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Michael Haneke’s Funny Games confronts audiences with the violence they paid for
Director Michael Haneke has made Funny Games twice, a decade apart. They are essentially the same movie: nearly shot-for-shot, with the same title, similar music and location, and at least one of the actors physically resembling one of the original cast. The few adjustments include the spoken language, updated telephone technology, and added Americanisms. So…
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Rutger Hauer lives on anxiety, coffee, and chocolate, in Split Second
Tag yourself: “He lives on anxiety, coffee, and chocolate.” It me; can relate. Tony Maylam’s Split Second is probably forever doomed to be a cult favorite, but it’s a pity it’s not better known. It has a wild, sometimes even manic electricity that covers up most deficiencies. I happened to watch it back-to-back with another…
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Falling in love at the end of the world, in Wim Wenders’ Submergence
Ladies, if your fella isn’t returning your calls, maybe he’s a secret agent on a tippy-top secret mission for queen and country. Fellas, if your girl isn’t liking your posts, maybe she has zero bars because she’s doing science stuff on the ocean floor. I went into Submergence fully aware of the generally negative reviews,…
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Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore torches the legacy of Harry Potter
I worked at Warner Bros. throughout the original run of Harry Potter movies. In case that sounds exciting, I assure you it wasn’t; it was an extremely minor role in a vast corporation, that involved selling t-shirts, iPhone cases, and battery-powered toy wands online. But it was very easy for us all — a bunch…
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Star Trek: The Motion Picture was always out of step with the times
With a release history more tangled than a TNG time travel plot, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is now finally available in its most complete form yet: a 2022 4K remaster of the 2001 Director’s Edition of the 1979 film. Got that? Engadget has the full details, but in short, don’t call it a “restoration”.…
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Never Been Kissed: a wacky misunderstanding, or should somebody call the police?
Without thinking about it too much, the basic premise of Raja Gosnell’s Never Been Kissed sounds perfectly fine: an adorkable young adult gets a high school do-over. What could go wrong? And indeed, roughly the first half of Never Been Kissed is likable, powered almost entirely by Drew Barrymore’s trademark charm and quirk. But the…
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The Many Saints of Newark is Sopranos fanfic
As Solo and Rogue One were to Star Wars, The Many Saints of Newark is to The Sopranos: mere fanfic dressed up as a prequel. We did not need to learn how Uncle Junior hurt his back. Unpopular pop culture opinion: The Sopranos is overrated. Yes, it opened the floodgates for what came to be…
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Tommy Lee Jones doesn’t bargain or negotiate in The Fugitive
Everyone remembers Andrew Davis’ The Fugitive for Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones’ chemistry (despite rarely sharing the screen) and its iconic action pieces (especially the train and dam sequences). But all of this must hang upon a plot framework, and the lopsided movie’s momentum dissipates as it gets bogged down in the details. The…
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The sour overpowers the sweet in About Last Night…
Even though I think I have to casually give Edward Zwick’s About Last Night… only three stars here, there’s a lot to commend it. There’s no high concept or clever hook to slap on the poster: no one falls in love with their maid or the magnate destroying their small business, no one gets amnesia…
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Like a pizza in the rain: Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild
You know you’ve graduated from Movie Buff into Old Movie Buff when you start saying “they don’t make movies like this any more”… but what if they really don’t make movies like this any more? Catching up on Jonathan Demme’s filmography with Something Wild and Married to the Mob has really brought home the realization…
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The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is Terry Gilliam’s 8½
If I hadn’t seen The Man Who Killed Don Quixote with my own eyes, I’d have trouble believing it exists. So Terry Gilliam has finally made his Quixote; but it might be more accurate to say that he finally made his 8½. In a way, Gilliam has been making this movie over and over for…
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Sit on my interface: Hackers is a 90s treasure
I can’t believe I haven’t had the pleasure until now. Energetic, funny, quotable, and scattered with fantastic montage sequences. The moment when Johnny Lee Miller sees Angelina Jolie for the first time is choice. And check the surreal imagery and avant-garde editing of its characters’ erotic nightmares — seriously; more than one! It’s all laughably…