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Lew's Earlier Movie Reviews

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A Mighty Wind

****

Not as funny as Best in Show, but still very good.  Christopher Guest has carved out a unique niche - the documentary style parody.  The story line here is a reunion of folk groups popular in the 60's.  The movie is at its best when the characters stick to what the real life people they are portraying would do and say.  When they go over the top, the comedy loses some of its bite. (2003)

     

About a Boy

***½

Entertaining star turn for Hugh Grant.  Lots of good laughs and a new child star who won't make you retch.  Toni Collette does the best she can with a character difficult to play with a straight face. (2002)

     
About Schmidt ****

A tour de force for Jack Nicholson.  He portrays a mid-westerner who seems to have it all as he heads into retirement.  But when his world is upset, he takes off in his RV to seek redemption.  Kathy Bates as a gracelessly aging flower child is something to see (literally). (2002)

     

The Accidental Tourist

**½

I enjoyed Anne Tyler's novel better than its screen adaptation.  William Hurt plays a travel writer who has to choose between his ex-wife, Kathleen Turner, who wants a reconciliation, and his dog's trainer, played by Geena Davis, who wants a father for her son.  It would have been a no-brainer for me - Kathleen Turner - but Hurt's character is pretty indecisive.  (1988)

The Agronomist

****½

Powerful documentary about Jean Dominique, a Haitian agronomist who purchased a radio station and became a national hero by exposing a series of corrupt governments.  Exiled twice to the U.S., he returned in 2000 only to be gunned down in front of the station by an unidentified assassin.  Unforgettable. (2003)

Amelie

The reviewer in the Houston Chronicle gave Amelie an A+ rating. Consequently, I give the reviewer a D- rating.  This import from France is long, boring,cutesy, and pretentious.   There are some mildly funny bits, but on the whole, pardon my French, the picture is "merde de cheval".  (2001)
     

American Splendor

***½

The story of Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner, two of the oddest misfits ever seen on the screen.  The real Harvey and Joyce make frequent cameo appearances throughout, giving the whole film a surrealistic feel.  This one raises the bar on nerdism in film. (2003)

An Inconvenient Truth

****

Like him or not, you have to respect Al Gore for devoting his life to what he believes is service to mankind instead of joining the corporate board / honorarium circuit.  He has devoted his energies to alerting an indifferent  world to the dangers of global warming.  He might just succeed.  This documentary is in essence a slide show explaining in lay terms the causes and effects of putting increasing quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.  It could have boring but it isn't.  The movie informs, bur also entertains.  Gore has given this presentation over a hundred times but hasn't lost his enthusiasm for it.  The data he presents are impressive, and Gore is a surprisingly effective presenter.  However he takes some gratuitous potshots at the current administration and the oil companies which some may find amusing, but unfortunately detract from his primary message.  Too bad. (2006)

     

The Aristocrats

*

Here's the premise:  Invite 100 comedians to tell their version of the same dirty joke.  The joke goes something like this - A guy goes to a talent agent and says he has a great act.  He then describes in great detail the most outrageous sexual and scatological acts imaginable involving the guy's family. When the agent asks the guy what he calls his act, he says The Aristocrats.  Ostensibly professional comedians find this joke hilarious.  I didn't even find it mildly amusing.

Aviator

****

Leonardo Di Caprio does an excellent job in this story about the life of Howard Hughes.  Unfortunately, as the movie progresses, Hughes ages, but Leonardo doesn't.  He looks 30 at the beginning of the film which was Hughes' age in the mid 1930's, but as the film moves down the track 20 years or so, Leonardo still looks 30.  The supporting cast is solid.  Alan Alda does a fine job as an aging Senator from Maine.  The real strength of the movie is its balanced and accurate portrayal of one of America's great innovators. (2004)

     

Bad Education

***

Almodovar's latest effort is a tale about a gay love/lust triangle between a priest, and two of his 10 year old students, that continues, on and off, into adulthood.  Gael Garcia Bernal stars in this film that will not be shown at the Vatican film festival. (2004)

Basquiat

***½

An off-beat biopic about Jean-Michel Basquiat, who took the art world by storm in the eighties before dying of a drug overdose at the age of 28.  Another phenomenal performance by Jeffrey Wright who has yet to get the recognition he deserves.  The supporting cast is first class, and include David Bowie as Andy Warhol, Basquiat's friend and mentor. (1996)

Before Sunset

****½

This is an intelligent film about a man and woman who meet in Paris after a  a brief encounter nine years earlier.  At first they talk in abstractions, but as the movie unfolds they probe what has happened since their last one night stand.  There is a feeling throughout that these aren't actors, but real people letting you in on their most intimate moments.  The movie is actually a sequel to one called Before Sunrise, which is the story of their first encounter.  Blockbuster, here we come. (2004)

Being Julia

***

This is an adoption of a Somerset Maughm story about an aging actress who falls for a much younger man.  Annette Bening copped an Oscar nomination for her work in this beautifully filmed picture.  She does a better job with the British accent here then she did in Richard III.  Veteran actor Michael Gambon is a delight as Bening's mentor. (2004)

Bend it like Beckham

***½

Monsoon Wedding meets Personal Best.  Very enjoyable, albeit predictable coming-of-age generation-conflict movie.  (2002)

     

Benny and Joon

***

This is a truly odd movie.  Benny (Aidan Quinn) is an auto mechanic who works to support himself and his sister Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson), an artist who is mentally unstable.  Things get complicated when Benny is forced to assume care for Sam (Johnny Depp), the off-center nephew of one of Benny's poker partners.  Sam, a latter day Buster Keaton, and Joon fall for each other.  Benny's mishandling of this situation turns out badly, but all is well at the end.  Good performances especially by Depp make the movie enjoyable even though the plot line is a little thin. (1993)

     

The Big Lebowski

****

Like The Rocky Horror Picture Shoe, Lebowski has become a cult classic still playing midnights at the art house theaters.  Jeff Bridges shines as Lebowsi, a lazy doper stuck in the 60's, but  John Goodman steals the show as a foul-mouthed orthodox Jew who is on the Lebowski's bowling team.  The Coen brothers strike again. (1998)

The Birds

***

Having just returned from Bodega Bay we thought it was time to revisit this Alfred Hitchcock classic.  Although the movie is dated it is still watchable.  Hitchcock was a real pioneer in special effects.  Some of the effects in The Birds may seem a little crude by today's standards, but most still look very good and they make the movie.  The dialogue  and the acting are.... well the special effects are very good. (1963)

Black Dahlia

*½

Hilary Swank is OK but just abut everyone else in this putative film noir is either miscast, misdirected or just plain bad.  My ** category (coming soon to HBO) had this kind of film in mind. I really liked Scarlett Johasson in Lost in Translation, but this one isn't going to look good on her resume. James Elroy is a pretty interesting writer but something got lost in the translation from book to screen in this one. (2006)

     

Blue Diner

***½

You may have to go to a film festival to see this one.  It's a low-budget film about Latinos living in Boston.  Good performances all around, and a story that keeps your interest.  Could be on HBO or PBS next year, so look for it if you're off the festival circuit. (2001)

     

Bon Voyage

**½

The scene is France in 1942 as the Germans are sweeping across the country.  Isabel Adjani is a movie star who uses her looks to get what she needs from a number of men including Gerard Depardieu, a prominent cabinet minister.  Moderately funny, but something may have been lost in the subtitling.   (2003)

Born Into Brothels

****

A young photojournalist named Zana Briski moves into Calcutta's red light district to study the lives of the women who ply their trade there.  She is soon captivated by the sex workers' children, who are surprisingly bright and upbeat.  The children, aged 10 to 12 are given cameras and photography lessons.  Within a short time, they are turning out many noteworthy pictures.  Briski, fighting the Indian bureaucracy all the way, get some of the kids placed in top private schools, where they have a chance to escape the cycle of poverty and degradation into which they were born.  A recent article in the N.Y. Times reports that several of the children are still doing well.  This is an uplifting documentary. (2004)

     

Bourne Supremacy

*½

We sat through the first 45 minutes and then gave up.  This is so implausible that it is almost funny.  Maybe it got better as the show went on, but I doubt it. (2004)

 

   

Bringing Down the House

***

Not a great movie, but plenty of laughs when Steve Martin and Eugene Levy are on screen.  (2003)

     

Broken Flowers

****

Make no mistake, this is an odd movie.  The premise is that Don Johnston (Bill Murray) receives an anonymous note from one of his old girlfriends telling him that he is the father of a nineteen year old son.  His best friend and next-door neighbor Winston, played to perfection by the fabulous Jeffrey Wright is an amateur sleuth.  He is fascinated by the note and arranges a road trip for Johnston to try to track down the mother. He finds four of the women, all of whom are baffled by his re-entry into their lives after a twenty year absence.  All are good, but Sharon Stone is the best.  There are long stretches of Bill Murray staring blankly off in space, giving the film a decidedly slow pace.  Awkward conversations exacerbate the deadly pace.  If you are into character development, you will like this one.  If action is your thing, give it a miss. (2005)

Bus 174

***

In this documentary, carried live on TV in Brazil, a young man holds several women hostage on a bus on a busy street in Rio de Janeiro.  The police manage to do everything wrong.  This film definitely does not have a Hollywood ending. (2002)

     

Calendar Girls

***

This could be called The Not Quite Full Monty.  A dozen Yorkshire ladies of a certain age decide they would pose discretely nude for the annual Women's Institute calendar in order to increase sales.  They succeed beyond their wildest dreams.  Entertaining film, but the second half gets bogged down by trying to be serious.  Based on a true story. (2003)

     

Capote

*****

An absolutely sensational movie featuring a near-certain Oscar-winning performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role.  As in Jamie Foxx's portrayal of Ray Charles, it appears that the title character has inhabited the body of the actor.  Catherine Keener and Clifton Collins are first rate in supporting roles, but this is Hoffman's show.  The story is about the writing of In Cold Blood, Capote's "non-fiction novel"  about the brutal murder of a Kansas family by two drifters.  In doing his research, Capote develops a complex relationship with Perry Smith, one of the killers.  Smith, highly intelligent and articulate, believes that Capote is his only hope to avoid the noose, but begins to wonder if Capote's apparent interest in him is disingenuous.  The story line is simple, but the execution is a work of art. (2005)

     

Carandiru

****

Brilliant film-making by the director of Kiss of the Spider Woman, Hector Babenco.  Carandiru is the notorious prison in São Paulo where 7,000 men were incarcerated in a facility designed for 4,000.  This is a true story as seen through the eyes of the prison doctor.  Although fairly lengthy, there is not a dull moment from beginning to end.  When a fight breaks out, riot police are summoned with tragic results.  (2003)

Catch Me If You Can

*****

Highly intelligent, very entertaining picture.  Superb acting top to bottom.  Leo DiCaprio is surprisingly good as a con artist, and Tom Hanks does not disappoint as the FBI man on his trail.  His New England accent is a classic.  Christopher Walken is outstanding as Leo's father. (2002)

     

Capturing the Friedmans

****

Talk about your dysfunctional families!  Arnold Friedman with his wife Elaine and four sons appear to be reasonably normal, but beneath the surface something very weird is going on.  When the movie ends, you're not sure who is lying.  Most likely no one is telling the whole truth.  Amazingly, the family filmed everything as their lives disintegrated.  Strong stuff.  (2003)

Casino Royale

***½

The latest incarnation of James Bond is a complete change of direction for the character.  Daniel Craig is not the smooth operator that we've become used to seeing.  At one point he even says he doesn't care if his martini is shaken or stirred.  Craig has a hard edge, and never looks comfortable in a tuxedo.  The plot is somewhat obscure but never mind - there is lots of action and beautiful scenery from all over the globe.  Bond's women are, as always, gorgeous and dangerous.  (2006)

     

Cat's Meow

***

Easy to find flaws but worthwhile seeing anyway.  Kirsten Dunst is quite good as Marion Davies and Edward Hermann is believable as William Randolph Hearst.  Based on a controversial real event.  (2001)

     

Charlie Wilson's War

***½

If I were a movie star I would never agree to be in a movie with Philip Seymour Hoffman.  He has stolen every film I've seen him in including this one.  Here he plays a CIA agent who battles with equal vigor against communists and Agency bureaucrats.  His portrayal is remarkable.  Tom Hanks in the role is a Texas congressman whose character flaws make Bill Clinton look like Mother Theresa.  He is convinced by a wealthy benefactor in Houston to take up the cause of the Afghans  who are fighting the invading Russians.  Hanks is great from this point on, but he not quite convincing as a rogue in the first half.  Jack Nicholson would have been more convincing as Wilson's playboy side, but picturing him as a congressman would would have been too much of a stretch. (2007).

Chicago

****

Even if you're like me and don't usually enjoy musicals, you'll like Chicago.  Renee Zellweger is the star, but Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah and Richard Gere are also in top form singing and dancing.  The film editing is outstanding - should win an Oscar.  (2002)

     

Cinderella Man

***½

A human Seabiscuit.  Russell Crowe as James J. Braddock affects a truly remarkable New Jersey accent, while Renee Zelweger struggles with hers.  Paul Giamatti shines as Bradock's manager, a role which should bring him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Oscars.  Basically this is a good story well told. (2005)

     

City by the Sea

****

This won't do much for tourism in Long Beach.  Robert De Niro takes a break for being a hood to portray a cop, albeit one with "issues".  When he finds out that his estranged son is the prime suspect in a murder he's investigating, it kind of ruins his day.  (2002)

     

City of God

****

Life in Rio's favelas (slums) is not pretty as this fact-based Brazilian film shows.  Not easy to watch, but there is a ray of hope as the narrator finds a way out of the cycle of poverty and violence. (2002)

The Clearing

**

Robert Redford plays a retired car rental magnate who is kidnapped in his driveway by a disgruntled former employee,  Willem Defoe (he  gets these rolls when Christopher Walken is busy).  Helen Mirren plays Redford's long-suffering wife.  She is ready to kill him when he doesn't show up at home for a dinner party.  When the guests leave she starts to get suspicious and calls in the FBI.  The movie then moves on two parallel paths - one is Redford and Defoe trudging through a forest and the other Mirren and her family following instructions from from the FBI whose agents are living in their house.  Day turns to night turns to day in the house, but Redford and Defoe keep marching in daylight.  Maybe they're hiking the Appalachian Trail. Or maybe M. Night Shyamalan wrote the script.  (2004)

 

 

 

Closer

**

If you want to see Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman talk dirty this movie is for you.  There is no other reason to watch it.  Hard to believe that Owen and Portman garnered Oscar nominations for their roles in this contrived love quadrangle. (2004)

The Closet

***

M. Pignon is a boring accountant who works in a condom factory.  To save his job, he starts a rumor that he is a closet gay.  This subtitled French farce is very funny. (2001)

Coffee and Cigarettes

**

For Jim Jarmusch fans only.  The film is comprised of eleven vignettes, related only by the fact that each features two or three actors sitting at a small table drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.  Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, and Alfred Molina, among others play themselves.  The humor is subtle and absurdist to say the least.  Filmed in black and white. (2003)

     

Collateral

**½

Pretty far-fetched action flick.  A great star turn by Jamie Foxx, but it leads me to wonder how the Academy decided that he was in a supporting role.  He is on screen more than Tom Cruise.  (2004)

Constant Gardener

***½

The crumbling of the Berlin Wall has been good for most people, but not for John Le Carré.  His novels have not been the same since all the spies came in from the cold.  This is actually a very good adaptation of his novel, although as often happens the scope of the source material is so broad that many characters are undeveloped making their screen appearances so brief that confusion reigns.  The basic idea here is that the big pharmaceutical companies are paying off governments and police in order to profiteer at the expense of poor Africans.  There is probably a kernel of truth in this, but I doubt if in real life the bad guys are quite this bad or the good guys are so good.  This movie will not encourage many people to visit Africa. (2005)

     

Control Room

****

Life inside Arab TV network Al Jazeera is chronicled in this documentary.  Dramatic footage of the early days of the Iraq war is very graphic.  They make no bones about trying to show events from an Arab point of view, but it appears that they have gained prominence throughout the Middle East through accurate reporting rather than propaganda.  In the film, a young media relations officer explaining the U.S. position to an Al Jazeera manager is shown in a positive and sympathetic light. (2004)

The Cooler

***½

William H. Macy stars as a loser who spreads bad luck to everyone with whom he comes in contact.  Alec Baldwin is the manager of a Las Vegas casino who hires Macy to cool down any gambler who gets on a hot streak.  When Macy gets involved with a cocktail waitress his luck changes.  Not a good thing with his job description.  Very good acting, especially form Baldwin whose authority is challenged by a young corporate VP who recently got an MBA. (2003)

     

Crash

**½

With all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, this film informs us that racism exists in America.  There are blacks prejudiced against whites, whites against Arabs, blacks against Orientals, Orientals against Hispanics, whites against blacks, and Arabs against Hispanics.  Curiously, there are three Hispanic characters who, despite having abuse heaped upon them, take it all in stride, are perfect in every way,  and have nothing bad to say about anybody.  I suppose this movie is an allegory because the makers could not possibly believe that the audience would accept at face value all of the coincidences that occur in the span of one day.  If you like being preached to, go to your favorite house of worship and donate the money you would have paid for tickets.  If you go anyway, look for an actor sleepwalking through his leading role.  That would be Don Cheadle. (2005) 

 

 

 

Crumb

*****

Missed this the first time around, but it is available at Blockbuster.  One of the great documentaries of all time.  Gives new meaning to the phrase "dysfunctional family".  (1994)

     

Cry of the Snow Lion

**

What starts out as a documentary on human rights abuses in Tibet by the Chinese ends up as an anti-business, anti-globalization diatribe.  Too bad.  Had the producers tried to be a bit more balanced in their reporting the impact would have been stronger.  (2003)

Curse of the Were-Rabbit

**½

Wallace and Gromit are English stop-action Plasiticine animation characters.  Wallace is a bumbling inventor and Gromit his mute but clever dog.  Wallace constantly suffers from self-inflicted wounds and Gromit consistently bails him out.  Most of the critics loved this movie but I found it to be a bit boring. (2005)

 

Darwin's Nightmare

***½

This documentary has been nominated for an academy award, but starving African kids are not as cute as penguins so it probably  won't win.  About thirty years ago someone had the bright idea of introducing giant Nile Perch to Lake Victoria.  The good news is that the species flourished and an export fishing industry developed providing jobs for many people in Tanzania.  The bad news is that voracious perch have wiped out every other species of fish in the lake.  Now they are eating their own young because there is no other food available.  A little too Michael Moore-ish for my taste, but a real winner for fans of depression and guilt. (2005)

     

Dead Man

*½

Even Jim Jarmusch fans should be annoyed this one.   Johnny Depp stars as an accountant from Cleveland who heads west on a train pulled by a steam engine.  As the film begins, there are alternating shots of passengers and the wheels of the steam engine.  Fade in passengers, fade out.  Fade in train, fade out.  Fade in passengers, etc., etc., etc.  After about a half hour of this, Depp arrives in a town called Machine where a promised job has been given to someone else.  Depressed, he sits outside a saloon where he encounters a young woman who had been thrown in the mud by her boyfriend.  She invites him to bed, but the boyfriend walks in and shoots Depp and the woman.  Depp kills the man who turns out to be the son of Robert Mitchum who owns the business which had ostensibly hired Depp to work in his factory.  Mitchum hires three killers to get Depp.  The movie goes downhill from there with much gratuitous killing and an Indian who thinks Depp is a reincarnation of 18th century English poet William Blake.  By far the most annoying aspect of this film is the background music, essentially a short, out of tune guitar riff by Neil Young which is repeated over and over and over.............. (1995)

Death at a Funeral

**

When I heard that this movie is a funny British  comedy  I was expecting something in the Monty Python tradition.  Wrong.  It is British humor in the Benny Hill tradition, subtle as a brick.  Michael Macfadyen, seen here as Mr. Darcy in the most recent Pride and Prejudice remake, does his best but doesn't have much to work with.  The script and many of the supporting actors are pretty weak.  At the funeral of a reasonably well-to-do Englishman, a midget that none of the other guest had seen before, pulls aside one of the deceased's sons and informs him that he was his father's secret lover.  He has pictures to prove it and threatens to make them public unless he receives hush money.  Dealing with this crisis is the main event but there various other unfunny sideshows such as a crotchety old uncle having bowel issues and a shy boyfriend of the deceased's niece making a fool of himself after inadvertently ingesting a hallucinatory drug.  The funny bits are few and far between and are mostly included in the trailer. (2007)

 

 

 

The Deep End

***½

Our heroine tries to dispose of a body in the shallow end of Lake Tahoe.  The water is too clear for that plan to work.  Tilda Swinton is outstanding as an overprotective mother.  This tight little thriller will make you squirm.  (2001)

De-Lovely

***½

Very similar to All That Jazz, with Cole Porter in the spotlight instead of Bob Fosse.  Some of director Irwin WInkler's ideas work better than others, but his use of current music icons like Diana Krall, Alanis Morrisette, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow, and Elvis Costello doing Porter songs while dressed in period costumes is brilliant.  (2004)

     

The Devil Wears Prada

***

Warning - Chick Flick Ahead.  Not as bad as I expected, but not as good as it could have been with a little effort in the last 15 minutes.  Meryl Streep does her thing and Stanley Tucci is as always - understated and excellent.  The rest of the cast is forgettable.  Lots of beautiful women in various states of dress and undress make this watchable for men, and women will love the clothes. (2006)

     

Die Another Day

***

Check credibility at the door, but the latest James Bond is very entertaining.  The tongue-in-cheek humor and amazing special effects make this worthwhile.  It also removes any doubt you may have had that North Korea is part of the Axis of Evil.  (2002)

Dreamgirls

****

Dreamgirls joins Evita and Chicago as Broadway hits that succeed in the movies.  This is a thinly-veiled history of Dina Ross and the Supremes rising from obscurity in Detroit during the 1960's to international fame and fortune.  There are fine performances from  Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Fox and Eddie Murphy, but American Idol reject Jennifer Hudson steals the show as an original singing group member who gets shoved aside by the ruthless manager because she is overweight.  In the theater where I saw the show the audience broke into applause when Hudson finished singing her big number.  (2006) 

     
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room ****

One of the best chronicles of the Enron debacle has been turned into a fascinating documentary.  If managerial incompetence were a crime, Ken Lay would get a life sentence.  (2005)

Evan Almighty

**½

Steve Carell plays Evan, a Buffalo, N.Y. newscaster who gets elected to Congress having promised to change the world.  He moves with his family to a D.C. suburb where he is visited by God, in the person of Morgan Freeman who instructs him to build an ark.  To get him started God delivers some wood and a copy of Ark-Building for Dummies.  What follows is predictable but kind of fun if you aren't in the mood for great film-making.  Wanda Sykes as the deadpan personal assistant to the Congressman has the best lines and delivers them well.  Too bad she didn't have a bigger role.  When all is said and done God explains to Evan that he can change the world by performing Acts of Random Kindness (ARK).  Subtlety is not this movie's long suit.  Don't leave when "The End" flashes on the screen, because the outtakes which are shown as the credits roll are very funny.  (2007)

Everything is Illuminated

****

Elijah Wood as Jonathon Safran Foer, a collector of family artifacts.  From her death bed, his grandmother gives Jonathon on old photograph of his grandfather with a young woman whom he surmises helped him escape the Nazis in the Ukraine.  Jonathan  sets off to Odessa where he meets a family whose travel agency specializes in helping American Jews find evidence of their forbears.  Beautifully filmed, well-acted with an intelligent script, this adaptation of Foer's novel is worth watching at least once.  It's a little confusing on first viewing, but everything will be illuminated the second time through.  (2005)

     

Far From Heaven

***½

Interesting story about hypocrisy and prejudice in the North during the 50's.  Dennis Quaid shines in a difficult role, and Julianne Moore is solid as always.  The couple's children are another matter. (2002)

Feast of Love

***

Morgan Freeman drops in from Evan Almighty to co-star with Greg Kinnear also reprising his character in Little Miss Sunshine.  Here Freeman plays Harry, a college professor on sabbatical who spends all his spare time drinking coffee and dispensing wisdom in a funky coffee shop owned by Kinnear's Bradley.  The movie's theme is love and its complications, mostly centered on Bradley who seems to invite people to dump on him.  He is blissfully unaware of the bad things swirling around him.  The only thing he seems to have in common with his wife is that they both like having sex with women.  This is not a great movie but the acting is strong and the story is entertaining.  There are also beautiful views of Portland, Oregon and Radha Mitchell. (2007)

 

 

 

Femme Fatale

***

This should do for Rebecca Romijn-Stamos what Basic Instinct did for Sharon Stone.  (note - I was wrong).  The movie is a stylish film noire about a jewelry heist and its aftermath.  The story is a little muddled, but the "scenery" is outstanding.  (2002)

     

Finding Nemo

****

Essentially a kids' movie, but you won't mind taking them.  The animation is spectacular, and the voices have real personality.  This one will be around for years. (2003)

     

Finding Neverland

****

Good performances all around bring this one to life, even though the pace is a tad slow.  Johnny Depp should get an Oscar nomination as James Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan.  Kate Winslett and Julie Christie are also very good.  (2004)

     

Fog of War

****

Robert McNamara reflects on his tenure as Secretary of Defense in this well-made documentary.  There are some very interesting tape recordings of his conversations with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.  The original score by Philip Glass is annoying.  (2003)

For Your Consideration

***

Christopher Guest reassembles repertory troupe for this  send-up of Hollywood.  Eugene Levy is an agent for Harry Shearer, a has-been actor who is starring in a really bad movie called Home for Purim.  Enter Ricky Gervais as a "suit" who in the name of toning down the Jewishness of the story changes the title to Home for Thanksgiving.  Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, Bob Balaban, and Fred Willard are excellent as always.  Not quite as funny as Best in Show, but  funny nonetheless.  (2006)

     

The Forty Year Old Virgin

****

This reminds me a little of Sideways, which is a good thing. It may even be a little funnier.  Some of the scenes are juvenile and over the top, however it is easy to forgive this one's flaws because on the whole it is falling out of your chair funny.   The premise is that a likeable but nerdy guy who works in an electronics store has never had any experience with women.  His co-workers make it a project to rectify this situation.  Steve Carell and Kathleen Keener are very good, but the actors who play his co-workers steal the show.  I could see this again.  (2005)

     

Frida

****

More like a visit to an art museum than a movie, this is beautifully filmed.  The stilted dialogue is a negative, but the cameos by some major stars are a big plus.  Seeing Ashley Judd dancing the tango with Salma Hayek is, well... you have to see it.  (2002)

     

Friday Night Lights

****

Outstanding sports movie, although some of the high school students looked like they were closing in on 30.  The portrait of life in a small Texas town is not pretty, reminiscent of The Last Picture Show.  Billy Bob Thornton should garner an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a high school football coach under pressure. (2004)

 

 

Garden State

**

Some people liked this movie.  I didn't.  Maybe I'm just not into post-teen angst.  Natalie Portman is good, but that's about it.  Peter Sarsgaard is too old for his character and the woman who plays his mother is only 11 years older than he is.  Give it a miss. (2004)

Ghosts of Flatbush

***½

This HBO Sports production is about the Brookly Dodgers, but you don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy it.  It was clear in the mid fifties that the Dodgers needed a new stadium.  Ebbets Field was falling apart and only had room for 700 cars.  The centerpiece of the story is the battle between Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Dodgers and Robert Moses, a powerful New York politician who blocked efforts to build a new stadium in Brooklyn.  The result was the moving of the Dodgers and the Giants to California.  Fifty years on the people in Brooklyn haven't forgiven O'Malley. (2007)

     

Ghost World

***½

An off-beat coming-of-age story from the director of Crumb.  All of the acting is first rate, but Illeana Douglas as a touch-feely art instructor and Steve Buscemi as a nerd record collector are outstanding.  (2000)

     

Goodbye, Lenin

***

Over-long, but interesting tale about the fall of the Berlin Wall.  A party stalwart falls into a coma and awakens eight months later.  To avoid giving her a shock, her family arranges a hoax to hide the facts of the reunification of Germany from her.  Interesting view of post-Wall Germany.  (2003)

     

Good Girl

***

Jennifer Aniston plays a good girl who feels trapped between a dead end job and a pothead husband.  Once she strays off the straight and narrow, she finds it difficult to sort things out.  Not a classic but quite entertaining. (2002)

     

The Good Thief

*½

Nick Nolte mumbles his way through this boring travesty.  It's hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys because they all look alike.  One of the more ludicrous good/bad guys is a body-builder who has a sex change operation.  Unfortunately his/her fear of spiders was not affected by surgery.  Ocean's Eleven has the same plot but is much more entertaining.  (2002)

     

Good Night and Good Luck

****

This story of Edward R. Murrow's battle with Senator Joseph McCarthy is filmed in black and white which gives the impression of actually being shot in the fifties.  It also allows actual news footage to be seamlessly integrated making the real Senator McCarthy part of the cast.  David Strathairn is very good as Murrow and Frank Langella is excellent as CBS president William Paley.  A sub-plot involving two CBS staffers who break the company rule against being married to each other seems like nothing more than pure filler.  This movie is good, but not as good as the hype would have you believe. (2005)

The Good Shepherd

***½

The last two spy books I've read contained the identical admonition - Don't trust anyone.  Good advice.  In this good, but somewhat confusing story about the creation of the CIA,  Matt Dillon stars as Edward Wilson, a bright Yale student who is recruited to join the OSS during WW II.  During his career he discovers that not even the members of his own family can be trusted with the secrets he is entrusted to keep.  The central plot theme is search for the mole who tipped off the Russians about the invasion at the Bay of Pigs.  Part of the confusion is that the story is told in a series of flashbacks spanning twenty years, but none of the characters look any different as they age.  There are too many top actors in minor roles to mention, but Michael Gambon as a Yale poetry professor quite taken with Wilson shines above the rest.  The movie is a bit long, but worth watching until the end.  (2006)

Gosford Park

***

Ham-handed directing keep this movie from being really first-rate.  It doesn't take 10 zooms to poison labels on bottles to foreshadow to the audience that someone is going to swallow something bad for him.  There is also a police inspector role which is embarrassingly bad.  Helen Mirren shines as always.  (2001)

     

Hairspray

***½

Who would ever believe that a John Waters film would be the basis for a successful Broadway musical.  Even though this 1989 film features Waters regulars Divine and Mink Stole, it is pretty mainstream.  The story revolves around an overweight high schooler, beautifully realized by Ricki Lake, and her rise in the 60's Baltimore teen scene through her appearance on a Dick Clark clone TV dance show.  Somehow Waters convinced Sonny Bono, Jerry Stiller, and Debbie Harry to take supporting roles.  They all shine. (1988)

Hair Spray

****

I'm not a big fan of musicals but I just suspended reality for a couple of hours and enjoyed this one.  It's a hoot watching a beefed-up John Travolta in drag recreating the role of Edna Turnblad first played by Divine in the John Water's 1988 classic original.  Waters incidentally makes an uncredited cameo as a flasher in the first five minutes of the show.  The rest of the cast is spot on with the possible exception of Michelle Pfeiffer who is a bit over the top and way too thin.  Christopher Walken never ceases to amaze. (2007)

     

Happily Ever After

***

This French import is about marriage and infidelity.  Vince (Yves Attal) and Gabrielle (Charlotte Gainsbourg) are an apparently happily married couple living in Paris.  He is a luxury car salesman and she is a realtor.  They have a nice son, appear to be well off, and in love with each other.  However, Vince is carrying on an affair with a masseuse.  Gabrielle suspects this is happening but doesn't confront him.  Vince has no idea why he is doing this, but carries on anyway.  This movie has some flaws, but is worth seeing.  Cameos by Johnny Depp and Anouk Aimee are highlights. (2004)

Heist

***

Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito always keep you entertained.  Plot outline is same as Sexy Beast , but movie is more enjoyable because it doesn't have loud music and arty camera work.  (2001)

The Hoax

**½

With the dearth of good movies around it's too bad this one isn't better.  The story is about Clifford Irving's "authorized" autobiography of Howard Hughes.  Richard Gere portrays Irving as philandering, unscrupulous con man with no apparent redeeming qualities.  He is obsessed with power, money and recognition,  all of which he hopes to obtain with a plagiarized version of Philip Roth's  Portnoy's Complaint called Rudnick's Problem.  When Irving is caught out by a book company editor, he comes up with Plan B, the Hughes autobiography.  Two of my favorite actors, Alfred Molina and Hope Davis are badly miscast as Irving's reluctant co-conspirator and his contact at McGraw-Hill, respectively.  The portrayal of the executives at McGraw-Hill and Time-Life is a Hollywood cliché.  If businessmen were as stupid and venal in real life as they are in the movies, all corporations would be bankrupt.  There is a sub-plot in the film implying that Howard Hughes wanted Richard Nixon to be impeached and somehow used Irving to this end.  Huh? (2007)

     

Hotel Rwanda

****

This is a tough movie to watch.  Almost a million people died in Rwanda in the early nineties as the Hutu's performed an ethnic cleansing while the world stood by an did nothing.  The movie is the true story of a Hutu manager who sheltered more than a thousand genocide targets in his four-star Belgian hotel and helped them escape.  Don Cheadle is very good as the hotel man, but Sophie Okonedo as his wife is even better. (2004)

     

The Hours

***

Wonderful acting, but this is a morbid tearjerker.  Suicide, AIDS, divorce, breakups, cancer, mental illness, and incest are just a few of the downer themes of this movie.  Save your money - if you want to get depressed, just watch the stock market reports on CNBC.  (2002)

     

Il Postino

**½

The story revolves around the relationship between a postman from a fishing village on the Amalfi Coast, and an exiled Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda.  The postman believes that the poet can help him woo a young woman from the village to whom he has become attracted.  There is some indication that this is a true story as Neruda did spend some time exiled to the Italy, but no one seems to know for sure.  A lot of people loved this movie, but I found it a bit too slow-paced.  Part of the problem may be that transferring the film to DVD was not a success.  The picture is dark and fuzzy.  (1994)

     

The Illusionist

***½

Edward Norton, whose accent sounds like a half-hearted attempt to mimic Bela Lugosi, stars as Eisenheim, a Vienna-based 19th century magician secretly in love with Sophie (Jennifer Biel), a childhood sweetheart.  Sophie is on the verge of marrying the crown prince of Austria.   The prince, over-played by Rufus Sewell, is an evil guy who sports what appears to be a cheap paste-on moustache.  Jealous and suspicious of Eisenheim, he tasks Police Inspector Uhl (Paul Giammati) to shut the magician down.  As the film begins he is doing just that.  The story is then told as a flashback, bringing us back to Eisenheim's introduction to magic as a teenager.   Despite its flaws, this is a fine movie with interesting cinematography and music, an excellent performance by Giammatti, and lots of good magic tricks.  (2006)

Importance of Being Earnest

**

Good cast, good story, but doesn't quite get off the ground.  Rupert Everett does his best, but the problem may be that this works better on a stage than on film.  (2002)

     

In America

****

Based on filmmaker Jim Sheridan's life, this is the story of an Irish would-be actor who sneaks into the US with his wife and two young girls.  The two girls, sisters in real life, steal the show.  The acting and writing is good, but the editing is a little choppy.  (2002)

In Good Company

**

If businesses were run the way they are portrayed in Hollywood, our national GNP would be zero.  No cliché is too inane to be left out of this one.  Dennis Quaid does his best, and Scarlett Johansson is terrific as always, but this story is just too weak and predictable.  (2004)

The Great Train Robbery

***

A good caper movie with Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland who appear to be having fun.  Michael Crichton adapted the screenplay from his novel of the same name.  The biggest problem with this film is that there is a discontinuity near the end when a banker calls for Connery to be arrested before he discovers that the train had been robbed.  Oh well, the film is a little overlong so I guess they had to cut something. (1979)

The Interpreter

**

This film has moments of mediocrity, but for the most part it is just plain bad.  Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman are wasted in this movie which bounces from absurdity to implausibility, touching all the cliché bases along the way.  I remember seeing the trailer for this one in the movies.  It was pretty good.  If you are thinking about renting this or watching it HBO I suggest you download the trailer from the internet and save yourself a couple of hours. (2005)

     

In The Bedroom

*****

Riveting.  A story with depth, hauntingly real characters, and Oscar-worthy performances from Marisa Tomei, Sissy Spacek, and especially Tom Wilkinson.  Not to be missed.  (2001)

The Incredibles

***

Technically dazzling, with some entertaining bits for adults as well as kids, but overall a little long and repetitive.  A fight on a tropical island is a good spoof of the James Bond movies, including the background music.  Holly Hunter, who supplies the voice for Elastigirl, stands out.  (2004)

Juno

****½

Juno is a 16 year-old high school student in Minnesota who finds herself pregnant.  Sounds like a premise for a teen-age angst movie, but this is far from it.  Juno knows that she is not ready to be a mom, so when a visit to an abortion clinic leaves goes badly, she and her best girlfriend decide to find a perfect couple to adopt the baby.  At first it appears that they have succeeded, but things are not as rosy as they seem.  Ellen Page is outstanding as Juno, and Allison Janney shines as an understanding stepmother.  This movie succeeds on many levels, but the most interesting is how we see the main characters develop depth that is not apparent as they are introduced. (2007)

     

Kandahar

***

Visually stunning, this picture is on Time magazine's list of the 100 best films of all time.  Made in Iran, it tells the story of an Canadian-Afghan woman journalist trying to get to Kandahar to rescue her sister who has written to say that she plans to commit suicide during an upcoming eclipse.  The movie is about her journey from Iran across the Afghan desert and the horrors of the Taliban regime.  During the trip she encounters a doctor who examines her through a hole in a screen.  In real life, the actor who plays the doctor is wanted for murder in Virginia for allegedly killing an Iranian diplomat.  (2001)

King Arthur

**

This is a pretty funny movie.  The only problem is that it is supposed to be serious.  If you believe that eight men with swords can hold off an army of 10,000 men, this may be the movie for you.  There is a thin plot that serves to justify a string of battle scene special effects.  Clive Owen, said to be in line to be the next James Bond, plays Arthur.  This effort may set him back.  (2004)

     

The King of Masks

****

An aging street performer is looking for someone to whom he can pass on the tradition of making masks.  He makes a living by putting on shows in which he changes masks at  speeds too fast for the eye to see.  He thinks his prayers have been answered when he adopts an 8 year old boy, but his troubles are only beginning.  The picture gets off to a bit of a slow start, but if you can make it past the first ten minutes you will be highly rewarded.  The story is interesting, the costumes are beautiful, and the acting is superb. In Chinese with English sub-titles. (1996)

Kinsey

***

Liam Neeson and Laura Linney shine in this biopic about Dr. Alfred Kinsey, the sex researcher whose book sparked the sexual revolution of the twentieth century.  Watching Linney's performance as Kinsey's long-suffering wife is a treat - she clearly deserved her Oscar nomination.  Some viewers will be put off by the language and explicit depictions of human activity, but this is a case where it is not gratuitous.  Without it, it would be difficult to appreciate the controversy and outrage that followed Kinsey following the publication of his book.  (2004)

     

Ladies In Lavender

***

A romp for Judi Dench and Maggie Smith as two spinster sisters living together in the family house in Cornwell which overlooks the sea.  As the movie begins a young man is found barely alive washed up on the beach.  The sisters, but principally Ursula (Dench) find themselves attracted to the young man even though they are 50+ years his senior.  (2004)

The Ladykillers

*½

The subtlety one expects from the Coen brothers is totally absent in this casino heist caper.  Tom Hanks stars as a Colonel Sanders look-alike who assembles a team of oddballs to tunnel underground to the casino's vault.  The characters are weak, the story and premise are dumb, and the foul language is excessive.  The only saving grace is that there is a lot of really good gospel music.  Never mind that it has nothing to do with the story. (2004)

     

The Last King of Scotland

****

Forest Whitaker gives the performance of a lifetime as Idi Amin, the brutal dictator of Uganda in the early years of his presidency.  The story revolves around a young Scottish doctor who ventures to central Africa in search of adventure.  He finds more than he bargains for when he agrees to be Amin's personal physician.  In the beginning Amin is charming, but as the story grinds on, it becomes clear to the doctor that he is assisting a madman.  The doctor is a fiction, but unfortunately Amin was real and was the cause of 300,00 deaths during his regime.  Warning - the last half hour of this film is hard to watch as Amin's atrocities are shown in graphic detail. (2006)

L'Auberge Espagnole

***

A French grad student enrolls in an international study program in Barcelona.  He and six other students share an apartment in a somewhat seedy part of town.  Each student is from a different country, so finding a common language is a problem.  English, Spanish, and French are spoken, with a dash of Catalan thrown in by their professor for good measure.  The movie's plots and sub-plots are entertaining, and the film is an excellent travelogue of Barcelona.  Some MTV-like camera trickery is distracting, but overall, this is a good-spirited and fun picture.  (2002)

Legends of the Fall

**

The most cliché-ridden Western since Dances With Wolves.  At least Kevin Costner was nowhere to be seen.  Anthony Hopkins stars as a retired army officer who did not approve of the way Indians were n has the hots for the third brother, Brad Pitt.  Pitt disappears in the middle of the movie to become a sailor of fortune, a strange calling for a boy from Montana.  He eventually returns with  long blond hair which he displays proudly for the rest of the movie. (1994)

Letters From Iwo Jima

****½

This is the story of the decisive World War II battle for the strategic island viewed from the Japanese perspective.  More than 20,000 Japanese soldiers were on the island when the American assault began, but only 1,000 survived.  We become familiar with several of the Japanese officers and enlisted men through flashbacks and letters to their wives.  As in every large group of soldiers there are good guys and bad guys, but with one major difference - the Japanese soldiers almost universally have a fatalistic view of dying with honor for the emperor.  An American telling of the story would no doubt end with the flag being raised on Mount Suribachi, but the Japanese version has a more sober finale.  This is movie-making at its best.  Any awards this film garners will be well deserved. (2006)

Live Flesh

***½

Pedro Almodovar made five films between Women on the Verge and All About My Mother, all of which had limited distribution in the U.S.  This one, based on a novel by Ruth Rendell, was the last.  The story revolves around a young man imprisoned for shooting a policeman, and his unusual plan for revenge after his release.  As in all of Almodovar's work, the actors and actresses are attractive, the photography is  interesting, and there are plenty of plot turns. (1997)

     

Little Miss Sunshine

****

Toni Collette is the the mother in a dysfunctional family that includes a cliché-spewing would-be management guru as her husband, a foul-mouthed father-in-law, a suicidal brother, a teen-aged son who has taken a vow of silence and an eight year old daughter who longs to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant.  The characters are fine, the script is funny, and the plot moves right along.  Collette, an Australian, has mastered an authentic American accent.  If you're in a funk and want to get out, see this movie.  (2006)

The Lives of Others

****½

The tension between security and freedom is one of the great issues of the day in America.  This German import arrives just in time to show what happens when the pendulum swings too far in the direction of security.   As the movie begins we meet Herr Weisler, a mid-level operative in STASI, the East German secret police.   The year appropriately is 1984, and STASI is Big Brother.  Weisler  is conducting a class on interrogation to a roomful of recruits.  He  is cold and tough, and a true believer in the system.  He is considered a rising star in STASI so he gets picked to spy on a playwright whose girlfriend has become an object of desire of a senior party official.  As Germany rolls toward re-unification Weisler begins to question his organizations objectives.  Excellent writing and acting propel the movie to an exciting climax.  Not to be missed. (2007)

Longford

****

Child murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were reviled in England as monsters after their convictions in 1966.  An idealistic politician, Laborite Lord Frank Longford, and advocate of prison reform took up Myra's cause and tried for thirty years to get her paroled.  This quixotic pursuit costs Langford his cabinet post and made him extremely unpopular.  Jim Broadbent as Langford and Samantha Morton as the complex Myra make this HBO film a must-see. (2007)

     

Lord of the Rings

**

This one deserves an A rating - Adult not admitted unless accompanied by child under 10.  This over-hyped, overrated extravaganza is really a waste of time and money.  Over-acting abounds.  And the music! - Zamphir meets Carl Orff.  (2002)

Lost in Translation

****½

A stylish small movie that really works.  Bill Murray is better than you would have thought possible.  His character, Bob, says something under his breath to Scarlett Johansson's Charlotte near the end of the picture.  Listen carefully, then send me an email and tell me what he said.  (2003)

     

Madagascar

**½

The latest animation effort from Dreamworks doesn't measure up to Shrek or Finding Nemo.  A big problem is that the two lead character voices are provided by Ben Stiller and Chris Rock.  Only Whoopie Goldberg rivals these two as Hollywood's most unfunny comedian.  Where is Eddie Murphy when we really need him.  The premise of the movie is that some animals from a zoo in New York wind up in Madagascar.  They feel out of place in the wild.  The pace is pretty sloggy until the animals encounter a tribe of lemurs, the leader of which sounds a lot like Robin Williams.  The animation is impressive. (2005)

Magdalene Sisters

****

Based on a 1999 documentary, this is the story of young Irish girls forced into virtual slavery in hell-on-earth laundries run by the Catholic church.  Incredibly, this practice was not abandoned until 1996.  Conditions in the movie are brutal, but women who have survived the laundries say reality was much worse.  (2002)

     

Mahaleu

**

In the 60's and 70's the French were tossed out of Madagascar.  Symbolic leaders of the quiet revolt were student-musicians who formed a group named Malaheu.  Thirty years on the group periodically reunites to give concerts, even though the members have had successful careers as doctors, politicians, etc.  This documentary follows the group members in their everyday lives, and builds up to a major concert in the capital.  An interesting slice of life in Madagascar, but about 45 minutes too long. (2006)

     

The Man Who Wasn't There

****

Billy Bob Thornton is outstanding as a second chair barber who decides to spice up his life by getting into dry cleaning.  If you liked Fargo you'll enjoy this one.  Follows the Coen brothers theme of men marrying for money.  (2001)

     

March of the Penguins

****

This is an outstanding documentary about the life cycle of the emperor penguin.  I used to feel sorry for penguins in a zoo but no more.  Their life in the Antarctic is terrible.  As the movie progressed from summer to winter, I kept thinking about the camera men.  Those guys must have frozen their butts off. (2005)

     

Maria Full of Grace

****

A young Columbian woman loses her job and signs up to be a drug mule, carrying swallowed drugs into the U.S.  This is a tough movie to watch.  The film maker says that wide distribution in Columbia is convincing young women there that being a drug mule is not a good idea.  Great performances by all the actors. (2004)

     

Master and Commander

****

A tour de force for Russell Crowe.  This film has a lot of action, but the battle scenes are very confusing.  I guess that's what they mean by the fog of war.  (2003)

     

Mask of Zorro

***

Having recently returned from Zorro's home town in El Fuerte, Mexico, we looked forward to seeing a historical treatment of his life.  This film isn't it.  Enough action to keep things interesting, but their are some major credibility gaps.  (1998)

     

Matchstick Men

***½

Despite some major league overacting by Nicolas Cage, this one is entertaining.  It would be easy to criticize this picture, for example there are some serious continuity problems, but the bottom line is that it keeps your interest from beginning to end, and the supporting cast is excellent.  (2003)

     

The Matador

***

Here's a novel idea for a movie - a naive businessman gets involved with someone involved with violent crime.  Okay, it's been done before (The In-Laws, The Man. etc., etc.) but this is worth seeing because Pierce Brosnan puts on a show as an aging hit man past his prime trying to complete one more assignment.  The story is predictable, but there are enough good laughs to keep it interesting.  Greg Kinnear is OK as the businessman and Hope Davis as his wife is her usually wonderful quirky self. (2006)

     

Meet the Parents

*½

The reviews called it a paint-by-numbers comedy which is a pretty good description.  Once the premise is set, you can pretty well predict what is going to happen.  That would be OK if the bits were really funny, and if the protagonists were likable young adults battling against an irascible, irrational father.  Meet the Parents comes up short on both.

The In-Laws is the model for the genre, in which Peter Falk is perfect as the father of the bride.   Robert De Niro almost pulls it off, but there are some inconsistencies in his character which are difficult to swallow.  The real problem is Ben Stiller's character.  He is a klutz that would drive a rational prospective father-in-law to extreme measures.  He lies, cheats, is lazy, smokes, is awkward in social situations, has nothing interesting to say.  He is abusive to flight attendants and fellow passengers, the guy you've seen trying to stuff an over-sized carry-on into your overhead bin.  The movie doesn't offer a single clue as to why a bright, attractive young women would want to tell this nerd what time it is, let alone think of marrying him.

Wait, there is one clue.  The girl's mother, played by Blythe Danner, a seemingly intelligent, attractive woman is married to De Niro, also a jerk.  Maybe it runs in the family. (2000)

Melinda and Melinda

*½

Woody Allen has lost his way.  The premise here is that two playwrights hear a story over dinner and disagree about whether the story is the raw material for a comedy or a tragedy.  They each write a play and the two plays are performed simultaneously.  Unfortunately, the tragedy is almost funnier than the comedy.  The acting is not good.  It almost looks like the actors are reading the script for the first time while the filming is in progress.  (2005)

     

The Middle of the World

***

We saw this Brazilian movie at a Latin America film festival.  It's the story of a man who travels from the northeast of Brazil to Rio de Janeiro with his wife and five children on bicycles.  He is an unemployed truck driver looking for a job.  The trip is more than 2,000 miles and takes six months.  The acting is good, but the picture is kind of a downer.  Once in a while they encounter kindness from strangers, but for the most part their lives are pretty miserable.  The Sound of Music it is not.  (2003)

     

Million Dollar Baby

***

Good but not great.  Hillary Swank and Morgan Freeman deserved their Oscars and Clint Eastwood is OK, but the rest of the cast is pretty hopeless.  A lot of the dialogue is pretty stilted, and the plot turns are predictable.  (2004)

     

Monsoon Wedding

*****

Mira Nair's story of an arranged marriage in modern-day India is film-making at its best. This movie has it all - a great script, first-rate acting, and beautiful cinematography.  All of the characters are multi-dimensional and believable.  Don't miss it. (2001)

     

Mostly Martha

***

The life of Martha, star chef at a restaurant in Germany, is turned upside down as the result of an auto accident.  Like Babette's Feast and The Big Night, this one is really about the food.  See it if you like to eat or cook.  (in German, with subtitles).  (2001)

Motorcycle Diaries

****

At the age of 23, Ernesto "Che" Guevara sets out with a friend to experience South America.  Gael Garcia Bernal is a little too sensitive as Che, but Rodrigo de la Cerna as his friend Alberto is excellent and steals the show.  Some may object to the leftward tilt of this movie, but something had to motivate Guevara is this direction as he grew up in a respectable Buenos Aires family.  His experiences on this trip no doubt were very influential.  (2004)

     

Mrs. Harris

**

Annette Bening stars in the title role of this so-so HBO docu-drama about the society private school headmistress who shot her famous boyfriend Dr. Herman Tarnower, author of the Scarsdale Diet best-seller.  According to Harris, Tarnower tried to prevent her from an attempted suicide and was accidentally killed in a scuffle for her gun.  The prosecutors and the jury didn't buy her story.  I have no problem with dramatizations of historical events, but this genre which features simulated after-the-fact interviews in the style of the History Channel seem to me to have an inherent phoniness.  (2006)

     

Mrs. Henderson Presents

***½

It's fun to watch Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins infuse their characters with life.  She is a wealthy widow who buys a decaying theater on a lark and he is the manager she hires to run it.  The premise is that while stage nudity is taboo in mid 20th century England, she is able to  convince the authorities that looking at naked women in immobile tableaux is akin to viewing nudes in