Movies I Love, Part I: “Diva”

One guy’s opinion is that the character Gorodish (Richard Bohringer) is the coolest guy in all of film. His self-stated satori is the “art of toast.” He lives in a way cool, sparely furnished Paris loft with a bathtub in the middle, plenty of room for his muse — fetching Vietnamese ingenue/ kleptomaniac Alba (Thuy An Luu) — to blithely rollerskate about. He spends his days in a state of sublime existential sangfroid, piecing together an oversized crossword puzzle of a crashing wave. Or waxing on about the art of cutting a baguette. When he steps out of self-contained serenity, he drives a classic cream Citroen. He has more than one, a necessity you will discover near the end of the movie.

Gorodish is but one of the reasons why the film Diva is the first in a new regular series here — called “Movies I Love.” –heralding older films I, uh, well, uh, love. And you might too.

Review of “Dan In Real Life,” “Darjeeling Limited” & “Moliere”

It is not often that a contemplation of a relatively run of the mill — if entertaining — romantic comedy comes with a caveat about family life. Extrapolating one’s extended family situation from a comparison to the Burns clan in “Dan In Real Life” is fraught with peril.

Single father of three girls, Steve Carell, visits with ma and pa and sis and brothers and their kids over the holidays. Of course the patriarchs live a bucolic seaside manse in Rhode Island. And the family idles away their days in good humor and without any appreciable dysfunction, competing on crossword puzzles, doing jazzercize, having talent shows and playing touch football.

Who do they think they are, the Kennedys?

Review Of “Into The Wild” & “Gone Baby Gone”

Who among us when we were in our early twenties didn’t have questions about life, society, our parents, their values? I certainly did, as did most of my compadres.

Christopher McCandless did too. He graduated from Emory in the early 90’s. At which point, his intelligence and bubbling resentment toward his oft-warring parents manifested itself. Rather than going to Harvard Law School, as he might have done, he set out on the highway looking for adventure. And solace. And understanding. And escape. He seemed in search of the answer to the Big Question, though he probably couldn’t articulate the query.

Review Of “Talk To Me” & “Stardust”

When it comes to romantic comedies, none are less likely to be criticized while being remembered with fondness than the screwball comedies of seventy years ago.

William Powell and Myrna Loy in the Thin Man series, where a hint of mystery added to the memorable marital banter. Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake in Sullivan’s Travels. Cary Grant. Irene Dunne. Claudette Colbert. Clark Gable, even the tight-sphinctered Katherine Hepburn — those are the names we revere. The banter was fast and loose. And funny. The situations just real enough to pull us in; just distant enough to give us perspective. What could we have loved more than two superstars in love and screaming at each other while standing by the side of the road in middle America?

Review Of “The Bourne Ultimatum”

That The Bourne Ultimatum made the most money at the box office this sweltering August weekend is little surprise. What is stunning to me is the makeup of the crowd.

The Film Babe and I went to an afternoon showing on the flick’s first day in theaters. In the crowd were a bunch of literary types rarely seen in testosterone-laden action movies. The head of the library and his spouse were there. The couple that owns Louisville’s leading indie bookstore were there. And a number of other professionals, educators and aesthetes — serious people — the kind you’d never see at, say, a Die Hard flick.

Review of “A Mighty Heart”

We mostly remember the names of Oscar-winning films, don’t we? At least with a little help. Or a peak at IMDb.com. So, too, Academy Award-winning actors. Even supporting actors.

But I’d venture to guess that even the most film-addled of you readers out there will be hard pressed to name one film editor who has carried home the statuette from any awards show.

Review of “After The Wedding” & “Knocked Up”

Portraying melodrama is a dicey affair. At a base level it is rendered as Days Of Our Lives. But when done correctly, what comes about is the emotive intimacy that is the Danish film, After The Wedding.

Gray Matters About “Gray Matters”

I’ve got a couple of issues with a film I’ve just seen titled Gray Matters. Those issues are but peripherally related to the movie itself.

Few of you have seen the film. It’s playing first run at a second run house, Village 8. Which is one of the issues I want to address.

Few of you have seen the film, because it’s been pretty universally dismissed by the community of critics who have weighed in. Which is the other issue I wish to address.

Review of “Away From Her”

Under ideal circumstances, audiences suspend all other realities when entering the movie house. Actors, regardless of their public personas or previous portrayals, become the characters on the screen right then. They are of the moment.

Sigh. It cannot always be so.

Review of “Fracture” & “In the Land of Women”

The paramount question that comes immediately to mind about Fracture is this: If Adam Sandler gets continually dissed for playing essentially the same role in every film, how come Anthony Hopkins doesn’t catch the same grief?

Review of “Disturbia” & “Perfect Stranger”

Rarely do I reveal a spoiler about a film in a review. No matter how bad the film. Today is an exception.

Review of “Grindhouse” and “The Hoax”

Here’s what going to the movies used to be like back in the day. Way back in the day. Like when I was a tyke. Around noon on Saturday, my mother would drop me off at the Bard or Uptown or Airway. She give me 30¢ — 20¢ to get in, 10¢ for popcorn. Then she’d go play cards with her friends.