Great story, great acting. Kathy Bates outstanding and heroic, Judy Parfitt also. David S. also very good. Plummer's role would have been better if he'd been a little less narcissitically nasty. Jennifer Jason Leigh a weak link, but not terrible. An excellent watch.
Reviews
7 Reviews
Art for Teachers of Children
(1995)
wildly untalented cast monotonous treatment of powerful theme
3 February 2003
stunningly terrible acting by both female and male leads...shallow beyond belief [e.g the married 28 y.o man, when asked to be relieved of her virginity by his 14 y.o student replies: "But you are too young and, o dear, o dear, I will go to prison and be raped if I do this thing with you"... You can believe a staggeringly narcissistic person might say this, but why not give us a more interesting character. There is hardly an erotic flicker detectable in the relationship. The girl is so zombie like and bizarre -filing a tissue with her hymenal blood among her papers - that some sympathy is evoked, but we're never given any depth at all.
Bowling for Columbine
(2002)
scattershot propaganda
1 January 2003
Moore poses a desperately important question: why is America exponentially more gun-murderous than so many other countries? - then proceeds to make no significant explorations towards an answer, choosing rather to find inarticulate, unattractive proponents of gun ownership and have them make sad fools of themselves spouting off. How does showing the slow-brained Charlton Heston fumble with Moore's disingenuous questions give viewers any cogent answer to the problem of gun violence? There were so many tacky maneuveurs on Moore's part... not the least of which was his exploitation of the Columbine victims - schlepping them to KMart HQ in a sleazy PR stunt to embarrass the administrative dolts there into yielding to media pressure? [though it was quite cool that KMART won't be selling bullets any longer] I could rant on...but will, instead, end.
The Postman
(1994)
hype schmype...this is a wonderful wonderful film
28 April 2001
In response to the comment on the screen when I logged on to vote"
The cassette of this film was left in my apt by someone...I'd heard nothing about it...[assumed Phillip Noiret was the name of the actor who played Mario is how clued in I was] But I was enchanted. Yes, emotional...well, even sentimental...but so appealing. Both Noiret and Troisi were superb... Mario was an affecting blend of ungainly, unlettered, slow mentally, crooked tooth rube type... then you'd see his face in another angle or shot and he was beautiful, poignant, wise. Lot of funny lines. I thought the `second act', as it were...i.e the part following Neruda's departure and before his return - were was weak and off-putting...that this character Mario's charming naivete descends into infantile egoistic dependency = he mopes around missing Neruda and is not responsive to the wife he'd courted and won. Most jarring was his apparent listlessness in response to her announcement that she's pregnant. A visual treat, this film. Humor, pace, outlook so Italian.
The cassette of this film was left in my apt by someone...I'd heard nothing about it...[assumed Phillip Noiret was the name of the actor who played Mario is how clued in I was] But I was enchanted. Yes, emotional...well, even sentimental...but so appealing. Both Noiret and Troisi were superb... Mario was an affecting blend of ungainly, unlettered, slow mentally, crooked tooth rube type... then you'd see his face in another angle or shot and he was beautiful, poignant, wise. Lot of funny lines. I thought the `second act', as it were...i.e the part following Neruda's departure and before his return - were was weak and off-putting...that this character Mario's charming naivete descends into infantile egoistic dependency = he mopes around missing Neruda and is not responsive to the wife he'd courted and won. Most jarring was his apparent listlessness in response to her announcement that she's pregnant. A visual treat, this film. Humor, pace, outlook so Italian.
Memento
(2000)
gimmicky but main character is characterless.
21 April 2001
The protagonist is in a terrible position, granted. But he is of little depth that you just can't care much. The screenwriter/director/actor forgot to make him interesting. We have no sense what's at stake for him...and hence for us. What drives him? Did he love his wife? Who knows? One can't believe that such a flat creature would have any kind of sustained motivation to track the killer. Plus the film's confusingness seems pretentious after a while. The scenes with the motel guy were great though. And you had to groan at the nightmare of his not having any memory of boffing the lady, or have ever having seen her before. Oy.
The Most Dangerous Game
(1932)
campier than all get out and four star fun
18 February 2001
this film has everything... A sinister foreign noble, a castle with a creaky door fit for Mel Brooks, a hairy doorkeeper of Boris Karloff neandrathality , a gorgeous young hero and even, actually, Fay Wray, doing her supple writhings - in the arms of various oriental thugs rather than dear KK.
Leslie Gray's villainous Russian count's is sillier than Lugoisi; but wonderfully entertaining
I had never even HEARD of this film - just grabbed it from the public library pickings. It's priceless cheese.
Leslie Gray's villainous Russian count's is sillier than Lugoisi; but wonderfully entertaining
I had never even HEARD of this film - just grabbed it from the public library pickings. It's priceless cheese.
Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
(1997)
brilliant
31 January 2001
4 people who LOVE what they do, and whose work is wonderful to watch. naked mole ratter pricelessly funny, as are the mole rats themselves...jaw droppingly interesting and bizarre. [mammals who live in insect like colonies] the film is exquisitely edited and shot [aside from highly annoying tilted camera angles in the gardener's case]
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