AWN Blogs

If you've read my reviews with any regularity than you know that I love the films of Hayao Miyazaki. This film was recently released in the U.S. for the first time after being released in Japan in 1986. As usual, Miyazaki presents a unique imagination that is unmatched in cinema. He creates worlds so original that there is no comparison.

This film follows a young miner named Pazu (voiced by James Van Der Beek, TV's DAWSON'S CREEK), who dreams of flying. His simple life changes when a young girl named Sheeta (Anna Paquin, X-MEN) floats down from the sky after falling from an airship that was attacked by pirates led by the crone-ish Dola (Cloris Leachman, LAST PICTURE SHOW). Pazu and Sheeta go on the run trying to avoid the pirates, as well as the military, which is lead by secret agent Muska (Mark Hamill, STAR WARS). Along the way, Pazu and Sheeta learn about the legendary floating city of Laputa, an advanced society that once ruled the world.

I read a lot of the public's reviews of movies on IMDB.com. The first review listed for PUMPKIN loathes it. That person called it the worst movie of the year. You may hate it also, but I think it's one of the best. Some films that skirt the edge will get mixed reactions, especially if people just don't get it. The movie is a cross between HAROLD & MAUDE and a John Waters film (POLYESTER). It's not subtle and by no means is it PC about its subject matter.

The film follows super peppy sorority member, Carolyn McDuffy (Christina Ricci, SLEEPY HOLLOW) as she and her sorority sisters plan how they're going to win Sorority of the Year. They talk about how they desperately need to recruit the pretty "black" girl and the white looking "Filipino" girl because the Greek council likes diversity. But the crowning moment is their choice of charity work — coaching handicapped and retarded kids for the Challenged Games. Carolyn doesn't like the idea at all. She is assigned Pumpkin Romanoff (Hank Harris, MERCURY RISING), a wheelchair bound boy who can barely talk. At first, Carolyn is completely disgusted with Pumpkin because he makes her feel so uncomfortable. But soon enough she starts to like him, even setting him up on a double date with her and her big-man-on-campus, tennis star boyfriend Kent Woodlands (Sam Ball, THE LAST CASTLE).

The best way to describe this film is by quoting its own tag line, "The motion picture with something to offend everyone!" This biting satire starts out lampooning Hollywood and the cultural differences between the British and Americans then spends the last two acts attacking the funeral business and polite society in general. The film mercilessly makes fun of everything and anything that it can sink its teeth into.

The film's central character is Dennis Barlow (Robert Morse, THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES), a young wanna-be poet who moves to L.A. from England. He moves in with his gay uncle Sir Francis Hinsley (John Gielgud, ARTHUR), who ends up dying and leads Dennis to Whispering Glades funeral parlor where he meets the beautiful, naive make-up technician Aimee Thanatogenous (Anjanette Comer, THE PENNSYLVANIA MINERS' STORY). Competing with Dennis for the affections of Aimee is effeminate, momma's boy embalmer Mr. Joyboy (Rod Steiger, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT). To get a picture of what Joyboy is like think of Bill Murray in ED WOOD.

Anyone who knows me will know that I'm a major fan of this film -- it's one of my favorites. I truly feel it's one of the most underrated films of the last decade. Director Lasse Hallstrom poetically visualizes Peter Hedges' angst-filled coming-of-age novel, bringing it to the screen in a funny and delicate way. Gilbert Grape has a quirky family, but you'll see a real family when you meet them. Brimming with originality, the character study not only builds one believable life, but a whole community of them.

It's a classic tale of a lethargic young man (Johnny Depp, ED WOOD), who lives in a small Mid-Western town named Endora and tries to do the right thing for his family. His younger brother Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio, TITANIC) is autistic and needs a lot of special attention — and even more patience — to deal with. Gilbert also has two sisters. The older, Amy, (Laura Harrington, PAULIE) was recently laid off from the local elementary school and the younger, Ellen, (Mary Kate Schellhardt, APOLLO 13) is a cocky teenager who works at the local ice cream shoppe. They all care for their 800-pound-plus mother, Bonnie (Darlene Cates, TV's WOLF GIRL), who hasn't left the house to years.

This is one of the craziest love stories you'll ever see. I guess many boss/secretary relationships are sadomasochistic, but no other film has ever made that so literal.

Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal, DONNIE DARKO) has recently been released from a mental institution because she likes to cut herself. Her family is neurotic to say the least. Her father (Stephen McHattie, BASEKETBALL) is an alcoholic and her mother (Lesley Ann Warren, TWIN FALLS IDAHO) is an overly pleasant smotherer. Lee goes to an interview at the law office of E. Edward Grey (James Spader, SEX, LIES & VIDEOTAPE), a man who goes through so many secretaries that he has an illuminated "secretary wanted" sign outside the building.

At face value the film seems like a romantic comedy, but it really is more about loves lost and New York itself. If Paris is the city of love than I think this film is saying that New York is the city of longing.

The film starts off with Isaac Davis (Woody Allen, ZELIG) giving a narration about New York, but he changes it ever so often and paints a different image of New York. I think Isaac the character and Allen the director see the Big Apple as a magnificent city in turmoil with its greatness and beauty, and its moral and structural decay. Don’t let that heavy sounding description scare you. It serves as the backdrop for the characters.

Isaac is an insecure two-time divorcee who is currently dating a 17-year-old beauty named Tracy (Mariel Hemingway, PERSONAL BEST). Isaac seems rattled by her devotion to him because she is so young and he is so weary of romance. There whole relationship consists of him trying to distance himself from her because she may genuinely care for him. To mirror that relationship, we have Yale (Michael Murphy, PRIVATE PARTS) who is cheating on his wife, Emily (Anne Byrne, WHY WOULD I LIE?) with neurotic socialite, Mary (Diane Keaton, ANNIE HALL). Adding to Isaac's mental anguish, his ex-wife, Jill (Meryl Streep, ADAPTATION), who's now with a woman, is writing a tell-all book about her marriage with him. Eventually, Isaac and Mary hook up which is more because they have no one else to talk to. Isaac's break-up scene with Tracy is quite ironic — it's set in an ice cream pallor.

I've seen bits and pieces of this film over the years, but never all the way through until now. I was surprised at how subtle some of the satire is and how dead on it is with some of its comments about family vacations. The ending has a nice sardonic touch, which satirizes American family values as well as the Walt Disney empire.

The plot is simple -- Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase, FLETCH) wants to drive his family from Chicago to Los Angeles to visit the Wally World theme park. Along the way they encounter everything that could go wrong. Chase is perfect in the role of the overachieving father, with a dialed down performance that is absent from the other VACATION flicks even the solid CHRISTMAS VACATION installment. His wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo, AMERICAN HISTORY X) loves Clark's enthusiasm and encourages him… up to a point. "Rusty" Griswold (Anthony Michael Hall, PRETTY IN PINK) is a typical horny teen and Audrey Griswold (Dana Barron, THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK) is your typical boy-obsessed, rebellious teen. Rusty is just young enough to still dig his father's vacation plans and Audrey is just old enough to loathe the entire idea.

The film follows a tribe of Eskimos through hunger, marriage, betrayal, murder and revenge. It's the first fiction film done in the Inuktitut language, starring a completely Inuktitut cast and filmed by a crew comprised of 95% Inuktitut people.

The film starts out with Atanarjuat (Natar Ungalaaq) and his older brother, Amaqjuaq (Pakak Innuksuk), as children and how their family gets ridiculed because their father is not a good hunter. When Atanarjuat and Amaqjuaq grow up they become great hunters to the envy of another young man, Oki (Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq).

Atanarjuat has been in love with Atuat (Sylvia Ivalu) since he was child, however her father has promised her to Oki. Oki is jealous of Atuat and Atanarjuat's relationship, which finally ends in an ancient fighting tradition to win her hand in marriage. The fighting is brutal where the men just punch each other in the temple until the first one is knocked out. Later on, Atanarjuat takes a second wife, Puja (Lucy Tulugarjuk), Oki's sister, who turns out to be selfish and lazy.

Some films seep into the popular vernacular. We quote them without really knowing what we're quoting. I don't know how many times I've said, "He sure got a purr-dy mouth," but I didn't know where it was from, until now.

The film is simpler than I thought it would be, but that doesn't diminish its power. This psychological thriller had me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to pop out of the woods next. Four city boys head out onto a river in the Appalachian Mountains that will soon be transformed into a lake once a new dam is completed. Their trip starts out fun, but quickly turns into terror when they get brutally attack by sadistic rednecks. The film equally deals with the ideas of man vs. nature and city folk vs. county folk.

Lots of films have been made about the Holocaust, however none has transported me into the experience more than this film. Director Roman Polanski (CHINATOWN, ROSEMARY'S BABY) has assembled scenes of the tragedy similar to the horrors that we have seen before, but he presents them from the eyes of a man just trying to survive.

The story follows the true-life story of famed Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody, SUMMER OF SAM). In college, I read the book, NIGHT, by renowned Holocaust survivor and scholar Elie Wiesel, which depicted how the Nazi's inhumane treatment of the Jews made some of the Jews inhumane themselves. To me that is the saddest thing about the atrocities. To beat a human down so much that they almost cease to be a human. This film shows some of that, which brings a unique emotional power to the film that other Holocaust films have not. Szpilman isn't presented as a hero, but a survivor and a witness. He did what he had to do to live, but was able to retain his identity throughout.

The film is being billed as a comedy, but it's not a laugh-a-minute fest. If this is a comedy it might be the saddest, most depressing comedy of all-time.

The film follows the life of Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson, AS GOOD AS IT GETS) right after he retires from his assistant VP post at an Omaha insurance firm. He's a 66-year-old man, who doesn't look forward to his retirement and the feeling that he is not needed or not important anymore. He is a cheap man, who plans to travel in a Winnebago with his wife, Helen (June Squibb, MEET JOE BLACK). However, when she suddenly dies, Warren is thrust into a future that he didn't expect.

The film from that point on is his soul-searching journey to find meaning again. There are little things about this film that impress me. I loved the many cause-and-effect moments that happen throughout the film, which bring light to opinions that Warren thought earlier. He judges others, but forgives when he finally is able to turn his gaze back on himself. I liked the brutal honesty of the film, especially how it enlightens us to how people tend to deify their children while they demonize the spouses.