AWN Blogs

On many best films of all time lists, this film inevitably makes an appearance. In the 2002 Sight & Sound poll (the definitive poll of critics and filmmakers every 10 years), the film was listed at #3, only behind Orson Welles’ CITIZEN KANE and Alfred Hitchcock’s VERTIGO. Is the film great? Yes. One of the best of all time? Well that can always be up for debate.

Part of the film’s power relies on the knowledge of the viewer going in. You need to know the film was made in 1939 just as the Nazis were knocking on France’s door. You also have to know a little bit about French society as well. Director Jean Renoir claims in a note at the beginning of the film that the production is not a social commentary, but that’s as much of a lie as any lie perpetrated by the characters in the film.

Wow is this film good. I’m just discovering Luis Buñuel’s work and I’m quickly becoming a fan. This film, (also known as THE YOUNG AND THE DAMNED) made in 1950 and released in the U.S. in 1952, takes a look at young street gangs in Mexico City. This film came in a period of Buñuel’s career after he was kicked out of the European scene for making a film deemed sacrilegious and the beginning of his work in Mexico.

The gritty black and white photography and the 1950s setting made me think of those “educational” films of the period that warned kids off drugs or sex. The film’s theme of street gangs adds to the comparison. However, Buñuel is too good of a director to make a preachy piece of propaganda. He was never shy to court controversy in the name of brutal realism and this film doesn’t shy away from the real hardships of ghetto life.

Gabe (Woody Allen, ANNIE HALL) and Judy Roth (Mia Farrow, ROSEMARY’S BABY) are shocked when their best friends Sally (Judy Davis, THE REF) and Jack (Sydney Pollack, TOOTSIE) announce that they are separating. This news opens up doubts and old wounds in Gabe and Judy’s marriage.

Jack and Sally say they mutually want to see other people, but she doesn’t know that he has already been seeing aerobics teacher Sam (Lysette Anthony, KRULL). So, Judy sets up Sally with her co-worker Michael Gates (Liam Neeson, SCHINDLER’S LIST), who she is really infatuated with. Meanwhile, Gabe becomes intrigued by his 20-year-old writing student Rain (Juliette Lewis, WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE?).

This interesting look at the infamous World War I battle at Gallipoli in Turkey is unlike any “war” film I’ve ever seen before. The actually fighting doesn’t start until almost an hour and a half into the film. The film takes its time establishing the characters before it thrusts them into the war.

Archy Hamilton (Mark Lee, EMMA’S WAR) is a young track star who desperately wants to fight for his country, but is at first turned down for being too young. He meets up with drifter Frank Dunne (Mel Gibson, MAD MAX), who at first doesn’t want to have anything to do with the war, however his best mates Billy (Robert Grubb, MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME), Barney (Tim McKenzie, WITH PREJUDICE) and Snowy (David Argue, THE COCA-COLA KID) want to join the adventure. The film chronicles the young men’s journey and actual struggle to join the army, which is led by the British on a suicide mission.

Often written off as exploitation trash, I beg to differ. You have to look deeper and listen to what the characters are going through to understand the underlying meaning of the film. Director David Cronenberg is known for his gross-out moments. I mean he made THE FLY remake and this film has its gross moments as well. However, I feel they work and add to the creepiness of this film because they sum up at the end of the film.

Frank Carveth (Art Hindle, PORKY’S) is a caring father toward his 5-year-old daughter Candice (Cindy Hinds, THE DEAD ZONE). His wife Nola (Samantha Eggar, DOCTOR DOOLITTLE) is at a psychiatric institute under the care of the menacing Dr. Hal Raglan (Oliver Reed, GLADIATOR). Frank is worried about his daughter visiting his wife when he discovers bruises on the little girl. Raglan’s methods are called Psycho-Plasmics, where Raglan plays the person the patient has issues with and helps them rid them of their rage, which often creates bumps on their skin. Nola has some major issues with her divorced parents Juliana (Nuala Fitzgerald, CIRCLE OF TWO) and Barton Kelly (Henry Beckman, I LOVE YOU TO DEATH).

Lucio Fulci, along with his elder Mario Bava (who he worked for) and his contemporary Dario Argento, are the trilogy of Italian horror legends. Fulci and Argento are best known for their gory horrors flicks. They took the gore of George A. Romero’s zombie movies to the extreme. I’ve seen two films each from Fulci and Argento. I like Argento, who makes gory horror with stories that remind me of Hitchcock and DePalma. I have not liked Fulci. Where Argento wants to scary you; Fulci wants to repulse you. Gore for gore sake in horror films is pointless and exploitative. When it’s done right it’s frightening.

But the former art critic and medical student Fucli seems obsessed with melting and torn human flesh. He also has something with eyes popping out or poked in. I think his place in cinema history comes from the fact that his imagery is unforgettable. But the bad car wreck that I saw last week is unforgettable too and that isn’t art.

It’s hard to say out of the five actors (Clint Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Don Cheadle and Johnny Depp) who got nominated for the Oscar, which one I’d drop, but it seems a shame that Kevin Bacon did not get nominated for what is his best performance ever. This smart and even-handed look at a pedophile is human and haunting.

Walter (Bacon, FLATLINERS) has just been released from a 12-year prison sentence for molesting girls aged 10-14. He gets a job at a lumberyard, where he meets tough and forward gal, Vickie (Kyra Sedgwick, WHAT’S COOKING?). However, lumberyard secretary Mary-Kay (Eve, BARBERSHOP) is very leery of the new guy. Walter’s brother-in-law Carlos (Benjamin Bratt, MISS CONGENIALITY) visits him, but his sister refuses to. Sgt. Lucas (Mos Def, upcoming HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY) pays Walter visits as well, talking down to him like he is the scum of the Earth.

First time writer/director Matthew Ryan Hoge has seen AMERICAN BEAUTY a few too many times. This film is like an entire movie following the weird neighbor Ricky from the Oscar winner. This is the film’s crucial mistake.

At the start, Leland P. Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling, THE NOTEBOOK) stabs autistic boy Ryan Pollard (Michael Welch, STAR TREK: INSURRECTION) twenty times and laments about the sadness. Leland is an emotionally stunted young man who is consumed by emotion but cannot express it. His father -- famed writer Albert T. Fitzgerald (Kevin Spacey, AMERICAN BEAUTY) -- has no relationship with his son, except for his purchase of a trip every year for Leland. (Note: Do not name a famous writer character after a famous writer unless you are writing about the real famous writer.) Albert comes to town smelling a book, but doesn’t ever go to see his son.

THE RECKONING is an unusually layered mystery dealing with corrupt leaders in the 1300s. Nicholas (Paul Bettany, MASTER & COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD) is a priest on the run – for he has been caught sleeping with another man’s wife and maybe an even worse crime. He comes upon a troupe of actors led by Martin (Willem Dafoe, THE ENGLISH PATIENT), who takes him in to fill a hole in the cast after one of their member’s dies.

They arrive at a town, run by Lord De Guise (Vincent Cassel, IRREVERISIBLE) and discover that a young boy has been recently murdered for which a deaf and dumb woman named Martha (Elvira Minguez, THE DANCER UPSTAIRS) stands to hang for the crime. Martin’s Bible-inspired plays have been doing poorly so he decides to put on the story of the murdered boy. Troupe member Tobias (Brian Cox, THE 25TH HOUR) doesn’t like the idea, because the story was not given to them by God. However, he is outvoted by the other members, including Martin's sister Sarah (Gina McKee, ATONEMENT), who is fascinated by Nicholas' mysterious persona. When Nicholas and Martin go to visit the accused for research, they discover a thicker mystery than they thought. As a way to cleanse his soul, Nicholas takes it upon himself to find the truth, which leads to complications that he couldn’t have expected.

Steven Soderbergh (SOLARIS) usually makes smart films, but here he returns to his cool mode for the sequel to his OCEAN’S ELEVEN heist flick. The first film was fun disposable entertainment filled with stars. The sequel has the same flare.

The film begins with Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia, MAN FROM ELYSIAN FIELDS) — the casino owner who gets robbed in the first film — tracking down the original heist gang and threatening to kill them if they do not return the cash they stole plus interest. So Danny Ocean (George Clooney, INTOLERABLE CRUELTY), now married to Benedict’s ex-wife and his former wife Tess (Julia Roberts, CLOSER), regroups the gang and goes to Europe for his next heist.

This Oscar-winning best picture was a landmark film in dealing with anti-Semitism and prejudice in general. Philip Schuyler Green (Gregory Peck, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD) and his family have been brought to New York by a large newspaper that wants Phil to do a series on anti-Semitism. At first Phil is reluctant because he doesn’t know what else to say that hasn’t been said before. One night, he has an epiphany — he will pretend to be a Jew and write the article from that perspective.

In New York, he meets wealthy socialite Kathy Lacey (Dorothy McGuire, THE GREATEST SOLD EVER TOLD) and soon the widower and the divorcee are engaged to be married. Phil sees first hand the prejudice toward Jews from doctors and rich snobs and from the perspective of his childhood friend Dave Goldman (John Garfield, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE). He also sees it in Jews like his secretary Elaine Wells (June Havoc, 1945’s BREWSTER’S MILLIONS). But the most powerful example of casual bigotry comes from Kathy, which creates riffs in their relationship.