Living in Oblivion (1995)
“Anyone know where the camera truck is parked?” –overheard on the set of Living in Oblivion It’s fitting that this month’s review of Living in Oblivion hits the newsstands shortly after the Sundance Film Festival will have introduced audiences to the newest wave of independent films. The director of Living in Oblivion, Tom DiCillo, would […]
Swing Kids (1993)
“For it is an affair of the State…to prevent a people from being driven into the arms of spiritual lunacy…Everywhere we meet germs that represent the beginning of excrescences by which our culture is bound to perish sooner or later…Woe to the nations which are no longer able to master this disease!” –Adolf Hitler, Mein […]
Withnail & I (1987)
“I loathe those Russian plays, all full of women staring out of windows, whining about ducks going to Moscow.” —Withnail, in Withnail and I What a bunch of wankers. I’m talking about a certain sub-genre of recent British cinema, of course. Has any national cinema come up with a more sordid lot of human beings […]
The Education of Little Tree (1997)
A cabin in the mountains above Anahim Lake. An old man is sitting on his porch, talking to his grandson: Old Man: “These are sad times, boy. Things started going downhill when that interferin’ Queen Victoria of England decided to poke her nose into our business. She sent out that traitor John A. Macdonald to […]
The Babe (1992)
Watching Arthur Hiller’s The Babe (1992) for the second time, I had an epiphany. Now, epiphanies are never things to be taken lightly, but they are particularly welcome when Mainstreet deadlines loom. The first time I saw Hiller’s tribute to Babe Ruth, I was deeply moved by it. That was months ago, and off and […]
Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)
WARNING!! This month’s movie was the work of the same people responsible for the either brilliant or extremely annoying My Dinner With Andre (1981). Do not let this affect your judgment. “The Russian forests are groaning under the ax, millions of trees are being destroyed, the dwellings of wild beasts and birds are despoiled, rivers […]
Solaris (1972)
[Author’s Note: If you’ve never seen Solaris, I strongly recommend you read nothing about the film before you watch it. Enter Tarkovsky’s world with no preconceptions. It worked for me, and I wish you the same exhilarating discombobulation.] “Insane? That would be a relief.” Pop quiz. There were two great science fiction films made in […]
Burnt by the Sun (1994)
“Die in silence.” The biggest danger facing any revolutionary is found within the literal meaning of the word itself: to revolve is to go around in a complete circle. The Young Turks write their manifestos and march out against the enemy with slogans in their heads and bayonets on their rifles. By the time the […]
The Whole Wide World (1996)
Growing up, everyone burns a few bridges. Sometimes the fire’s deliberate, sometimes it’s not. The wrong gesture, the words said or unsaid, the letter never mailed, the kiss taken or refused. If we’re standing on solid ground, we can watch those bridges burn with a deep sense of satisfaction, or relief, or nothing more, perhaps, […]
Microcosmos: People of the Grass (1996)
Video Available on Bing Video I can take a hint. Having grudgingly allowed me to exceed my allotted number of column-inches in last month’s paper, the editors of the Mainstreet threatened me with legal action if I ever did it again. I’m sure that with the passage of time they’ll return to being their usual […]