[4] Alan J. Pakula (Sophie’s Choice, The Pelican Brief) directs the big-screen story of how Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein cracked the Watergate scandal that lead to President Nixon’s resignation. I love Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman enough to get through any movie, but this is not a cinematic story. Every other scene is a phone conversation. And the nature of Woodward …
[4] I really like Oliver Stone about half the time, but the show-offy style he used with Natural Born Killers and J.F.K. doesn’t service Any Given Sunday. Those other films, with their multiple perspectives and drug-induced visions, felt right to employ rapid editing and multiple media. But Any Given Sunday is (or should have been) a reality-based ensemble drama about the rigors and tribulations of …
[6] Cate Blanchett stars as the real-life Irish journalist who paid the ultimate price for exposing the burgeoning drug problem in mid-90s Dublin. Outraged after discovering children playing in streets littered with used needles, Veronica Guerin decided to bring the epidemic into the national limelight, risking the life and safety of not only herself but her family as well. Blanchett, always reliable, does a great …
[8] Director Sidney Lumet showcases a true story ripped from the headlines, about two amateur bank robbers who started a media sensation that exploded further when the public learned of their unusual circumstances. Al Pacino stars as the master-mind of the heist plan that goes to hell and Charles Durning costars as the police captain who tries to manage the 24-hour siege. What’s most remarkable …
[7] Bette Davis plays Queen Elizabeth the first, in love with Errol Flynn’s Earl of Essex, in this period technicolor drama from director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood). Both stars conjure the necessary pathos of their characters’ doomed relationship. His love is tainted by his thirst for power, while hers is hindered by her royal standing and social responsibilities. The film’s finale …
[5] Two volatile sisters reunite for the younger one’s wedding, causing secrets to be revealed and relationships to fray. This Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming, The Squid and the Whale) flick is very character-centered as you might expect — a good vehicle for Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh as the two sisters. Newcomer Zane Pais, as Kidman’s awkward teenaged son, gets as much screen …
[6] It’s mawkish, awkward, and in need of a subtlety injection, but I like Making Love anyway. As one of the earliest big studio mainstream films to feature openly gay characters who are neither serial killers nor flaming queens, I have to give the flick some cred. Michael Ontkean (Twin Peaks) and Kate Jackson (Charlie’s Angels) play best-friend newlyweds whose relationship begins to deteriorate when …
[4] Cary Grant stars in this post-war feel-good flick about three beleaguered naval officers whose precious 4-day shore leave is threatened at every turn. At first, it’s disappointing to see Grant slumming it in a party movie, but then there’s a little anti-war sentiment that threatens to elevate the material… before ultimately sinking it. Kiss Them For Me is ultimately an overbearing message movie, with …
[6] Gravity is so harrowing, I’m tempted to call it crisis porn. The movie stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts stranded in orbit over Earth after debris destroys their spacecraft. Director Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, A Little Princess) warns us from the get-go with some on-screen text that life in space is impossible, and then proceeds to throw everything you can imagine …
[6] Cary Grant and Loretta Young star in this pre-Code drama about a devious mother and her young son who feign injury to fleece a wealthy businessman after a minor car accident. Hollywood is known for neat and tidy little narratives, but if you dig into the years before the Hayes Code took effect, you can find some offbeat gems. You certainly wouldn’t see a …
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