What a feeling! Something between amused exasperation and outright derision. A graphic document, in any case, of what life is not like for a female welder in a Pittsburgh steel mill who works nights as a beer-hall dancer and who would really rather be a ballerina. With Jennifer Beals; directed …
A Catholic alcoholic homosexual novelist, who happens to have the same name as the novelist on whose novel this film was based, can no longer tell the difference between his fantasies and his realities. And little wonder! The clearly identifiable fantasy scenes allow director Paul Verhoeven to throw in a …
The hypocrisies of small-town society in mid-Twenties Brazil are exposed with considerable relish. So, too, are the architectural glories of the colonial coastal town of Parati. So, too, with perhaps greatest relish of all, and with certainly greater redundancy, are the anatomical glories of Sonia Braga. This actress, who gives …
Three bodies have been found buried in the snow outside a Moscow skating rink; their faces and fingertips have been cut away. Who are they? Having got hold of our attention in the way of the classical detective story, the movie maintains its grip in the same way throughout. The …
Canadian Western. Which is to say, not much of a Western at all. (Rather more of a north Western, whatever that might be: pine trees, Mounties, and whatever.) And not much of a character portrait either. The subject is the outlaw Bill Miner, who, after a long interlude in prison, …
Costa-Gavras continues to live up to his responsibilities as he sees them, in taking on the Middle East impasse. The plotline about an Israeli attorney (Jill Clayburgh, liberated like never before) becoming entwined emotionally with her Palestinian client is neither as far-fetched nor as offensive as it might sound -- …
Biopic (in Variety lingo) of drag-racer Shirley Muldowney, a sort of chronological quickstep through her life, thin on racetrack ambience and community, a bit thicker on the home life, generally modest in means and aims, although (through no fault of its own) a little immodest, even promiscuous, in critical reception. …
A bit of a plodder. A young Englishwoman (Julie Christie) follows in the footsteps in India, two generations previously, of a family friend (Greta Scacchi), all the way to getting herself impregnated by a native. The larger amounts of time and interest are apportioned to the flashbacks to the colonial …
By way of Turkey, Afghanistan, India, and Nepal. The hope, apparently, is that a generous amount of geography, costumes, explosions, aerial photography, and so forth, will be perceived as High Adventure, and no matter that Brian Hutton has directed the thing with all the care and precision of a second-class …
Bugs Bunny selling war bonds, Constance Bennett sharing her "Daily Beauty Rituals," James Dean expounding on safe driving, Shirley Temple pitching for the Red Cross and Bette Davis for the G.E. dishwasher. Not much of this is what most people have in mind as out-takes: those unusables spoiled by the …
Lousy slasher film revived exclusively by Regal Cinemas!
This works hard to obscure the fact that it is a vampire movie (the fearful word is never uttered). But it will not manage to fool those who don't care for this sort of thing, and will manage only to irritate those who do. The maintenance of a Beautiful People …
Science-fictionalized Arabian Nights, or Arabian Nighted sci-fi -- it's hard to know which. In any case, Princess Lyssa is kidnapped by The Slayers on her wedding night and taken back to their master, The Beast, headquartered in a mobile mountain called The Black Fortress. Prince Colwyn, her espoused, sets out …