Even if you had been predisposed to toast Woody Allen for his courage in striking off in a new direction (namely, the comedian's traditional secret desire to do Hamlet), you will probably feel not much like celebrating after you have viewed the results of his labor. This deadly serious movie …
Sparsely plotted sequel to National Velvet, strung together with the most verbose narration heard outside a Jacques Cousteau underwater documentary. Most of its "adult" and common-sensible innovations merely undermine the fairy-tale quality of the original: for instance, the stepfather writing pornographic novels under the pen name "Jacques Delacroix" in order …
Phil Kaufman's worthy remake of Don Siegel's McCarthy-era sci-fi classic.
Larry Cohen's followup to It's Alive is fun in inverse proportion to the high seriousness with which it is played. But it is not (Robin Wood to the contrary) the outstanding American movie of its year. It picks up the thread of the original with a gripping opening scene in …
Leaving aside the obvious profit motive, this sequel, which gives off a golden glow as if basted with melted butter, demonstrates no other purpose or point whatever. Typical of its pettiness is the tit-for-tat revenge it exacts on so feeble a foe as Orca. Because the latter had the gall …
Efficient little horror movie, in the creepy-crawly genre, keeps a level head and doesn't let matters get out of hand until nearly the end. Throughout the tightly regulated buildup, the most admirable quality on display is the towering dignity of Woody Strode, a weary rancher out of a Walker Evans …
The recurring motif of an anonymous fiddler and dancer, who remain perpetually spry throughout the thirty years of this family saga, is supposed to make you think you are getting the essence of gypsy life. But the irritatingly dark photography and nearly inaudible narration are truer tips to how coy …
The homosexual proprietor of a homosexual nightclub, and long-time lover of his star drag queen, learns that the son he sired twenty years earlier in a mad moment of heterosexual experimentation is engaged to be married. Complications, as you would guess, ensue. This is French sex farce of a type …
Not about a lacemaker but an apprentice beautician, this sentimental tragedy is quite perceptive, if also rather inconsequential and narrowly focussed, in its observation of the various discomforts that arise from such social crises as when one's roommate strips naked in the public streets, the noises of lovemaking filter loud …
Little Man against The Big-Shots. This unthrilling thriller makes an obvious play for popular sympathy, but it appears to have caught a chill from the environment of high finance, and is nothing to be snuggled up to. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Catherine Deneuve, Michel Serrault, and Claude Brasseur; directed by Christian …
Yes, yes, it's better photographed than the average concert movie, and it's better recorded, and the music itself is on the whole better. And so what? It's still a concert movie, as opposed to a movie movie. (A couple of bonus numbers, "The Weight" and "Evangeline," are staged in a …
Yes, yes, it's better photographed than the average concert movie, and it's better recorded, and the music itself is on the whole better. And so what? It's still a concert movie, as opposed to a movie movie. (A couple of bonus numbers, "The Weight" and "Evangeline," are staged in a …
A group of urbanized Aborigines in Sydney, Australia, is defended on a murder charge by a white attorney who, by a lucky coincidence, happens to be plugged in to the Aboriginal concept of "dream time" and whose investigation of the case, and of his unique psychic powers, brings him to …
When Jorge Semprun first wrote a screenplay about a Spanish Civil War fugitive living in French exile and carrying on the good fight, and Yves Montand took the role, the outcome was Alain Resnais's La Guerre Est Finie and very fine. Both author and star have tried to copy themselves …
Hodgepodge-y animated feature, with the figures drawn in an alienatingly different style from the backgrounds and with the more complicated crowd scenes handled by way of trick photography that is closer to live action than to animation. Those who have resolutely dodged the Tolkien trilogy prior to seeing the movie …