A few years ago I wrote in a review that in an age of fatwahs and culture wars, I was reluctant to the point of refusal to use the word “immoral” when describing a film. I tend to shy away from the word “offensive” for opposite but corollary reasons.
In soccer (or football, as the non-American world stubbornly persists in calling it), there is a rule that states that an offensive player must have at least one defensive player between him and the goal (not including the goalie) when a pass is made. If an individual advances too far, too quickly, he is called offside, and play is momentarily suspended.
If I had watched Gun Crazy (a.k.a. Deadly is the Female) a year ago...well, okay, I would not have watched it a year ago, but if I had, I doubt I would have gotten past the first ten minutes.
I'm not sure if I am the first or only person to approach Homemade Hillbilly Jam as an auteur piece, but given the success of Rick Minnich's later film, Forgetting Dad, I don't think I'll be the last.
If George Falconer (Colin Firth) lacks some of the more obvious self-loathing qualities that normally mark period, gay protagonists, the film he occupies still has a chaste, skittish quality about it that feels a little dated in the post-Brokeback world
I'll give Peter Jackson this. He is the type of director who, when he sees a brick wall coming at him at 90 miles an hour, is not afraid to hit the accelerator.
The average person, even if he or she is an avid cinephile, really sees a very small percentage of the films released every year.
These films reflect my favorite experiences of the year in cinema. I also think they are very good.
I've been putting off writing about Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, mostly, I suppose because I'm having a hard time describing and justifying my strong antipathy, first to the novel Push on which the film is based and now to the film itself. Perhaps I fear that if I can't justify it, others will assume justifications for me
It is to the credit of Me and Orson Welles that it managed to make me nostalgic for those days while reminding me why I grew to move on from them. It is the best film I've seen about the theater life (and make no mistake, it is about the theater and not the film community). Its pleasures and its insights into human relations are not depended on an historic interest in Welles or the Mercury Theater, although it works on that level, too, I suppose.
