FINDING DORY is lost at sea. She worked so well as a supporting character in FINDING NEMO (2003) that Pixar spins off Dory’s origin story in FINDING DORY – and only ends up highlighting what a horrifying brain disease she suffers from. Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres), a blue tang fish with short term memory loss, first appeared in the … Read More
INTERIORS
The Artistic Mind is a Terrible Thing to View. The scenes show what interesting characters the characters are – but it also shows what an interesting character Quentin is. — Christoph Waltz, 2013 interview for DJANGO UNCHAINED. Writer-director Woody Allen‘s early work certainly has two main gears: dark and absurd. The absurd gear drives comedies like SLEEPER, LOVE AND DEATH, … Read More
FATHER OF THE BRIDE 1991
Bridal Cower. A film with charm, grace and laughs, FATHER OF THE BRIDE is a rarity in the pantheon of White American Romantic Comedies (WARC). Firstly, because it’s watchable. Secondly, because it is post-comedy Steve Martin and it’s still watchable. Remade from the 1950 Spencer Tracy farce of the same name, director Charles Shyer retains that film’s original twist on … Read More
FATHER OF THE BRIDE PART II
The sequel doesn’t fall far from the remake. Two pregnant chicks. Male demographic fleeing into the night, cries of “eeurw” and “gimme a break” issuing like feculence into the slipstream of retreat. It was so easy to use someone else’s ideas to remake the 1950 film FATHER OF THE BRIDE that director-writer husband-wife team Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers use … Read More
SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE
Something’s gotta give – Jack’s heart, Diane’s hips, or my patience. Two white, upper class American senior citizens are thrown together, hate each other, and eventually fall in love. State of romantic comedy in America… yawn. Erica (Diane Keaton) hates Harry (Jack Nicholson) because he dates her daughter (Amanda Peet), and he demeans her for being stuck-up. He owns record … Read More
MANHATTAN
Allen’s Town. On the island city of MANHATTAN, Woody Allen’s masterful study of how every person is an island. Opening montage is enough to make you want to move there; a scintillating montage of the Manhattan skyline, the streets, the people, the shops and streetside vendors, from the scum to the scenic, Allen’s narration starting out purposely melodramatic and settling … Read More
SLEEPER
OrwelliAllen. Woody Allen pays slapstick homage to Charlie Chaplin in this futuristic satire on totalitarian societies. SLEEPER will be appreciated most by those with their eyes wide open. Milo (Allen) has been cryogenically frozen since 1973, now unfrozen 200 years in the future by scientists to combat an oppressive government Leader. As with all “future” films of the 1970’s, the future … Read More
THE GODFATHER
The Godfather Of Them All. It has been over three decades since its birth, yet THE GODFATHER reigns as the yardstick by which all other gangster movies are brutally scrutinized. From the magnificent acting, to the studied direction, to the 1940s era backdrop, to the sweep of the epic storytelling (which takes us from the sprawling dark corridors of New … Read More