Musical concerning two identical twin sisters, separated at birth, one very decent but humble, the other ultra rich, conniving, and truly destructive. Directed by Santiago Limón, starring: Jesús Ochoa, Shane West, Isabella Castillo, James Leyva, and Harding Junior.
But all films must end, and in this case the sooner the better. Like the chattery mourners who gather round a sudden middle-aged widow, director Moshe Mizrahi "means well." He effuses sympathy like a burst dam, and poor Annie Girardot, who appears in every scene, has to act as if …
Olivier Dahan's run-of-the-mill road movie has Isabelle Huppert in the role of a Côte d'Azur streetwalker on her last legs, and hasn't a lot else: some luscious reds, some schmatzy songs on the soundtrack, a sentimental flower motif, some maudlin maternalism. Huppert, doing one of her total-immersion jobs, looks quite …
The search for a woman who mysteriously vanishes (suicide?) on a volcanic Mediterranean island, conducted dutifully but somewhat distractedly by her lover and her best friend, produces one of the pace-setting movies of the Sixties (the pace being erratic, lethargic, anti-dramatic). This did more than any other single movie to …
Disgust with the justice system drives a "brain," a diabolical omnipotent technological wizard, to punish the people who insufficiently punished the people who raped and murdered his wife and daughter. The humble flatfoot hits the nail on the head: "Un-fucking-believable." With Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Bruce McGill, Colm Meaney, Leslie …
Southern-fried Godfather: diminutive kid brother (Shia LaBeouf, who seems to be trying a little too hard) wants in on the family moonshine business, but his godlike (read: unkillable) elders (a more impressive Tom Hardy and Jason Clarke) will hear none of it. We even get a botched assassination attempt and …
Three men in provincial England struggle with their lives after the death of a fourth. We go over the same chronological ground three times, from three different points of view -- those of the deceased's homosexual lover, the deceased's brother-in-law, and a long-lost friend returned from his wanderings -- and …
The "secret" friendship -- I'll show you my scar, you show me yours -- between a ten-year-old girl and the neighborhood gardener. The fairy-tale substructure is planked down straightaway: the legend of Baba Yaga who eats little children outside the protective city walls; the immaculate gated suburban community called Camelot …
This follows the -- or a -- standard operating procedure for science fiction: start from a base of reality, the more au courant the better, and take off on a logical extension of no matter what length. The base of reality here is Virtual Reality. "Falling, Floating, and Flying," summarizes …
Homosexual love triangle orchestrated by Pedro Almodóvar, a-bubble with campy passions, and tricked out with some plot complications more tantalizing than finally satisfying. Eusebio Poncela, Antonio Banderas, Carmen Maura.
The movie that introduced, world-wide, the tormented eyes of Peter O'Toole and the moony eyes of Omar Sharif is, more importantly, an unabridged lexicon of sun-and-sand imagery. Scrupulously compiled by director David Lean and his photographer Freddie Young (Nicolas Roeg served on the second unit), it's the standard reference work …
The movie that introduced, world-wide, the tormented eyes of Peter O'Toole and the moony eyes of Omar Sharif is, more importantly, an unabridged lexicon of sun-and-sand imagery. Scrupulously compiled by director David Lean and his photographer Freddie Young (Nicolas Roeg served on the second unit), it's the standard reference work …
The movie that introduced, world-wide, the tormented eyes of Peter O'Toole and the moony eyes of Omar Sharif is, more importantly, an unabridged lexicon of sun-and-sand imagery. Scrupulously compiled by director David Lean and his photographer Freddie Young (Nicolas Roeg served on the second unit), it's the standard reference work …
Romantic-comic trifle to do with two divorce lawyers of opposite sexes locking horns in the courtroom and bumping uglies in the bedroom. In essence, it asks Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore to be Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Moore is enough of an actress to respond to the challenge, however …
Aimless days in the company of inarticulate Brooklyn street toughs -- and then one of them gets shot. Nick (Didn't Martin Scorsese Start This Way?) Gomez trains a cinéma-verité camera on the faces of his principals, and takes little interest in their surroundings. The unknown actors are very confident and …