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topEve Ensler's Vagina Monologues***/ truly moved me. I saw a movie a few years ago, called Dicks, which in typical, male fashion was all these big ole schlongs. It was gross and disgusting and rude. Not an emotion the whole flick. The monologues are feminine in very much the opposite way. They're funny, heart-warming, real. And throughout, the actual monologues in front of an audience are interspersed and introduced by real people talking about their own and their own experiences with their vaginas. Shocking too, I suppose, and blunt, but never crass, never rude, always... well, human. 2002
The Velvet Goldmine** is a strange film about the Ziggy Stardust glam glitter music era. It's dark, gloomy, full of brooding tragic figures and music written recently to sound like David Bowie, et al. A near miss. NS
Sometimes in a movie ya gotta figure out whether you want to watch superb acting, no matter how slow the movie is. In Vera Drake***/, I fast forwarded through a bunch of it. Too slow to hold my attention. That after holding back from watching it for nearly a week, because someone told me it was sad. It was sad. But it was so painfully slow in revealing its sadness, that I didn't care and just wanted to get it over. Oh, yeah. It's a true tragedy — at the U of Dallas I learned that means what the lead characher does entitles them to what they get in the end. Not sure I'd agree that an abortionist who doesn't charge for her services, but does it for the good of the women involved, deserves to go to jail. But Vera never seems to let on that she even knew it were possible.
Videodrome**/ was weird, and must have been all the more so in 1985. David Cronenberg is usually more organized and more dedicated to the story and the humane telling than here. It reminded me of Naked Lunch (which Croneberg also did) for its hallucinations and Max Headroom for the power of video. Truly strange.
There's a case to be made that The Village***/ is a science fiction movie with little science but one, great, idea that involves a lot of fiction both in front of and behind the cameras. This intensely fearful plot is set in a time and place of innocence, where fear serves good and evil. It's spooky from the start. Eerie, yet benevolent, quirky and humane and not entirely credible. But close.
The Virgin Suicides**** is sumptiously beautiful, with a quiet, Hanging Rock sensuality in vivid color with rich characterizations. It's a sensitive teen... well, not quite love — maybe lust — story... Complex, intelligent, truly oddball casting and a story that almost works. This often luscious flick has the flavor of an indie with a Hollywood cast and an almost just-right story that just misses explaining why the girls did it. The kids are the real treat here, and they're intelligently rendered. Maybe this movie that not-so-neatly sidesteps the actual suicides, is just not violent enough for a teen suicide flick... 2000
Visions of Light***/ is a wonderful compilation of movie history's great technical visual leaps forward with lots of intelligent movie fan experts and a fascinating, chronological collection of clips from each. Now I've got a great, long list of even more movies worth seeing.
W I wanted a good laugh, maybe several. So I visited Wag The Dog**. It was sarcastic, sardonic and thought-provoking. But it wasn't much for laughing. This movie is a great play. Too theatric and not real enough for a movie. And the end is stupid.
After Basic Instincts, Neil and I started identifying the endings of way too many movies as "Basically It Stinks" endings. Wag has one of those. Sometimes directors can't figure a good enough bang to go out on, so they kill off somebody who doesn't need killing. Or they leave a knife under the bed just to confuse us, when the audience is already confused enough about what's really going on. Oh, it's funny enough, but with these actors, it coulda been great. And it's not. 1998Waking Life**** may well be the only existential animation you will ever see. It's both terribly intellectual and a spoof on that sort of thing. The visuals are also unlike any animated movie you've ever seen. The characters move, of course, but so does everything else. The effect is truly dream-like, as is the "plot." Strange, wonderful, subtly fantastical, goofy and intriguingly intellectual things happen in this flick. When I saw it, the audience was spell-bound. Lots of smart laughs and plenty of food for thought. This is one of those all-time amazing movies. 2001
The only thing surprising about the geezer flick Waking Ned Divine*** is the wild ending. Otherwise it was pretty much what I expected. No new way of seeing, no real discoveries, no grand ideas or intimate understandings. It's just cute, fun and funny with characters I grew to appreciate and a wicked understanding of justice. 1999
Waking The Dead**/ is a terrible moniker to stick on this Lost Love flick about a ambitious young politician with no ideals who fell in love with a smarter woman with high ideals and little ambition. An indie whose story really needed the deleted scenes to explain it. 2001
Walk The Line*** was okay for a biopic. I never once believed River Phoneix was Johnny Cash or Reese Witherspoon was June Carter like I often believed Ray Charles was Ray Charles in that other movie that year. Not once. It was mildly informative, and I liked Miss Witherspoon's character, whoever she was, but thought they smoothed over Cash's many issues, and I was a big fan from his beginning.
It didn't help that the Netflix version I saw kept freezing at every exciting moment, but War of the Worlds** doesn't make much sense, is hackneyed, predictable and mostly stupid. If science fiction movies don't make the audience think, wouldn't it be okay if the characters did?
The War Room**** was outstanding, foreshadowing many of the awful and glorious truths of the last administration. I'll want to see it again in another couple of years.
Warriors of Virtue** sounded great, had about a dozen plot lines strung in the air. Only a few connected — not nearly enough. Great heroes — Kung Foo Kangas called "Roos." Goofy flick, smarmy music, worth missing. 1997
Strangely coincidental that Heights and the last DVD I watched, Tim Roth's War Zone,*** both were set in craggy, mysterious moors. Zone is unsimilarly dark and moody. Creepily malevolent, it stars two children who've never acted before in a movie about incest, which it portrays graphically. Oddly, American Beauty's director mentioned his original intent to blame that film's murder on 'the kids.' In this movie, the kids really do it.
Washington Square***/— I'd see Jennifer Jason Leigh in anything, but she'd been being the same in way too many movies last few years. Here she's different, superb. Solid story of overprotective father, meddling "mom," idealistic suiter and a daughter caught in the middle. Outstanding cast, beautiful cinematography, terrific tension. Wow. 1997
Watership Down***/ is a fierce and exquisitely beautiful, annimated, unDisney story for children and adults about rabbits on the run. 2003
Where is The Weather Underground***/ now that we really need them? I had low expectations, but learned a lot about who, how, why and what they shoulda done. Talking heads mixed well with historical footage. These folks were the principles. Fascinating. 2006
Welcome to the Doll's House **** gets all the stars for the vicious belly laughs you'll have, and will feel guilty about having, but won't be able to restrain. Refuses to portray as victim the little nerd girl ( Dawn Weiner aka Weiner Dog ). Great sendup of adolescent male sex gods. Good performances from all the kid actors. Check out Dawn's brother. Don't miss it.— Contributed by James Dolan PS: Jim obviously liked it immensely, but I thought it was junior high dumb. 1996
Whale Rider***/ is about a 12-year-old girl who battles her stauncly Male Chauvinist Pig of a grandfather for her rightful place as chief of a Maori tribe. Well acted. Colorfully filmed on gorgeous location, though there's nothing innovative about the cinematography. Except for the healthy dose of mysticism, it could have been mangled by Hollywood. These filmmakers, however, made it fly.
What Dreams May Come***/ is an incredible, surrealistic journey of the soul. Special effects are truly fantastic. It's very intelligent and requires intelligence of the audience, which may be why the critics didn't get it. What I still remember is all the wet textures so densely presented in this great but under appreciated film. It's a strange new view of heaven and hell and earth. 1998
It sounded like the real title, and the previews were full of moist imagery, so I started calling it "Wet Dreams" weeks before I saw it, and the movie itself is brim full of wetness — rain, lakes, oceans, hoses-squirting, wet paint — What Dreams May Come**** is pretty wonderful. Surreal all over the place. Serious, intelligent — tells the story in motion in pictures without explaining things in words. Fabulous special effects without anything blowing up or chasing in cars. Odd. Strange. Utterly bizarre. But human and touching. Very romantic. NS but incredibly visual. Luscious. 1998
Whatever**/ is slow-paced and oddly elegant. Along the way are intriguing characters, fine acting and a blatant teenaged moral tacked onto the end. The images I still have a week later are teen girls funneling beer down their throats and, finishing without gagging, flashing two-fisted V for victory signs, all proud and ego-centric; the opening CU of Brenda disinterestedly carrying on a monotone conversation, her body bobbing as she endures sex with yet another guy and carries on a conversation with her best friend; and a kitchen full of guys spitting wads of phlegm into a cup on a $20 bet some guy will drink it — he did. The title is perfect, the subjects creepy. The film, memorable. Lotta Sex. 1998
I wasn't prepared to be blown away by a documentary movie about a women's writing program in a maximum security prison. What I Want My Words to Do to You**** snuck up and whomped me. It's got real stars from Hollywood who perform the stories the women, who've all got 15, 20 or 25 to life sentences, usually for murder, wrote. But this movie is about the women who confront who they are and what they did, learn from it and become somebody new. Each episode follows giving the assignment, talking about it, the women reading their words, then snippets of the star performance. Simple, powerful, fierce. Full of psychology and reality inside the walls. Wow.
What Planet Are You From**** may be a perfect little movie. No grand anythings here. Its premise is fairly simple. It's execution is nearly ideal. Grander scope would only have muddied the waters. This is a clear, sweet gem. Funny from almost the very beginning. It's about human relationships from a simple alien's view. Gary Shandling and Annette Benning are superb, so's Jeanine Garafalo, Ghandi and everybody else in this quiet wonder. 2000
We finally saw What The Bleep***/ and almost every minute of it reminded me deeply of Waking Life ****, whose animation is quirkier and more original — and whose subplot story is ever more intriguing and, of course, original. Bleep was plenty thoughtful, entertaining and informative and fascinating, though a little slow till the rock 'n roll started. Waking was more surreal, although I never heard of discussion groups for it, though it richly deserves that much thining and rethinking. Still, Bleep is not bad for such a direct rip, and its science was stirring, and Waking had not moral (to its great benefit).
What Women Want**/'s previews were better than the movie. In the former, the co star says "crotch," but in the actual movie, she says "penis." In the previews, the concept is paramount. In the movie, it gets lost. The previews are sprightly, intriguing and very funny. The movie is much less so. The actual plot is more classic light comedy — the plot is contrived and obvious if not entirely stupid. A lot — but not all — the dialog is dull, the action is eminently predictable and the characters are thin. Even worse, this movie seems to attract bozos who can't stop talking out loud all through the flick. 2000
When The Sky Falls*** apparently began life as When Heaven Falls, but somebody musta complained, so they changed it to this minor key title. Quasi documentary of a woman journalist who gets killed for writing about mobsters in run-amuk Dublin. Interesting characters, okay drama, nice other glimpse of Joan Allen, whom I'm coming to truly appreciate. 2001
When We Were Kings***/is combination music fest and fight documentary. Shakey organizing principle, intriguing look into 23 years ago. Great for Mohamad Alli. One of the better docs. The mostly white audience applauded at the end. 1997
I hadn't been reviewing the movies I've seen lately. I still see several a week — thanks to NetFlix trying to run its competition into the ground, it's cheaper than ever, and I'm taking big advantage of their movie wars against the evil Blockbuster (who censors the movies they rent, though they don't tell you that.) and other upstart competitors. I hope they win.
Then along comes the experimental When Will I Be Loved***/. Shot in 12 days then edited in 18 months, this is yet another one of those awful orange movies where flesh is rendered as flesh colors but everything else sucks orange in otherwise a fabulous little experiment of a movie. Film, actually, of the first order. Much of it is improvised, and all of it, once we figure out where the quite separate lines that are crosscut throughout the long beginning is going, is fascinating.
Richly visual (in more ways than the insipid orange) and richly storied, with lots of amazing, offbeat and truly quirky characters (Mike Tyson playing Buck, the pimp from Minnesota) flashing by. The film, once it gets going, fairly flashes by. At end, I thought it could only have been a couple of minutes but a whole 81 minutes had flickered by.
The story is selling the costar's girlfriend to a rich Italian for a million bucks for sex, explores fathoms deeper than Woody Harleson's earlier attempt, this is deep and psychological film and story. Excellent. Wow.
Where's The Money?*** is a barely adequate Paul Newman heist flick. Mildly amusing, largely predictable, hardly memorable. I saw it because of Paul, but there's more of his presence in his spaghetti sauce. Not enough S. 2000
While the Cat's Away*** is, essentially, the story of a woman seeking her cat in what seems like the small town of Paris, France. But that's not all she's looking for, of course. And what she finds is more joy than a cat can supply. But, of course, there's more than that in this easy-going film with love and not much romance and no violence. Cinematography's superb and the plot is simple, with lots of intriguingly normal characters. I loved the running scene at the end, all a flurry of joy and movement. 1997
Whisper of the Heart**** gets a little strange when they keep singing "Kuntly Loads" in Japanese, but otherwise a superb example of contemporary anime. It's a teen romance with gentle, realistic characters of all ages for all ages, with a special feeling for visualizing light and traffic.
White Noise**** goes way past spooky. It's disturbing. In clear, sharp cinematography, rich, real colors (except the EVP scenes, which, like remote viewing, tend to be in grainy black & white). Another supposedly varifiable, beyond kind of phenomenon. This time it's EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon), what you sometimes get when you leave a radio on between stations, or take a tape recorder into a haunted house and ask questions of the silence, then take it home and play it back, maybe with some computer audio enhancers. That's kinda what Michael Keaton gets obsessive compulsive about doing in this movie after his wife dies, and what a pair of investigators do in the inevitable special feature. I remain skeptical of the phenomenon, but the movie was a grabber, and a repeated shaker. I shook.
It probably would have seemed a lot funnier if I'd seen it with an audience full of people, but The Whole Nine Yards*** was very so what. A week later, I don't remember anything about it. 2000
I remembered Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf**** as a gleeful, repartee-filled conversation. But I remembered wrong. It is wildly intelligent, quick and deadly. And even fun, in a demented, torturous, word-smithing and relationship-murdering way. It's a memorable movie, one of the all-time great conversation flicks, and Mike Nichols' first directorial outtng. But there's little joy in this modern ( but not contemporary ) American masterpiece. The acting is incredible, utterly superb, although it's pretty obvious all the way through that this movie is a thinly disguised stage play.
Remember the madcap 30s movies when characters made near-miss passes down long hallways, casually ducking into a room just as another important character we all knew they just had to meet passed by the door in the nick of time not to? Wicker Park**** is like that, only no madcap. In fact, serious, a little spooky, dark.
A little Single White Female identity stealing mixed with more than a little Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind chrono-illogic, it is purposeful misdirection almost all through, with character and identity and place and time misdirection throwing us into repeating loops.
Every motion, scene, character, situation is rendered in rich color, luscious composition, spectacularly visual jig-saw puzzling cinnematography, befitting a movie about a photographer. Careful, intelligent. I have to see it again. And again.
Wild America** is a goofy movie "based on fact." It could have been an intelligent adventure of three brothers growing up to become superb wildlife documntarians. Instead, it's stupid, with too many insipid subplots. 1997
Wild Things** was eminently forgettable. I remember hating it, but I can't remember anything at all about the film, except there weren't nearly enough naked women. 1998
William Eggleston, Photographer**/ and Henri Cartier-Bresson* can easily be placed in the Ho-hum Department. The former does show us this strange guy's droll personality well enough, but it goes on and on to little effect, except to show us his amazingly droll (but stellar, sometimes simplicity is an artistic, if not a human, joy) photographs, which are better enjoyed in a book at the library or bookstore. Same for Cartier-Bresson, which is a better and better known photographer, but the movie is a complete bore.
Winged Migration
Le Peuple Migration**** is utterly unique, superb, fantastic, astounding. I've admired birds most of my life and am just beginning to know them. This amazing movie follows migrating birds all over the world, with an emphasis on gorgeous scenery and bizarre bird behaviors. We don't just see them take off and land and fly away. In this movie, we fly along with them. No special effects or animation, however, the camera actually flies along with them via Ultra Light aircraft, etc. The How It Was Made featurette is — like the movie itself — wordless, fascinating and gorgeous. 2003
Wings of The Dove***/ was elegant. 1998
I remember being amazed how good the characters and story was in The Winslow Boy****.
Hmmm. I can't remember Wit***/, except it had to do with John Donne's poetry and I liked that a lot, probably mostly because of that. Reminds me I should write these reviews immediately after seeing the flick or it's gone forever.
Two very intelligent, quirky character movies in a row. First, there's High Fidelity:
The other is older but more intelligent, witty and quirkily funny. About writing and various blocks, Wonder Boys***/. was more complex, less cinnematically unique and more literal. I'd love to see either or both again. They'd make a great double feature. 2000
The Woodsman***/ is a dark, little movie about torment, with a feathered hint of redemption. Its darkness lies in our collective dread, while we turn our thinking around the baddest of the bad, the men who prey on children. It is, of course, also about sex and love, mirrored in the noir of us thinking around this forboding subject. The adult sex scenes with Kyra Sedgwick reflect and parallel the mood, quick cut, chiaroscuro. The screenplay is deep and intelligent. Kevin Bacon is amazing, subtle, reserved. Robin, the little girl in the park, is an oddly juxtaposed triumph.
The World's Fastest Indian**** is a delight. About an 67-year-old Aussie (Anthony Hopkins) who wants to go fast. And does. Mild, never wild, adventures and a traveler's interesting collection of friends along the way. 2006
A Wrinkle in Time** starts off affably cosmic then gets lost in space. Eventually we learn they're talking about a wrinkle in space, not time, at all. By then, the hooey has piled so hight we don't want to remember anything about this goofy flick. Oh, well.
Wuthering Heights**** is my mother's favorite movie; I ordered it from the internet for her Christmas, but they were out, and I found it locally (cheaper). I didn't expect to like it, but it amazed me, triumphing the test of time. Enchanting, maddening, wildly romantic. A story stuck in its own (1939) time, to be sure, with its sudden and labyrinthine mood changes, plot twists and changes of fortune. A superior triangle (quadrangle?) of love, anger, revenge and haunting in "classic black & white." I didn't even notice the lack of color. I was only sorry this fine movie was pan and scanned out of its original, wider aspect into TV's squarish frame. Larry Oliver, David Niven and Geraldine Fitzgerald are magnificent. +
X X-Files**/, the movie is pretty good. Of course, it has to end with Scully and Mulder and their lifeswork intact, so we can go on watching the TV show, but it's pretty spiffy a movie, too. Little bit bigger ideas and much bigger spaces and more expensive special effects than on TV, but XF-ers will recognize most of the characters, situations and setups, it's all just a lot grander and prettier. 1998
Y
Y tu Mama Tambien**** is a sad sweet coming of age for the two boys, escape for the young woman, and a road trip to a place the boys made up to get the woman to go along on their road trip. It's about friendship and fidelity and sex and relationships. It is very sexy in actions and words with male frontal and female upper frontal nudity. And visually and sneakily and almost subtly it is also about the beauty and the brutality of life and Mexican politics and its people. (In Spanish with English subtitles.)
Yes**** is astonishing, like nothing else. Luscious verbal and visual love story and character, all in beautiful color, nearly surreal cinematography spoken throughout in iambic pentameter, poetry, rhyming all the way through, though it's never bothersome. Something new. Something amazing. 2004
You've Got Mail**/ is sappy Hollywood "drama." Completely predictable, every step of the way. Prepare to be smarmed. 1998
Z Zero Effect**** was astounding. I love learn-it-all detective flicks, where some genius figures out everything by the end but still manages to stay ahead of the bad guys and everybody else. This is one of those movies that combines an especially daring plotline with an amazing, totally unpredictable story that switches back like an Alpine roadway. Every step is a logical, intelligent extension of what we learn along with ace detective Daryl Zero and his faithful sidekick, yet we're constantly surprised — maybe even amazed — at how it plays out. Great, quirky characters, a smart and emotional love interest, and a whoodunwhat like never before seen on the big screen — although there's a big helping of Sherlock Holmes in the mix. Nice enough a flick I'm keeping it to watch a couple more times. I've even contemplated buying it, and there just aren't very many movies I'd want to see more than twice.