Trash, art, and the movies.
The names John Cobb, Malcolm Campbell, Mickey Thomas, Craig Breedlove and Richard Noble mean so much to so few people. Perhaps even fewer know of Burt Munro, who in 1967 set a class speed record for motorcycles under 1000cc at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. Munro’s accomplishments are notable, but at the height of the space program were quite possibly overshadowed by the test pilots of Edwards Air Force Base, and…
Who is Melquiades Estrada? Is he the sum of his parts? Is one man’s memory of this migrant worker true to who he really was? There are a number of films that examine the differences between seeming and being, but this one handles its subject in a style similar to Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill,” Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” and Gaspar…
Kenya (Sanaa Lathan) wakes up to a world of, from her point of view, numerous couples immersed in the amorous splendor of Valentine’s Day. This could be a film about how the minority female power-businesswoman needs to take a long vacation from her dry, corporate existence, and wind up somewhere in the Caribbean with some smoldering hot…
Bree Osborne (Felicity Huffman) is the kind of woman who, well, isn’t entirely a woman… yet. “This is the voice I want to use,” she says, repeating words from an instructional cassette, but in a quivering male voice — attempting to sound more feminine. She works as a telemarketer for Home Shopping Club, and regularly seeks the counsel and encouragement of her therapist and friend…
There’s only one purpose behind a sequel like this: money. Let’s assume for a second, however, that I care about how much money a film makes. Why would I make, more or less, the same film twice? Have I completely run out of ideas? There are plenty of writers in Hollywood pitching their ideas to studios. So why this? Well, that’s quite simple. It’s easier to…
In April of 1607, as the history books remind us, Captain John Smith (Colin Farrell) and and the Virginia Company—under a grant from King Charles I—settled to colonize what is now Jamestown, Virginia. As far as I know, that’s where the similarities end. As Jennifer Hemmingsen of Indian Country Today notes, historians seem to agree there was no romance between John Smith and Pocahantas. However, I’m not interested in judging the historical accuracy of films as I view all films as essentially derivative in one way…
Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Myers), a former tennis pro, is scoping out apartments near a tennis club. He tries reading Dostoevsky, but picks up the Cambridge Companion instead. This is a pun, but you’ll get why later. He’s invited to join his friend, Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode) and Tom’s father Alec (Brian Cox) at the opera. Tom’s sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer), glances surreptitiously at Chris throughout…
Because I didn’t exactly hate “Finding Nemo,” despite its recycling of a plot that’s essentially kept Disney on life support since “Bambi,” and because I found the concept of “Defending Your Life” amusing (yes, I’m an atheist, but it’s a movie), I thought this movie could be funnier than hell. I was born in India, and…