Drama

Zelary

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 6th, 2005

Synopsis

In 1943, medical student Aňa Geislerová is living the sophisticated life in Prague, carryingon with a doctor. She’s also working for the Czech resistance, and when her lover decamps andshe is betrayed, she is forced to seek refuge in the country. She poses as the wife of GyörgyCserhalmi, whose life she saved with a blood donation when he was in the hospital. At firstdismayed by her new surroundings, she gradually comes to love both the countryside and herersatz husband…
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Woodsman, The

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

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The Woodsman is not a story for the faint of heart. The content is disturbing to say the least… it is a story of a convicted pedophile that has a “thing” for young girls. The story is actually much more then that… it has a strong focus on the inner demons that the pedophile faces in attempt to clean up his life.

After being released from a 12-year prison sentence, Walter Rossworth (Kevin Bacon) tries to re-enter society by getting a job at a lumberyard, and moving into his own apartment (coincident…
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Notebook, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 31st, 2005

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Synopsis

In the present, in a nursing home, we meet two residents: James Garner and Gena Rowlands.She is afflicted with Alzheimer’s, and cannot remember her past. He reads to her from anotebook, telling the tale (which is their story) of two young people (Ryan Gosling and RacelMcAdams) who meet, fall in love, but are driven apart by class prejudice (she’s upper class, he’sworking class). He never gives up on her, and the story charts more heartbreaking reunions andtravails.

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Hotel Rwanda

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 30th, 2005

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Synopsis

Don Cheadle plays Paul Rusesabagina, house manager of the luxury Hotel Mille-Collinesin Kigali. He does business with everybody, and strokes the egos of the powerful, and doesn’treally believe the anti-Tutsi sentiment being built up will really amount to anything. He is wrong,he discovers, when the genocide is unleashed. He gathers some 1200 refugees in the hotel, and,deprived of any help from the outside, must use all his wits to keep these people, along withhimself and hi…
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Barbra Streisand Collection, The

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

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Synopsis

All three of thiese films have previous been seen release on DVD (one quite some time ago,from the look of things), and they are of varying importance to Streisand’s career.

The most notable of the bunch is The Way We Were (1973). Directed by SydneyPollack, this charts the relationship of Streisand (fiery activist) and Robert Redford (writer in theF. Scott Fitzgerald mould) from their college days in the 1930s to their inevitable breakup in1950s Hollywood. Th…
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Jeremy

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

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Jeremyis an early 70’s film that put Robby Benson on the map (for what that’s worth). Benson was nominated for a Golden Globe for his tender performance as the title character. This is quite an intimate little perforance. Glynnis O’Connor plays Jeremy’s love interest, Susan. O’Connor matches Benson’s truthful performance. The film centers around Susan and Jeremy’s awkward, but authentic, teenage romance.

The film moves along at a snail’s pace. But that’s part of the point. There are no major Romeo…
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Five People You Meet in Heaven, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 5th, 2005

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Synopsis

Jon Voight plays Eddie, known as “Eddie Maintenance,” who keeps things running at an amusement park. When a faulty ride clobbers him, he winds up in Heaven, where he meets, as the title suggests, five people from his past, in five different kinds of Heaven, at each stage learning truths about his life, and how much it mattered, for better or for worse. There are many flashbacks to his early years when he showed promise as a gifted engineer, but was held back by a drunken lout of…
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Matchstick Men

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

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I’m always a sucker for con men movies, movies about the grift, or general films about robbers who are smart and get money from dumb people. If they’re too stupid to know what to do with the cash, send it over here, Daddy needs it. Sometimes there are new and interesting wrinkles that usually crash and burn, but sometimes work out quite well in the end.

Matchstick Men tells the story of Roy (Nicolas Cage, Adaptation) and Frank (Sam Rockwell, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind), two men wh…
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Francis of Assisi

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 25th, 2005

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Synopsis

The saint of the title (Bradford Dillman) begins as a very secular young man, eager to sign upfor the war in which the Pope is engaged. But it is during this conflict that he receives a visionfrom God, and renounces violence. This is perceived as cowardice by some (such as the father ofhis sweetheart) but as inspiring principle by others (such as said sweetheart, Dolores Hart). Thehumble holy man eventually runs up against politics within the Church.

Michael Curtiz …
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Agony and the Ecstasy, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 22nd, 2005

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Synopsis

Charlton Heston is Michelangelo, busy at work on the monumental sculptures he proposesfor the tomb of Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison). Julius has other ideas, however, and ordersMichelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which is the last thing the sculptor wantsto do. The film then follows his struggles with the monumental task, as well as the clash ofpersonalities.

There’s more than a whiff of Heston as Michelangelo as Moses, and Harrison as Julius as…
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Until September

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

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Until September is soap opera/romance that lacks sizzle. Karen Allen, of Raiders of the Lost Arkfame plays Mo. Mo is a plucky American girl who falls in love with Parisian named Xavier (played by Thierry Lhermitte). Mo misses her plane and is stuck in Paris. She meets cute with Xavier and an affair begins. However, complications ensue: Xavier has a wife and family.

The Paris locations are nice, but the lead couple lacks any chemistry whatsoever. Karen Allen is cute as a button, but Th…
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Short Cuts

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 16th, 2005

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The barometer for those interested in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts is usually whether or not they liked Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. Hell, it’s the question I posed to my fiancée when we were trying to figure out what to watch over the Thanksgiving holiday. The comparisons are pretty conventional; both are large ensemble films with intertwined plotlines set in California, both have a 3 hour runtime. Both even have Julianne Moore in predominant roles.

Based on short stories by Raymond Carver…
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Raise Your Voice

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 16th, 2005

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Synopsis

Hilary Duff is the small-town girl who aspires to attend a summer music camp in LosAngeles. Keith David is the gruff father who stands in her way, but only because he loves her somuch. Poignancy is added by the car-accident death of her supportive older brother in the earlygoings. Anyway, off goes Duff, thanks to mother Rita Wilson and cool aunt Rebecca De Mornay,and she has to struggle against the evil sophisticates and snobs to prove herself, but she has helpfrom new frie…
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Ray

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 11th, 2005

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Synopsis

The film opens at the very beginning of Ray Charles’ career, as he makes his way to Seattlefor his first paying gigs with an unscrupulous band leader and manager. We see him grow inconfidence and artistry, soon becoming a force to be reckoned with. Intercutting his rise areflashbacks to his childhood, and specifically the accidental death of his little brother and his ownloss of sight. In the present, we also see his womanizing personal life and his descent into drugaddicti…
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Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 10th, 2005

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Ah, the 80’s. I remember slapping on the vinyl for the new Def Leppard album, “Pyromania”. And what an album it was. “Photograph”, “Rock of Ages”, the list of singles go on. Def Leppard seemed to be poised for superstardom. Then tragedy struck. Their drummer lost his arm in a car accident. But they still rocked on. “Hysteria” was their most popular album, but a bit too sugary for me. Now we have a movie that charts the rocky road to stardom and beyond, Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story is a heavy m…
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Chariots of Fire

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 8th, 2005

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Synopsis

In the years leading up to the 1924 Paris Olympics, Ben Cross is Harold Abrahams, who useshis speed as a runner to fight back against the quiet but persistent anti-Semitism of Britishsociety. Ian Charleson is Eric Liddell, the profoundly religious Scot who runs for God. Wefollow their lives and training, along with those of Abrahams’ college friends, up to theOlympics, with a few smallish tribulations along the way.

And that’s about it, really. There are plenty of s…
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Edges of the Lord

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

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Edges of the Lord is a movie that wasn’t released theatrically, due to some distributing difficulties. We now have it on DVD. Billed as “in the tradition of Life is Beautiful”, Edges of the Lord is an edgy little coming of age story set against the backdrop of World War II. The plot is simple enough: a 12 year old Jewish boy (Haley Joel Osment) hides with a family of Catholic peasants to escape the Nazi’s. The results are resonant and often powerful.

Everyone’s favorite child actor, Osme…
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Malcolm X

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 7th, 2005

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Synopsis

Denzel Washington plays Malcolm X, the black leader white folks DIDN’T feel comfortableabout. Beginning in the 1940s, when Malcolm is a zoot-suited cool cat with best friend Shorty(Spike Lee), the film then flashes back to just before his birth, and proceeds in properly epicfashion to trace the life of the charismatic, and extremely controversial, leader.

Questions can, and have, been asked about some aspects of the film. Time Out, for instance,raises the issue of t…
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Secrets & Lies

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

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Mike Leigh is one of England’s most accomplished directors. His recent success, Vera Drake, shows that the man hasn’t lost his touch. Leigh’s films go back over 30 years. His famous “Mike Leigh” method (in short hand) involves actors improvising scenes for months; Leigh writes the scenes down and a screenplay is created. The films he’s made include quirky character dramadies, Life is Sweet and down and dirty slices of life, Naked. But nowhere is this “Mike Leigh method” more successful tha…
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Testament

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 2nd, 2005

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Fear of nuclear proliferation was a definite threat in the Reagan era 80’s. Movies like The Day After played into those fears. Another film that deals with the consequences of nuclear fallout is 1983’s Testament. Testament is a small, quiet film about the effects of nuclear fallout on a family and a community. The director, Lynne Littman, is a veteran of documentary films, and she brings a certain truth and realism to the story. There are no mushroom clouds or special effects, just human eff…
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October Sky

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

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Synopsis

Coalwood, West Virgina, is a typical mining company town in 1957. For most of the malepopulation, the only future is a descent into the mines, with all the hardships and early death thatentails. Jake Gyllenhaal hopes for better, and he is inspired by the launch of Sputnik to build hisown rocket, a project which involves three of his friends, and is encouraged by teacher LauraDern. Against Gyllenhaal are the skepticism of the town, the difficulties of the project, and thetro…
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First Daughter

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

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Written by Jason Franz

Synopsis

First Daughter is a coming of age drama/comedy about Samantha Mackenzie (Katie Holmes), the Presidents daughter, who is eager to start her college/adult life. Directed by Forest Whitaker and based on a story co-written by Jerry O’Connell, I had no idea what I was in for.

The flim starts with a quick montage of Samantha’s childhood growing up with political parents. We’re looped into the story as she heads towards her first year in college, and her first…
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Backbeat

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 25th, 2005

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Synopsis

Stephen Dorff (adopting a most convincing accent) plays Iain Softley, bass guitarist in a banddriven by best pal John Lennon (you may have heard of the group). The lads leave Liverpool forHamburg, where they become house band for a strip club, and gradually build a following.Softley is more of a painter than a guitarist, and his commitment to the band is furtherundermined when he falls for photographer Astrid Kirchherr (Sheryl Lee).

Dorff is excellent, and Ian Hart …
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Return to Peyton Place

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 25th, 2005

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Synopsis

More sordidness comes to light in the town of Peyton Place. Carol Lynley publishes a bookthat features a thinly disguised version of the town, and exposing the hypocrisies doesn’t earnher any friends. Off to the Big Apple, she becomes more friendly than perhaps she should withthe publisher (Jeff Chandler). Mother From Hell Mary Astor tries to destroy her son’s marriageto Luciana Paluzzi, and so it goes.

The star wattage isn’t as strong as the first film (no Lana Tur…
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Leave Her to Heaven

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 24th, 2005

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Synopsis

Cornel Wilde, a writer with a disabled younger brother, meets the gorgeous Gene Tierneyon a train, and it’s love at first sight. At least, on his side of the equation. For her, it’s moreobsession at first sight (and this because Wilde looks just like her excessively beloved — andlately departed — daddy). After a whirlwind courtship and marriage, they appear to settle down tohappily married life, but Tierney is ferociously jealous of anyone who might be taking Wilde’satten…
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