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Drama

Rains Came, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 26th, 2005

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Synopsis

India, 1938. Dissolute ex-pat Brit George Brent is amused when old flame Myrna Loy, now married to an aging aristocrat, arrives, but is less amused when he sees her set her sights on Indian doctor Tyrone Power (all done up in dark make-up). Power is so decent that Brent doesn’t want him corrupted. But it soon turns out that Loy really loves Power, as she demonstrates by helping selflessly after the city is savaged by torrential rains, flooding and an earthquake.

The politics are ve…
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Gus Van Sant’s Last Days

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 25th, 2005

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Synopsis

In his mansion and forested estate, a rock star (played by Michael Pitt and named Blake, but obviously supposed to be Kurt Cobain) wanders about in a terminal drug stupor. Hangers on, business associates, Mormons and salesmen besiege him, but his flees human contact, withdrawing completely into himself.

The movie plays out as if directed by its subject: quiet, mumbling, meandering. As with Gus Van Sant’s last two films – Gerry and Elephant – the tone is minimalist and…
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Witness

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 8th, 2005

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Let’s face it; Harrison Ford is not a particularly great actor. He is not capable of playing diversity in his roles, and he has never faded into a character. When you go to see a Harrison Ford movie, the result is always something like “Harrison Ford as the President of the United States”, or “Harrison Ford is wrongly accused of a crime he didn’t commit.” Never once have I seen one of his films and came away saying “it is about this professor that goes on a quest to find the holy grail. Harrison Ford played the profe…
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Winter Solstice

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 3rd, 2005

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Winter Solstice is one of those quiet, somber independent films. While not as flashy as The Upside of Anger (and thatâ€™s not a flashy film), Josh Sternfeldâ€™s feature is a meditative look at a broken family trying to rebuild its life. Donâ€™t expect any major plot twists or a flashy directing style. Solstice takes its time and builds towards something called hope.

A family tragedy as taken its toll on a Jersey family. Anthony LaPaglia plays Jim Winters, a landscape gardener. H…
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Warm Springs

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 28th, 2005

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Warm Springs is an HBO production based on a lesser known part of the life of Franklin Roosevelt. While most folks know about FDR’s debilitating bout with polio, few are aware of his long-term association with a rural Georgia resort. It seems the water there is high in minerals, which allows those suffering from crippling diseases a chance to stand or even walk in the super buoyant water. HBO films has a nice track record with historical films. Truman is one of the best Presidential bio films I’ve ever seen. This film limits itself perhaps too much and becomes more about polio than it is about FDR.
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Homeland Security

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 26th, 2005

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It was inevitable that the tragic events of 9/11 would spawn television and film dramatizations. The catastrophe quickly influenced almost everything produced immediately afterwards. Homeland Security is a failed NBC pilot. Unlike most discarded pilots Paramount decided to release this one as a direct-to-video feature. I’m not sure what the thinking behind this move was, but it was well thought out. The very things that made this a poor subject for a series make it an even worse feature release. There have been, and here will continue to be, dramas based on the attacks.
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Complete James Dean Collection, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 24th, 2005

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Synopsis

Rebel Without a Cause (1955) is the landmark, because of its star, and because of its subject matter. This intense, rich portrayal of juvenile delinquency triggered a flood of largely exploitive imitators, but it remains a powerful film, not least for the sympathy with which it treats its characters, and for its understanding. It shows why the Dean, Natalie Wood and company behave the way they do, and does not demonize. This was Dean’s second film, but the first to be released, and hi…
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To Kill A Mockingbird

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 20th, 2005

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Synopsis

In the rural south of the 1930s, a black man is charged with the rape and beating of a white woman. Defending him is Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck), and the events surrounding the case are seen through the eyes of Finch’s two children. The film is thus just as much about children’s fears (embodied by Boo Rradley [Robert Duvall], the boogeyman next door) and perceptions of the world as it is about race and unequal justice.

In Finch, Peck incarnates what may well be the supreme portrai…
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Sting, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 19th, 2005

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Synopsis

Robert Redford is a small-time con man who swindles a runner working for big-time gangster Robert Shaw. When Redford’s partner is killed in retribution, Redford swears revenge, and hooks up with Paul Newman, a veteran at the con game who has fallen on hard times. They put together a veritable army of operators, determined to bring Shaw to his knees in the ultimate con.

A delight when it was first released in 1973, the film is no less a delight now. To call it a masterpiece may be a…
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Rouleman

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2005

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I am a foreign film fan, so I was quite excited to find this disc in my queue of DVDs to review. From the cover, this looked like just the kind of thing that I typically enjoy. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, you shouldn’t judge a DVD by it’s cover… or something like that. The plot of this film sounds reasonable enough; a couple of documentary filmmakers set out on a quest to try to find out what happened to a beautiful missing girl. Now, this is not a film shot in a “mocumentary” style, it is just a fictional f…
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Harry and Tonto

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 5th, 2005

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Synopsis

Art Carney is a spirited senior (the Harry of the title) who is evicted from his home (the building is going to be torn down to make way for a parking lot). He sets out with his cat Tonto on a cross-country journey that sees him bouncing off family members and strangers on their own journeys.

Some of these encounters are less believable than others (the Hooker With The Heart of Gold, for example), but the tone of the film is a gentle, wry, observational humour. Carney is excellent,…
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Out of Sight

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 27th, 2005

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Synopsis

After being the hunk of the moment on E.R., George Clooney came out of the starting blocks as a film actor in a few films, ranging the gamut from cult favorite (From Dusk ‘Til Dawn) to somewhat critically praised (The Peacemaker). He was also played the starring role in the film that put the Batman franchise on life support. One of his first smart acting choices came in Out Of Sight, directed by Steven Soderbergh, before Soderbergh became the Hollywood flavor of the mont…
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My Left Foot

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 25th, 2005

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Synopsis

This is the biopic of Irish painter and writer Christy Brown. Born with crippling cerebral palsy, he retained movement only in his left foot. His body is a cage for his mind, and at first, only his mother believes that he is an intelligent being. When, as a child, he spells “MOTHER” on the floor in chalk, this is the breakthrough moment, and we follow him through the triumphs and frustrations of his adult years.

The film is markedly different from what one would imagine would be th…
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Imaginary Heroes

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 12th, 2005

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This is one of those films that is depressing solely for the sake of being depressing. There was a string of these kinds of films in the 90’s, but they have gone out of style as of the past seven years or so. This particular film tells the story of what happens to a dysfunctional family when one of the members commits suicide. Apparently, each member of the family grieves in his or her own way, all of which are wildly dangerous. Sexual promiscuity, substance abuse, lawlessness and despair abound in this tale of miser…
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Warm Summer Rain

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 9th, 2005

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Synopsis

Kelly Lunch plays a young woman who begins the movie by attempting suicide. She is saved, and annoyed by the friends and family who visit her in the hospital, she takes off in her hospital clothes and a coat, hopping on a bus and getting off in the middle of a desert nowhere. One drunken night later, she wakes up in a house married to a stranger. Cue a whole bunch of sex scenes and psychological drama.

The film certainly aims high, with an arty tone set in the opening seconds, usin…
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Wild Orchid 2: Blue Movie Blue

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 1st, 2005

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Synopsis

In the 1950s, Blue (Nina Siemaszko) travels from town to town with her itinerant jazz musician father (Tom Skerritt). When Dad is killed, Blue winds up under the thumb of brothel madam Wendy Hughes, and after some initial difficulty, assumes her new identity. But she pines for the boy (Brent Fraser) she met before her life went to hell, and she eventually fights to leave the addictive world of decadence she has entered. Escape will not be easy.

Writer/director Zalman King gave us t…
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Stone Cold

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 30th, 2005

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Synopsis

Poor Tom Selleck. The guy has had to deal with the Magnum P.I. stigma for so long, whenever he tries to play darker characters in a film noir-style TV movie, people just don’t buy it, as what seems to be the case in Stone Cold.

But Selleck actually does a pretty decent job in the film, playing Jesse Stone, a chief of police in a small New England town who has to deal with a serial killing husband and wife combo. Jesse has moved from Los Angeles, where he lost his job and his…
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Bolero

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 21st, 2005

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Synopsis

In the 1920s, heiress Bo Derek (looking wildly anachronistic) seeks to learn the ways of ecstasy. (Don’t get mad at me. I didn’t make this up.) Accompanied by her best friend and faithful chauffeur George Kennedy (here making a huge career step down from such *ahem* highs as The Concorde: Airport ‘79), she hares off to Morocco, inspired by Valentino movies to give her virginity to a sheik. When he fails to come through in the clutch, she next turns her sights on a Spanish bullfighter….
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Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 20th, 2005

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Synopsis

Gregory Peck is having trouble making ends meet in his current job. A more lucrative one opens up, but with it comes many more demands that create more stress in his family. There is also a secret from his past that is coming back to haunt him.

Eminently watchable, this is also hugely melodramatic, very long, and quite dated. Jennifer Jones as Peck’s wife comes off almost immediately as an intolerable shrew, berating her husband for lack of ambition and complaining about the suppos…
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Manson Family Movies

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 19th, 2005

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Synopsis

Shot in 1974, this is one peculiar piece of work. Springing from director’s John Aes-Nihil’s not altogether healy obsession with the Manson murders, this takes the rumour that the Family filmed their activities and tries to make it flesh. What you see is a series of very convincing-looking Super 8 mm reels of the Family doing their thing, culminating in re-enactments of the Tate-La Bianca murders. Frankly, I’m somewhat at a loss for how to rate this. The home movies look very real, right dow…
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In Old Chicago

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 19th, 2005

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Synopsis

Mother O’Leary and her brood arrive in Chicago just as it is beginning to transform into a metropolis. Her sons grow up to become the amoral Dion (Tyrone Power), who never misses a bet and hooks up with the similarly canny cabaret performer Belle (Alice Faye), and the idealistic lawyer Jack (Don Ameche). Betraying political boss Brian Donlevy, Power arranges for his brother to become mayor, but then finds himself in the targeting sights of Ameche’s reforms. The family feud builds to the nigh…
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High and the Mighty, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 15th, 2005

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Synopsis

Grand Hotel (1932) was the model: a large cast of known faces with soap opera problems. The High and the Mighty takes this set-up and puts the characters in a plane flying from Hawaii to San Francisco, then blows out an engine and has the fuel leak away. John Wayne is the Co-Pilot With The Tragic Past, Robert Stack is the Pilot Losing His Nerve, and they are surrounded by a collection of other very recognizable types: the Cute Kid, the Charming Dying Man, the Loud Couple From N…
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Dead Leaves

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 12th, 2005

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Synopsis

The opening scene is a montage of a couple in love, while a voice-over reads Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” – a sure sign that things are not going to end well. Sure enough, in the next scene, the young woman takes a fatal fall while climbing after a kitten. The boyfriend cannot bear to part with the corpse, and off he goes with the body, making his way cross-country to the lake where we first saw them in love, and all the time the corpse and his mind are slowly rotting away.

Chee…
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Hoffa

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 4th, 2005

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Synopsis

Among the more unjustly ignored performances was Jack Nicholson’s turn as Union boss Jimmy Hoffa in Hoffa. Fox finally decided to put out the Danny DeVito directed, David Mamet written film on DVD. Mamet’s script seems to romanticize Hoffa, portraying him as more of a Union man, as one who was forced to make deals that could compromise his integrity, but he overlooks his integrity in order to help benefit the American working man. The story is told in the point of view of Hoffa aide Bobby Ci…
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Sleepover (1995)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 4th, 2005

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Synopsis

Teenage rites of passage during the summer vacation at the beach. The protagonist is a quiet, decent sort, but his close friend is a domineering alpha male who bullies everyone around him into doing whatever he wants. He is clearly pulling his companions toward serious trouble. The story builds to one night when the boys use each other’s homes as alibies: they are supposed to be having a sleepover, but in fact are out looking for girls. Things go wrong.

The storyline itself isn’t s…
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