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Drama

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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Letter to Three Wives, A

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

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Synopsis

Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell and Ann Sothern are three wives in an upper-middle-classneighbourhood. Just as they head off on an outing with a group of children, they receive a letterfrom the narrator (a silken-voiced Celeste Holm) that she has left town with one of theirhusbands. Which one? Unable to get home until the end of the day, the three women must waitand wonder, and in flashback we see the strains in each of their marriages. Crain is the formerfarmgirl who doesn’t f…
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Monster

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

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Synopsis

Charlize Theron doesn’t play Aileen Wuornos, she incarnates her. At the end of hertether, highway prostitute Aileen meets 18-year-old Selby (Christina Ricci) when she accidentlywalks into a lesbian bar. They click, and suddenly, Aileen has a reason to live. She tries to turnher life around, but with the implacability of Greek tragedy, her attempts end in failure and shereturns to turning tricks. One date goes turns ghastly, and she kills the brutal john in self-defense…
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Easy Rider

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 9th, 2005

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I started watching this movie expecting something akin to a National Lampoon episode – a goofy motorcycle road trip populated by harmless and amusing stoners. Those of you who are Easy Rider fans, or who have seen and appreciated the film should be chuckling now at my ignorance. This film, as well as Rambo: First Blood and Vanishing Point have now made it adequately clear to me that I’ve completely missed an entire genre of filmmaking. For those who share my ignorance, what I’m referring to is th…
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Speakeasy

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

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Synopsis

David Strathairn is a melancholy children’s magician. He is stuck looking after his irritablewife’s deaf father, because she wants nothing to do with him. His day is complete after a fender-bender with pawn shop owner Nicky Katt. And, as it happens all the time in real life, the twodrivers soon become fast friends. One of their bonds is that Katt’s daughter is also deaf. Whata coincidence! The performances are all agreeably low key, and the dialogue and editing havesome occ…
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Door in the Floor, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 31st, 2004

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On the DVD cover of The Door in the Floor, the writing promises “surprises”, “shocks”, and “cuts like a knife”. One would think this movie would be a thriller. False advertising can get you nowhere. The Door in the Floor is far from a thriller, but more in the meditation on love, loss, and loneliness genre. Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger star as a dysfunctional married couple. Things are far from blissful. Bridges is a writer of children’s fiction; Basinger is, well, I’m not sure what she does. Bu…
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3 – The Dale Earnhardt Story

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 29th, 2004

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Barry Pepper is an actor who seems to have an affinity for playing sports heroes, Roger Maris and now Dale Earnhardt. Pepper also seems to have an affinity to star in movies with numbers in the title, 51, 25th Hour, and now 3 – The Dale Earnhardt Story. ESPN presents an original sports movie about the iconic racing driver who lived and died (literally) on the track.

Being a sports fan, I have a soft place in my heart for sports bio pics. They have a tendency to be clichéd, by nature….
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Lost Innocence

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 14th, 2004

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Synopsis

Janie inherits a strip club from her uncle, and is determined to put the club back in the black,notably by getting all her college friends to strut their stuff on the stage. But not everyone wantsher to succeed, notably one conniving stripper who wants to get her hands on the treasuresecreted somewhere on the premises.

Why am I even bothering provided a synopsis for this poor man’s cross betweenShowgirls and Degrassi High? The plot gets us from one silicone-en…
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Facing Windows

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 9th, 2004

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Synopsis

Giovanna Mezzogiorno plays a wife and mother (also named Giovanna) who is frustratedand ground down by her lot in life. Her job is depressing, her marriage has lost all its spark, andshe lives in a building that echoes with the furious battles of dysfunctional couples. She is alsofascinated by the man she sees across the way, whose life in all respects seems to be the oppositeof hers. The catalyst for change in her life is the arrival of Simone, an elderly amnesiac whom her…
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Eyes of Fire

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 8th, 2004

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Synopsis

A minor fire (not the big scorch that case implies) breaks out in the forest, and is quickly extinguished. Nonetheless, there are clear signs of arson, and four teens are involved. The Ranger in charge of the area locks the teens in his station and proceeds to work on ferreting out the truth of what happened. And this fractious group has secrets they would rather not reveal. The film turns into a tale of relationships and coming of age.

But I found it very difficult to care. The fo…
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Zhou Yu’s Train

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 6th, 2004

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Synopsis

The storytelling is oblique in the extreme, but as near as I can discern it, the film tells the story of a young woman (Gong Li) who, after reading a collection of poems by Chen Ching (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) called Zhou Yu’s Train, attempts to imaginatively recover the experience of Zhou Yu (Gong Li again). Zhou Yu is an artisan who travels vast distances by train twice a week to keep up an increasingly troubled romance with Chen Ching. The other major figure is a veterinarian (Sun Hongle…
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Betty Blue

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 3rd, 2004

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Synopsis

Jean-Hugues Anglade plays Zorg (yup, that’s his name), a handyman living in a beach-front house, scribbling away quietly in his spare time. Not so quiet is his tempestuous affair with Betty (Beatrice Dalle), whose passions overwhelm both of them. First she moves in on him with no warning. Then, when she discovers his writing, she decides that they must move to Paris so he can have a career as a writer. To make sure Zorg complies, she burns his house to the ground. Once in Paris, her plans fo…
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Smooth Talk

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 2nd, 2004

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Smooth Talk is a “coming of age” story that won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It stars Laura Dern as Connie, a teenage girl from a small southern town. She’s at that rebellious age. In the words of Britney Spears, “she’s still a girl, not quite a woman”. Connie is curious about the opposite sex and a world outside the town. She’s searching for something, but what she finds, she might not want.

Treat Williams plays Arnold Friend. Friend, as it turns out, is nobody’s frien…
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Bettie Page – Dark Angel

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 2nd, 2004

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Synopsis

This is an episodic biopic about Bettie Page, moving from her glory days as a model for the pin-up photographer Bunny Yeager and fetish actress for Irving Klaw, maker of B&D shorts. All is well until a Senate investigation into obscenity, and Bettie herself pines for more mainstream, respectable roles. A fair bit of running time consists of B&W recreations of lost Klaw films, with Paige Richards doing a credible re-creation of Bettie’s look.

This is the very textbook definition of …
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Slipping Down Life, A

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 1st, 2004

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Synopsis

Lili Taylor essays another of her trademark depressed wallflower roles as Evie, a woman who hates her job, her town and her life. She becomes obsessed with local rock star and pseudo-philosopher Drumstrings Casey (Guy Pearce), to the point of carving his name in her forehead (backwards, since she was looking in a mirror). This brings her to the attention of Pearce, and both of the to the attention of the media, and so begins a prickly, off-kilter relationship.

We’ve certainly been …
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Luther

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 30th, 2004

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Synopsis

Dismayed by the corruption of the Church, Martin Luther (Joseph Fiennes) preaches against the selling of indulgences and other practices that combine tyranny and greed. His teachings find a receptive audience, much to the dismay of the Pope. A power struggle erupts, threatening to tear Christianity apart.

This effort is both compelling and wonky. Luther himself remains a cypher, with Fiennes portraying him as a rather disagreeable pasty-faced neurotic, little more than a mouthpiece…
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Brave New Girl

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 29th, 2004

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Synopsis

It’s all just so heartwarming. Spirited single-mother Virginia Madsen (what in Heaven’sname is she doing in this?) struggles to make ends meet flipping waffles, while spunky, talenteddaughter Lindsey Haun longs to attend The Haverty Conservatory of Music and Dance. WhenMadsen becomes aware of Haun’s dream, she moves mountains for her daughter. You canpredict the rest.

Mother and daughter wuv each other sooooooo much, you just want Jason Voorhees to stepin and stag…
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Elizabeth Taylor – The Signature Collection

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 17th, 2004

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Synopsis

National Velvet (1944) is one of the most beloved horse movies out there. A veryyoung Taylor wins a horse named Pie, and dreams not only of entering the horse in the GrandNational, but of riding him, too. Helping her achieve this dream is jockey Mickey Rooney. Alsoon hand is Angela Lansbury as Taylor’s older sister. This is innocent fun of the most perfectlycrafted variety, and it expertly tugs at heartstrings from the opening moments on.

Father of the Bride (…
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Ranch, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 15th, 2004

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The Ranch is a movie about life in bawdy high class brothel. It’s supposedly based on a real life place. Somewhere in Nevada I think. The Ranch is advertised as unrated and uncut. And it’s also SINsational; well…I’m not so sure of the sational part. And maybe not even about the sin. There are some naked breasts from time to time, and some matter of fact and tasteful sex scenes. But there’s nothing really too hot. If this movie is salsa, it would be mild.

But if you’re doing a disserta…
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