[7] Warren Beatty made his screen debut alongside Natalie Wood in this Elia Kazan film about sexual repression in 1920s middle-America. Beatty and Wood play Bud and Deanie, high school lovers who plan to get married and consummate their growing sexual urges. But their parents and their own conflicted emotions end up tearing them apart, with Bud wandering aimlessly and Deanie landing in psychiatric care. …
[6] On one hand, The D Train is a conventional buddy comedy of sorts, about a loser who tries to redeem himself by convincing a popular former classmate to come to their twenty-year high school reunion. On the other hand, the movie is a bold exploration into material you just don’t see that often. The film stars Jack Black as the loser who becomes obsessed …
[3] Amy Schumer is an interesting, original, funny person in all her YouTube videos, so when I heard she had written Trainwreck and was starring in it, I was intrigued. Unfortunately, there are only two good scenes in the movie — one is the opening scene, in which Colin Quinn tells his young daughters why he and mommy are getting a divorce, using an analogy …
[6] After the success of Midnight Cowboy, John Schlesinger returned to personal storytelling in Britain with Sunday Bloody Sunday, a slice-of-life movie about a middle-aged doctor (Peter Finch) and a divorcee (Glenda Jackson) who knowingly share a bohemian lover (Murray Head). Reportedly largely autobiographical, the film is a study of three different characters’ feelings toward sex and love, and there’s no didactic message here, except …
[7] Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant star in this Stanley Donen (Singin’ in the Rain) film about a recent widow fighting off a handful of mysterious bad guys who believe she knows where her husband was keeping a stolen quarter million in cash. Charade is a successful blend of thriller, romance, and dark comedy with a number of twists and betrayals that will keep you …
[6] Paul Verhoeven (Turkish Delight, RoboCop) directs this story based on the book by Neel Doff, about an impoverished Dutch immigrant who turns to prostitution to make ends meet and winds up joining the socialist rebellion. Katie Tippel‘s plotline meanders and pushes most of her character transformation to the final act. But while it takes a while to get to the point, the movie’s never …
[6] John Travolta and Debra Winger star as impetuous young lovers who meet at a Houston honky-tonk bar, get married, and struggle to keep their relationship together. I enjoyed the first half of the movie more than the second. You believe that the two characters would come together, but in the second half, Travolta’s character’s ugly side really comes out and the movie is downright …
[4] A country girl leaves her stifling life behind to try and make it in the big city, serendipitously becoming the most popular radio talk show host in Chicago. Straight Talk is a Dolly Parton vehicle, and just about everything that’s good about it indeed stems from Dolly, whose natural acting instincts and easy charm go a long way for me. But Dolly’s not given …
[5] The second feature film from Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Basic Instinct) plays a lot like a Dutch version of Love Story. Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven star as the young lovers, whose relationship is founded completely on carnal desire. We learn in the wrap-around story that Hauer’s character is having difficulty moving on with his life after the end of the affair — …
[3] Mel Gibson plays a drug dealer trying to come clean. Kurt Russell plays a cop assigned to bring Mel down. Trouble is, they’re kinda friends. And now they’re both sort of in love with the same woman, a restaurant owner played by Michelle Pfeiffer. All three leading actors are beautiful to look at, especially in Conrad Hall’s Oscar-nominated cinematography. But writer/director Robert Towne’s script …
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