With luck, criticism becomes celebration. I cannot celebrate the history described by Alain Resnais’s film Night and Fog, a film of dignified honesty, forceful discipline, and a passion so resolute and true it does not have to remark on itself, a great film, but I can celebrate the gift of art and intelligence that it is.
Category: Film Reviews
A review of Accused directed by Jacob Thuesen
The film’s early photography is clear, full of blues and greens, and is attractive without being glamorous. Henrik’s eyes are blue and, primarily, he seems to wear blue, gray, and black clothes. Henrik and Nina, with her shoulder-length light brown hair and trim figure, look like ordinary people—in early middle age, and they are attractive but not distractingly so.
The documentary Trudell looks at noted Indian poet-activist John
Spirituality has been for Native Americans, as for African-Americans, a path to personal dignity, social morality, and public meaning; and in the film John Trudell talks about the importance of valuing the earth, of reconciling ourselves to the requirements of the land, and of being cognizant of what we leave to future generations. Robert Redford describes conversations with Trudell as exciting, and Wilma Mankiller talks about how essential Trudell has been to articulating Native American concerns.
A review of On the Waterfront directed by Elia Kazan
Brando’s ability to seem alive to feelings and ideas give the choices he is faced with in On the Waterfront vivid reality and moral dimension: one sees him, and remembers young men one has seen, known, in daily life, attractive men who might have gone in any direction, and many different kinds of actors seem Brando’s descendants. Brando seems unafraid to be onscreen, unafraid of observation or judgment: he is friendly, regretful, sad, charming, doltish, evasive, impulsive, and more.
A review of Casanova
The Venice architecture and lively crowd scenes make an enchanting world for these characters. The film Casanova, with a screenplay by Kimberly Simi and Jeffrey Hatcher, cinematography by Oliver Stapleton, production design by David Gropman, and music by Alexandre Desplat,…
A review of The Wedding Date
There is humor in how easily others accept the lead characters pretense of being a couple, in how easily people are fooled. However, as the film’s wedding festivities occur, various painful and sordid secrets are revealed regarding Messing’s character’s family and friends, and the fraudulently attached couple become genuinely involved with each other.
A review of In Good Company
In Good Company is not innovative in style or theme, but it is germane to how we live now. Films are fantasies that require of us money, time, and belief, and sometimes in those fantasies are glimpses of what is real.
A review of Being Julia
Somehow, the film came alive for me once Julia’s affair with the young man becomes more unstable, especially when we see how her offstage tears do not always mean vulnerability but are sometimes just for effect. Her response to what threatens her onstage and off is what made the film fun.
A review of Meet the Fockers
Surprisingly, it is Ben Stiller, who so wanted Hoffman and Streisand in the film, who does not convey enough love for his parents—and that is because he does not convey enough feeling of any kind in the film. I found…
A review of Schultze Gets the Blues
Schultze Gets the Blues arrives on these shores virtually unannounced; and so the pleasure one gets from it is unexpected and one is quietly grateful. Its comedy is born of the quotidian details of life, eccentric personality, sudden surges of genuine feeling, friendship, bemusement, unfamiliarity with strange customs, and the dramatized observation that sometimes things do fall well into place.