Category: Movie Review

WILD THING * (Has redeeming facet) Directed by Max Reid Written by John Sayles With Rob Knepper, Kathleen Quinlan, Robert Davi, and Betty Buckley. History, Herr Karl Marx sniffed somewhere or other in his collected works, repeats itself as farce. In cinema, however, this is no bad thing, at least not always. There’s nothing wrong […]

BLIND DATE **** (Masterpiece) Directed by Blake Edwards Written by Dale Launer Starring Bruce Willis, Kim Basinger, John Larroquette, William Daniels, George Coe, Mark Blum, Phil Hartman, Stephanie Faracy, and Graham Stark. Blake Edwards’s last few films — The Man Who Loved Women (1983), Micki and Maude (1984), A Fine Mess, and That’s Life! (both […]

WORKING GIRLS *** (A must-see) Directed by Lizzie Borden Written by Borden and Sandra Kay With Louise Smith, Ellen McElduff, and Amanda Goodwin. In the history of houses that ain’t exactly homes, Sydney Biddle Barrows, the upper-crust “Mayflower Madam” busted late last year, hardly will rank among the more colorful housekeepers. But the intriguing feature […]

RAISING ARIZONA ** (Worth seeing) Directed by Joel Coen Written by Joel and Ethan Coen With Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, William Forsythe, Trey Wilson, Randall “Tex” Cobb, and Sam McMurray. Formal mastery without feeling makes people uneasy. Perhaps Joel and Ethan Coen sensed this in the wake of (and despite) the resounding critical […]

THE SATIN SLIPPER **** (Masterpiece) Directed and written by Manoel de Oliveira With Luis-Miguel Cintra, Anne Configny, and Patricia Barzyk Cinema has given us many kinds of masterworks. The Satin Slipper (Le soulier de satin) is clearly not a film for everyone. A viewer expecting the ready emotional charge provided by a well-crafted Hollywood production […]

ATHENS, GA.–INSIDE/OUT ** (Worth seeing) Directed and written by Anthony Gayton With R.E.M., the B-52’s, Dreams So Real, and Love Tractor. Athens, Georgia — 60 miles from Atlanta — is home to 45,000 people, the University of Georgia, and one of the most critically acclaimed rock ‘n’ roll scenes of recent years. The B-52’s and […]

BLUE WINDOW Center Theater Blue Window is not so much a story as a portrait of seven people — three couples and a friend. When I first saw it more than a year ago, at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta, it struck me as little more than a character study, an “actor’s piece,” a play […]

KANGAROO * (Has redeeming facet) Directed by Tim Burstall Written by Evan Jones With Colin Friels, Judy Davis, John Walton, Julie Nihill, and Hugh Keays-Byrne. Was D.H. Lawrence a profound “priest of love,” or a proto-fascist, or just a fellow who earned a brief notoriety by scribbling a few novels’ worth of sensual yearning and […]

STREET SMART *** (A must-see) Directed by Jerry Schatzberg Written by David Freeman Produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus With Christopher Reeve, Morgan Freeman, and Kathy Baker. Street Smart is one of those films that risk sounding utterly routine, which is probably how it got made in the first place. The story of a […]

TIN MEN **** (Masterpiece) Directed and written by Barry Levinson With Richard Dreyfuss, Danny DeVito, and Barbara Hershey. There aren’t too many outlets for releasing the frustrations and fury of being civilized. One way, vilifying crazy drivers from behind the protection of your own steering wheel, will always–barring a drastic change in human nature or […]

* Echo Park Directed by Robert Dornhelm Written by Michael Ventura With Susan Dey, Tom Hulce, and Michael Bowen *** Uforia Directed and written by John Binder With Cindy Williams, Harry Dean Stanton, and Fred Ward It makes sense, I suppose, that cult movies are almost always about loneliness—joining the other lonely people in a […]