The Stone Roses.
The Stone Roses
"The Second Coming" would have been a better title for this documentary about the return of The Stone Roses, but they'd already used it for an album.
Tickled to be the chosen chronicler of the band's momentous reunion in 2011, director Shane Meadows (This Is England) presents a fan's view of the story, which proves to be good news and bad. He loves the music, and conveys something of its headlong energy in both rehearsal and live settings. Just to hear the opening bass rumble of "I Wanna Be Adored" raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
But the film doesn't deal at all with the personal issues that split the band those years ago, avoids one-on-one interviews and skates over whatever tensions still lurk down deep. In this regard it's hard not to focus on the body language of John Squire, the band's co-founder, guitarist and sleeve-designer, who as recently as 2009 had professed a strong reluctance to "desecrate the grave" of the band by reuniting them.
18-JUN-2013
My Life As A Dog.
My Life As A Dog
'My Life as a Dog' is a film that was created and released in the year 1985. The film was about two brothers who never got along and had to be separated to protect their ailing mother. The film starred Anton Glanzelius, Tomas von Brmssen and Anki Lidn.
Alice Doesnt Live here Any More.
Martin Scorsese's first Hollywood studio production also marked his first (and only) foray into a woman-centered story. Alice Hyatt (Ellen Burstyn), a resigned Southwest housewife, takes advantage of her trucker husband's sudden death to hit the road with her bratty son Tommy (Alfred Lutter) and pursue her childhood dream of a singing career. She finds a job as a lounge singer, but after a horrific encounter with an abusive new beau (Harvey Keitel), she flees and winds up taking a waitress job at Mel's Diner, run by gruff cook Mel (Vic Tayback). With her career on hold, Alice soon finds strength and self-worth through her friendship with the other waitresses, saucy Flo (Diane Ladd) and spacy Vera (Valerie Curtin). When sensitive rancher David (Kris Kristofferson) starts courting her, Alice wonders if she wants to abandon her goals for domesticity again. To contrast Alice's dream life with her reality, Scorsese created a stylized opening sequence of Alice as a child reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz, Duel in the Sun and Gone With the Wind, before shifting into the present-day atmospheric immediacy of location shooting and scenes built out of improvisations. That opening sequence alone cost over twice as much as Scorsese's debut feature, Who's That Knocking At My Door?. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
18-JUN-2013
The War Of The Roses.
Divorce lawyer Danny De Vito warns his prospective client that the story he's about to tell isn't a pretty one, but the client listens with eager intensity -- as do the folks out there in the movie in the audience. The War of the Roses can best be described as a slapstick tragedy concerning the decline and literal fall of a marriage. After 17 years, Oliver (Michael Douglas) and Barbara (Kathleen Turner) Rose want a divorce. Not for this couple is there anything resembling a "civilized understanding": Barbara wants their opulent house, and Oliver isn't about to part with the domicile. Barbara nails the basement door shut while Oliver is downstairs, Oliver disrupts Barbara's fancy party by taking aim at the catered dinner, Barbara lays waste to Oliver's sports car....and so it goes, culminating in a disastrous showdown around, about and under the living room's fancy chandelier. DeVito and screenwriter Michael Leeson never let us forget that the couple's self-indulgent imbroglio exacts an awful price upon their children (Sean Astin and Heather Fairfield). The War of the Roses was adapted from the novel by Warren Adler. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
16-JUN-2013
The Earrings of Madame De.....
Not absolutley brand new but too good not to use for this film.
Max Ophüls' masterpiece stars Danielle Darrieux as the titular Madame Louise de..., who in the film's opening scenes is forced to discreetly sell a pair of earrings, a gift from her military officer husband Andre (Charles Boyer), in order to make good on her debts. After she claims the earrings to be lost, the story of their possible theft hits the newspapers, prompting the jeweler who bought them (Jean Debucourt) to secretly sell them back to Andre, who then gives him to his mistress Lola (Lia Di Leo) as she prepares to leave for a holiday in Constantinople. There, the earrings again change hands as Lola pawns them to cover her gambling losses. They are then purchased by Donati, an Italian diplomat (Vittorio de Sica) on his way to France to meet with Andre. Of course, the earrings soon find their way back to Louise. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
Raise The Red Lantern.
Raise The Red Lantern
The phenomenal success and international acclaim of RAISE THE RED LANTERN, cemented Zhang
Yimou's status as a leading figure in world cinema and reaffirmed the vibrancy of Chinese
cinema. Though the film was the topic of great political controversy in China upon its
release, it received armfuls of awards from Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom and a
nomination for an Academy Award. This sumptuously photographed drama, set in Northern China in
the 1920s and based on the novel {-Wives and Concubines} by Su Tong, stars GONG LI as
Songlian, the fourth wife of an elderly landlord. Songlian is a college student who has been
married off by her stepmother, so it is with tremendous frustration that this woman, who had
hopes of using her education to broaden her horizons, now finds herself reduced to a small
enclosure at the beck and call of her husband. Despite being given a maid (KONG LIN) and
luxurious surroundings, she feels trapped inside the cheerless walls. Upon her arrival,
Songlian realizes that she must keep one step ahead of her rivals, the three other wives. She
also learns of her husband's tradition of lighting a lantern outside of the house of the wife
with whom he intends to spend the night. During the first night together with her husband, she
finds he is called away to tend to his spoiled third wife (HE CAIFEI). Songlian then becomes
acquainted with his other wives -- his first wife (JIN SHUYUAN), an elderly woman who ignores
Songlian; the third wife, an ex-opera singer; and the second wife (CAO CUIFENG), who offers
Songlian friendship and helpful advice. But it turns out that the second wife's motives are
not exactly innocent--she is conspiring with Songlian's maid to undermine both the third wife
and Songlian. RAISE THE RED LANTERN is a moving exploration of power in a suffocating world of
ossified tradition and naked ambition-a masterpiece of 1990s world cinema. ~ Paul Brenner,
Rovi
09-JUN-2013
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf?
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf?
"You are cordially invited to George and Martha's for an evening of fun and games." Thus read
the ad copy for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which in 1966 went farther than any previous
big-studio film in its use of profanity and sexual implication. George (Richard Burton) is an
alcoholic college professor; Martha (Oscar-winner Elizabeth Taylor) is his virago of a wife.
George and Martha know just how to push each other's buttons, with George having a special
advantage: he need only mention the couple's son to send Martha into orbit. This evening, the
couple's guests are Nick (George Segal), a junior professor, and Honey (Sandy Dennis), Nick's
child-like wife. After an evening of sadistic (and sometimes perversely hilarious) "fun and
games," the truth about George and Martha's son comes to light. First staged on Broadway in
1962 with Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill, Edward Albee's play was adapted for the screen by Ernest
Lehman, who managed to retain virtually all of Albee's scatological epithets (this was the
first American film to feature the expletive "goddamn"). Lehman opened up the play by staging
one of George's speeches in the backyard, and by relocating the film's second act to a
roadside inn (he also added four lines--"all bad," according to Albee). Thanks to the box-
office clout of stars Taylor and Burton, not to mention the titilation factor of hearing all
those naughty words on the big screen, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf was a hit, and it won 5
Oscars, including awards for Taylor and Dennis, though it lost Best Picture to A MAN FOR ALL
SEASONS.
06-JUN-2013
It Happened One Night.
It Happened One Night
Frank Capra's seminal screwball comedy, which won all five major Academy Awards for 1934, is still as breezy and beguiling today. Claudette Colbert plays Ellie Andrews, a spoiled heiress who has married fortune-hunting aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas), despite her father (Walter Connolly)'s objections. To keep Ellie from marrying this lothario, her father has been holding her prisoner aboard his yacht. But Ellie bolts from the yacht, swims ashore in her clothes, and eventually slips onto a Greyhound bus bound for New York. Aboard the bus is newspaper reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who has recently been fired for drinking on the job. Peter gets the last seat on the bus -- but when he gets up to argue with the bus driver, Ellie takes his seat. Since it is the last seat on the bus, they have to share it. When Ellie has her purse stolen and she refuses to report it, Peter begins to suspect something. The next morning, they both miss the bus after a leisurely breakfast, and Peter reveals that he knows her identity. She makes a deal with him: if he helps her get to New York, he can write a scoop about her for his paper. Peter thinks she is a spoiled brat, however, and refuses a monetary bribe: "I'm not interested in your money or your problem. You, King Westley, your father -- you're all a lot of hooey to me!" But as they travel northward and engage in a series of misadventures, the gruff newspaperman and the spoiled rich girl, thrown together by circumstances, fall in love with each other. This movie set the pace for the "screwball" comedy, the witty and romantic clash of temperaments between a man and a woman mismatched in both personality and social position, a type of movie often associated with Katherine Hepburn in such classics as Bringing Up Baby (1938), THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940), and, with Spencer Tracy, ADAM'S RIB (1949), PAT AND MIKE (1952), and DESK SET (1957), among others. The only other movies to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay) were ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975) and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
06-JUN-2013
Boogie Nights.
Boogie Nights
Fantastic bravado from a 27-year-old filmmaker who has laid-back wit, amazingly fluid camera technique and no qualms about borrowing from the best. Following the ''Nashville'' blueprint, Paul Thomas Anderson explores the quaint customs and inchoate longings within an insular pop subculture, this time the sleazy, druggy universe of 70's porn. From spectacular party sequences to clear proof that the party is over, this busy, wildly colorful film has no trouble holding interest -- far from it. But its extravagant length is a tactical mistake, since it promises bigger ideas than Mr. Anderson delivers. Mark Wahlberg gives a terrifically appealing performance in the story's tricky central role. Prominently featured in the fine ensemble cast are Burt Reynolds, doing his best and most suavely funny work in years as a porn auteur, and Julianne Moore as his ethereal, vaguely tragic star. Minor details, like her hilariously bad porn acting or the flashy period costumes, are an evil treat. — Janet Maslin
08-JUN-2013
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here.
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here
After being blacklisted from Hollywood for 21 years, writer/director Abraham Polonsky made a
healthy comeback with Tell Them Willie Boy is Here. The title character, played by Robert
Blake, is a Paiute Indian living in 1909 California. After several years in the White Man's
world, Willie Boy returns to his reservation, hoping to renew his romance with tribeswoman
Lola (Katherine Ross). Old Mike (Mike Angel), Lola's father, strongly disapproves of her
relationship with Willie Boy and attacks the youth. Acting in self defense, Willie Boy kills
Old Mike. Under tribal rules, Willie Boy is now permitted to claim Lola as his woman. But
white lawman Christopher Cooper (Robert Redford) is forced to charge Willie Boy with murder.
The Indian and his girl escape the reservation, pursued by the essentially decent Cooper and a
less-than-decent crowd of white vigilantes. What begins as comparative minor incident,
snowballs into a huge political crisis, with the bewildered but defiant Willie Boy as the
catalyst.
07-JUN-2013
Absence Of Malice.
Absence Of malice
In this legal drama from director Sydney Pollack, Sally Field stars as Megan, an ambitious
newpaper reporter who, based on information from FBI investigator Rosen, played by Bob
Balaban, writes a scathing article that implicates Gallagher, a reclusive business-owner
played by Paul Newman, in the recent disappearance of a labor leader. When Gallagher confronts
Megan and sets her straight, the two team together to prove his innocence and have a few
romantic interludes along the way. Wilford Brimley and Melinda Dillon also star. ~ Matthew
Tobey, Rovi
06-JUN-2013
Shadow Dancer Out Of Bounds Image
Shadow Dancer
In the prologue of James Marsh’s taut, somber conspiracy thriller “Shadow Dancer,” the 12-year-old Collette McVeigh (Maria Laird), idly stringing beads into a necklace, ignores her father’s request to go out and buy cigarettes.
