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(01/18/02 5:00am)
obert Altman's Gosford Park is a marvelous satire focusing on both the tragedies of the servant-aristocrat system of post-WWI England and the similarity of the personal relationships among members of both classes. For such heady themes, the comedy is fierce and the audience is lured into both loving the elegance of the film's pretentious upper class as well as loathing the inequitable social order on which such elegance rested. This complex duality challenges, incites and, above all, entertains.
(01/18/02 5:00am)
Right now, Jack Black is everywhere--and that's not a fat joke. Currently appearing in Orange County, the mildly obese actor has eaten up screen time since his popular debut as a self-righteous, bloated record-store clerk in High Fidelity. Since that breakthrough comedic role, Black has seen his band (Tenacious D) achieve critical and commercial success and has also made a debut as a leading man alongside Gwyneth Paltrow in Shallow Hal.
(01/10/02 5:00am)
Kelly Goldsmith may not have outlasted or outplayed her fellow Survivor: Africa castmates, but in tonight's season finale, the Duke graduate is a good bet to outwit one of the show's two finalists--she's already outwitted her Kappa Kappa Gamma sisters and David Letterman.
(01/09/02 5:00am)
Mr. President:
(12/10/01 5:00am)
Goodbye, 2001. I know it's three weeks before your official retirement, but given what a rotten year you were, I'm euthanizing you early.
(11/30/01 5:00am)
Spy Game, the new espionage thriller from Tony Scott (Enemy of the State), has all the elements of a good spy-thriller: double-crosses, mysterious women, rogue agents, a cover-up and Robert Redford. Redford is the man to cast when you are dealing with the CIA. In the past 25 years, Spy Game joins two other Redford flicks that have portrayed some aspect of central intelligence with deft and pinache--1992's Sneakers and 1975's Three Days of the Condor.
(11/30/01 5:00am)
Contain your ebullience--the Christmas DVD season is upon us. With 2000 and 2001 clocking in as some of the worst years for films ever, the DVD releases end up, for the most part, mimicking the staid selection that has plagued the silver screen. The winter releases are dominated by this summer's critical flops: Jurassic Park III, The Score, Pearl Harbor, Moulin Rouge, Evolution, Rush Hour 2, etc. Yet, there are a few truffles in this winter's film DVD list--cult classic Willow recently hit the DVD stands and no real film buff should be without The Godfather Trilogy collection. If you're like most people and missed the gender-bending fun of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the DVD "comes out" Dec. 11. If you are a sucker for Jim Carrey and Ron Howard's special brand and cartoonish schmaltz, covered in a milieu of green fur, you can buy The Grinch.
(11/30/01 5:00am)
If you haven't found U2, then you must not be looking. The Irish rock band is everywhere recently--Olympic theme music ("Beautiful Day" in Sydney), Larry King Live ("One" in a post-9/11 montage), The World Series ("Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" was game seven's closer), NFL advertisements ("Bad," which is a welcome cut of mid-O80s U2), more montages about 9/11 ("Walk On," "Peace on Earth," lots of "One").
(11/27/01 5:00am)
The un-timed red lights, the people who never learned what a turn signal is, the self-righteous slow drivers in the fast lane, break tapping at a green light, the general inability to accelerate from a complete stop, the way people move into the merge lane, the leaves all over the roads, the potholes, the street names that change every two blocks, 15-501, the mind-numbing traffic light at Erwin Road and LaSalle Street that offers eastbound drivers a green-arrow at 1 a.m., the merge at I-40 and the Durham Freeway, the lack of lights on the highways, the traffic-thoughtless design of Research Triangle Park, the road to nowhere that is the "Downtown Loop," the train that seems to be around only when you have class on East Campus or are trying to sleep....
(11/16/01 5:00am)
When I went to see Monsters, Inc., I full well knew that half the audience I was seated with was really here to see the 45-second teaser-trailer for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. In a Recess second (we reviewed the Episode I trailer in Nov. 1998), here is a brief review of George Lucas' all-too-brief trailer. (It can be conveniently viewed at www.adcritic.com. Ad Critic has both the real trailer and the fake trailer that was referenced in today's Sandbox.) Opening with pitch black and a deep, throaty breathing, I almost mistook the whole trailer for a preview for a really good porno, especially when a very hot Natalie Portman appeared on the screen. Cut from Portman to a tall blond dude who looks way too good to be the future father of Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill. Let it be known: Adult Annikan (Hayden Christensen) is a stud.
(11/16/01 5:00am)
avid Mamet is a great playwright, a very good screenwriter and a pretty good director. Up until Heist, every film he has helmed has been, at best, a beautiful mess. Actors often have trouble dealing with Mamet's frenetic dialogue--it's reflected in performances that often look like the verbal equivalent of a seizure. Basically, making Mamet come to life is as much as an art form as Mamet's writing. Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon accomplished it in Glengarry Glen Ross--these two highly talented actors, with their own tics, were able to assimilate the dialogue into their performances, creating masterful work. They were the exception to the Mamet-rule.
(11/16/01 5:00am)
If Oprah had a movie club, Life as a House would be a must-see. It has all the elements of one of her book picks--contrived laughs, silly animals, teary-eyed women, troubled teens, etc. The only thing about this movie that deserves four stars is its shamelessness in trying to turn on your water-works.
(11/13/01 5:00am)
He's baaaaack. Hide under your desks, put away your butterfly ballots, cover your children's ears from the droning sound of James Baker--pregnant chad is back in the headlines.
(11/09/01 5:00am)
Monsters, Inc., the new computer-animated film from the kids at Disney and Pixar, has humor and heart to spare. The film does not break any new ground or make a dramatic leap in computer-animation technology--instead it relies on more conventional methods to dazzle its audience--sight gags, sound gags and the vocal talents of a gifted comedian (Billy Crystal).
(11/09/01 5:00am)
After watching her breathtaking, edgy performance in My First Mister, one wonders what Leelee Sobieski is doing wasting her energies on the teen-movie circuit. When they eventually hand Sobieski an Oscar twenty years from now, there will no doubt be retroactive critical praise for the work she did when she was young. That praise should start with My First Mister.
(11/02/01 5:00am)
By the time Fernando, the protagonist of Barbet Schroeder's new film Our Lady of the Assassins closes the window blinds that overlook the city of Medell'n, Colombia, we realize that the real main character of the film is not the protagonist, but the city itself. Medell'n is a hopeless, hellhole of a metropolis--very much representative of a nation that has been torn first by civil wars and more recently by the uncivil war on drugs.
(11/02/01 5:00am)
On Sunday, barring anthrax, small pox, terrorism, retaliation or giant asteroid, the 2001 Emmy Awards will take place in Los Angeles. The original Sept. 16 telecast was canceled in the wake of the terrorist attacks, the Oct. 7 dressed-down, two-city-simulcast effort was canceled because we began bombing Afghanistan. If for some reason they prematurely roll-up the red carpet on Sunday, let's hope, for the sake of host Ellen Degeneres and CBS, the producers decide to go the way of the Latin Grammys and hand out the damn awards at a press conference.
(11/02/01 5:00am)
In 1995, when Garbage's self-titled first album mixed a post-grunge sound with heavy metal chords and lead singer Shirley Manson's sensual, intimidating voice, the result was a fresh and logical deviation from the earl '90s. It was one of those albums that got better with age.
(10/30/01 5:00am)
Is there any wonder why the media's honeymoon with the Bush administration is over?
(10/26/01 4:00am)
Last week, in response to numerous NCAA rule-violation allegations regarding University of Kentucky football, the Kentucky athletic department set up a special toll-free number, 1-866-275-CATS, to call with information regarding past and current violations in all varsity sports.
