, awright?" Written and directed by Rob Weiss, with a cast of unknowns.
The first collaboration between dancer Antonio Gades and director Carlos Saura, Blood Wedding, was a stark dress rehearsal in a dance studio; the second, Carmen, was a realistic backstage musical, or anyway as realistic as its life-imitating-art gambits would permit. This third one is something altogether different again, a fully …
The Traffic route to "complexity": three interlocked storylines under one umbrella. All of them, set alike in Mexico City, have to do with one kind or another of love, and all of them involve dogs and varying degrees of cruelty thereto. The one point of intersection shared by all three …