Cry-Baby (1990)
“I wonder what the nice people are doing tonight.” –Dana Andrews, in While the City Sleeps Director John Waters isn’t noted for making movies about what nice people are doing. He’s got a bit of the crazed, slicked-down, pencil-thin mustache look Ray Bradbury likely had in mind for Mr. Dark, ringmaster of the demonic […]
Chungking Express (1932)
“Somehow everything comes with an expiry date. Swordfish expire. Meat sauce expires. Even cling film expires. Is there anything in the world which doesn’t?” –Badge No. 223, in Chungking Express I think Trout Fishing in America Shorty would have felt right at home in Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express (1994). Shorty was a […]
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
–“Are you happy?” –“I’m not unhappy.” If you haven’t seen Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and this review piques your interest, I’ve got a little favour to ask of you: Hold off on making any critical judgements until you’ve been watching for at least fifteen minutes or so. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a […]
All Night Long (1981)
BEN, giving great weight to each word, and with a certain vicious audacity: William, when I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out I was twenty-one. And, by God, I was rich! He goes off into darkness around the right corner of the house. WILLY: …was rich! That’s just the spirit […]
Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996), directed by Uli Edel
Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966), directed by Don Sharp
“If there had been no Rasputin, there would have been no Lenin.” –Alexander Kerenskey, Premier of the short-lived Provisional Government that followed the overthrow of the Tsar As a kid, I don’t think I ever tried arguing that going to schlocky horror films on Saturday nights was somehow furthering my education. Even I wouldn’t have […]
The Wings of the Dove (1997)
‘Fess up. When was the last time you actually read a Henry James novel? Even if you’re a fan of Great Dead White Authors, and we’re by no means a dying breed, odds are there aren’t a lot of readers of this column nodding their heads at this moment, saying, “Whoa! I stayed up for […]
Liberty Heights (1999)
Sylvia’s father: “Shouldn’t you be getting out [of the car]?” Ben: “It’s Sinatra [on the radio]. You don’t walk out on Frank, Sir. It would be too disrespectful.” Barry Levinson’s Liberty Heights (1999) is great example of a “Is the glass half empty or is the glass half full?” film. It’s a movie about race and […]
Abre los ojos [Open Your Eyes] (1997)
If we have enjoyment, suffering, and birth in dreams, what about death?….What if you dream you have killed somebody? You may become upset and say to yourself, “I have done all this practice but here in my dream I have killed somebody!” This could be a positive dream. If the individual you killed was a […]
Cabaret (1972)
“And I made a rural pen, And I stain’d the water clear, And I wrote my happy songs Every child may joy to hear.” ***** “ The Human Dress is forged Iron, The Human Form a fiery Forge, The Human Face a Furnace seal’d, The Human Heart its hungry Gorge.” –from William Blake’s Songs of […]
Comic Book Confidential (1988)
“I always felt I was involved in a literary form. I had literary pretensions. I was a frustrated writer, and a frustrated artist. I took my two ineptitudes and by combining them created an eptitude.” –Will Eisner, creator of The Spirit comic book “Badly drawn, badly written, and badly printed—a strain on the young eyes […]