Yesterday, I sat through a screening of the new Robert De Niro movie, 15 Minutes. It won’t open for several weeks yet, but its distributor, New Line, has requested that no reviews appear before the film opens–and with most weeklies and daily papers printing reviews on late Thursday or Friday, that effectively means there will […]
Bruce Reid
Posted inMovies & TV
Unbearable
M. Night Shyamalan Cashes a Big, Blank Check
MORE CLEVER than intelligent, more self-consciously grim than emotional, The Sixth Sense nonetheless seemed to ensure that its writer/director M. Night Shyamalan had become the next big thing. After being granted a proverbial blank check to repeat the success, Shyamalan has returned Disney’s largesse by delivering one of the worst films of the year. If […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Unfilmable, Filmed
Raúl Ruiz’s Brilliant Take on the Impossible
MARCEL PROUST’S Remembrance of Things Past would certainly seem to stand out at the head of that notorious literary genre known as the “unfilmable novel.” It’s already defeated, in whole or in part, two fine artists: Volker Schlöndorff, who made Swann in Love, an admittedly well-acted but tepid and overly respectful chamber film; and Harold […]
Posted inMovies & TV
A Real Pisser
Even Drunk, The Replacements Still Sucks
GOOD FILMS DESERVE clear, competent examinations because they are complex and immortal; bad films deserve only experimental reviews, because, really, what else can you do with them except, as the British say, take the piss out of it. The Replacements certainly deserves the latter treatment, which is why Bruce and I decided to conduct a […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Element of Beauty
Claire Denis’ Good Work
BEAUTY IS DANGEROUS, because it’s so easy to surrender to, because devotion to it can so easily become an obsession. Which is to say, beauty is harmful not in itself, but for what it spawns in others. Claire Denis understands this fact. In Beau Travail, Denis has made her greatest examination of beauty yet–at least […]