Those who always thought that A Man And a Woman was little more than a soap opera will find much evidence here to support their claim, although they will not have persuaded some of the rest of us that that is a bad thing. The idea of picking up a …
Solemnly religiose science fiction, about a "cybernetic Christ" with a Tony Perkins (as Norman Bates) haircut, who checks himself into a lunatic asylum, claims to come from outer space, plays Bach on the organ, says things like "You are all robots, you just haven't realized it yet," and completely confounds …
A piece of borderline science fiction about a boy who builds an atomic bomb. It fights a losing battle against implausibility, but fights it tenaciously and well. The end result, with a slow build and an accelerating finish, is not at all believable, but hangs together beautifully. Nothing is unaccounted …
The title figure is a satanically whiskered FBI special investigator named Will Graham, who has a Lear Jet at his beck and call, helicopters awaiting him on landing, whole crews of forensics and computer wizards sitting by the telephone to follow up on any of his flashbulbs of inspiration -- …
The essential thing to say about the sequel of Jean de Florette, especially to those who've seen the first part, is that both movies are cut from very much the same cloth. For the sake of those who haven't seen the first part, and who might be tempted to get …
Above-average Almodóvar, about a perverse union of la petite mort and just la mort. It is not above average in laughs (female cop responding to a killingly handsome young man's self-accusation of rape: "Some girls have all the luck!"); it is above average by virtue of its lower overall voracity …
Women have their support groups -- why not men? Or so reasons an ex-ballplayer (.320 lifetime batting average, World Series ring) who is starved for fellowship. They -- seven of them -- tell stories ("This is more than a club. This is a symposium"), they laugh, they fall silent, they …
Getting off on the right foot is vital to a comedy, much more so than to a tragedy, which can afford to put off making you feel miserable. This one -- a comedy, one surmises, about a young couple's travails in fixing up a million-dollar dream house -- starts out …
Not much good as a whodunit: there are too few characters (i.e., suspects) in it for that. It is much more a "character" and "relationship" thing, concerning a high-strung and hard-drinking Hollywood has-been (or never-was: "They were grooming me," she boasts, "to be the new Vera Miles") and a casually …
The hero is a character of substance -- or better, to avoid confusion, to say he is a "character" and not a "hero." Or to pursue the distinction: everything that happens in the story, not just the outcome, is a direct consequence of who and what he is: a Rube …
Ann and Jeanette Petrie's documentary profile of the founder and head of the Missionaries of Charity. It manages to be inspiring while being not in the least inspired, and being more than a little lucky in happening to be present at the bedside of a spastic Lebanese child when Mother …
No doubt you have heard: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." But perhaps you have not heard the new amendment: "Don't fuck with Jack Murphy." Then again, perhaps you have heard something quite similar. Charles Bronson, who has seen better days, would seem to be following along in …
Memories of a Swedish childhood: the consumptive mother, the avuncular foster parents, the invalid neighbor who likes to have the lingerie ads read to him aloud, the buxom nude model, the girl disguised as a boy, and -- that pinnacle of national pride -- the victory of Ingemar Johansson over …