AWN Blogs

Director David Cronenberg (THE FLY) isn’t really known for doing things subtly, but here he constructs a low-key thriller based on a Stephen King novel, which is one of the best films about psychics that I’ve seen.

Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken, THE DEER HUNTER) is an average, conservative schoolteacher. He’s dating Sarah Bracknell (Brooke Adams, GAS, FOOD, LODGING), who he promises he will marry someday. But then, he’s involved in a car crash, which plunges him into a coma. When he awakes five years later, Sarah has married and has had a child. On top of it, Johnny is plagued with new psychic abilities.

The film deals with the effects of the coma and his new abilities with a natural approach, which makes the film thoroughly believable. Johnny at first wants to hold a press conference about his new powers, which turns into a circus and leads to his mother having a fatal stroke. Afterward, Johnny often hides from his second sight powers even when Sheriff George Bannerman (Tom Skeritt, M*A*S*H) wants him to help in a murder investigation. Later, when he sees the future of corrupt politician Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen, APOCALYPSE NOW), he must reconcile his feelings and find a way to act in the greater good.

Cute, but terminally silly – this film is pretty much a low-rent SPLASH with wings. Jim Sanders (Michael E. Knight, TV’s ALL MY CHILDREN) finds a gorgeous angel (Emmanuelle Beart, MANON OF THE SPRING) in his pool. She is hurt and he helps her heal her wing. However, this does not sit well with Jim’s fiancée Patty Winston (Phoebe Cates, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH) or her mean father and cosmetics company owner Ed (David Dukes, GODS AND MONSTERS).

Jim’s friends George (Phil Brock, RIVER’S EDGE), Don (Albert Macklin, GRACE OF MY HEART) and Rex (Peter Kowanko, SOLARBABIES) see a fortune in exposing the angel. Jim’s stepmother and Patty’s real mother Grace (Bibi Besch, STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN) and Jim’s father Ben (Vinny Argiro, MARS ATTACKS!) try desperately to patch things up between their children.

Luis Buñuel was a director who liked to push buttons and flaunt conventions. Beside his famed surrealist short, UN CHIEN ANDALOU, this is the first film of his I have seen. Séverine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve, THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG) is a 23-year-old, frigid newlywed, whose husband, Pierre (Jean Sorel, A QUIET PLACE TO KILL), is a doctor. She loves her husband, but really isn’t turned on by his classic good looks and his devotion to her purity.

Through their sleazy family friend, Henri Husson (Michel Piccoli, ATLANTIC CITY), Séverine learns of a brothel where married woman go while their husbands are at work. Curious and driven by an inner compulsion, Séverine goes to the whorehouse and becomes an afternoon prostitute named Belle de Jour.

I love W.C. Fields. He is a sarcastic SOB and marvelous. Much like his character in the amazing IT’S A GIFT, Fields here plays smokin’ and drinkin’ deadbeat Egbert Sousé.

His wife Agatha (Cora Witherspoon, THE WOMEN) and her mother Hermisillo Brunch (Jessie Ralph, THE GOOD EARTH) think very little of Egbert, who they see as a total bum. Egbert’s little daughter Elsie Mae Adele Brunch Sousé is a little hellion who often bludgeons her father with whatever she can throw at him. His older daughter Myrtle (Una Merkel, 1961’s THE PARENT TRAP) is very conservative and is dating the bank manager Og Oggilby (Grady Sutton, WHITE CHRISTMAS).

Egbert often hangs out in the Black Pussy Cat Café, which is run by Joe Guelpe (Shemp Howard, famed Three Stooge). Egbert kind of stumbles through life like Forrest Gump and good things just come along. One day at the Black Pussy, he cons his way into directing a B-movie shooting in his town. But the end of that job ends in his typical slacker fashion.

Not as emotional brutal as many made it out to be, but nonetheless brutally true in its observation of the troubles and hang-ups that surround love and relationships.

Obituary writer and wanna-be novelist Dan (Jude Law, SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW) helps stripper Alice (Natalie Portman, THE PROFESSIONAL) after she is struck by a car. After which, they start up a relationship. Then the film jumps forward, Dan is now taking photos for his book cover, which are being taken by freshly separated Anna (Julia Roberts, PRETTY WOMAN). Dan kisses Anna, who kisses him back, but she won’t see him because of Alice, who knows Dan is unfaithful. Later on, Anna meets dermatologist Larry (Clive Owen, I’LL SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD) in an embarrassing episode, which brings a very funny moment to this somber film.

Actor Stephen Fry, who has appeared in British TV’s JEEVES AND WOOSTER and the BLACKADDER series as well as film like A FISH CALLED WANDA and GOSFORD PARK, makes his directing debut with this satire of the idle rich during the early 1930s.

Based on Evelyn Waugh’s novel VILE BODIES, the story centers on young writer Adam Fenwick-Symes (Stephen Campbell Moore), who starts off his literary career by having his novel confiscated at customs. He is engaged to Nina Blount (Emily Mortimer, LOVELY & AMAZING), who parties day and night. Adam does not want to marry her until he has enough money. Surrounded by friends – gossip writer Simon Balcairn (James McAvoy, WIMBLEDON), cheeky homosexual Miles (Michael Sheen, UNDERWORLD) and ditzy Agatha (Fenella Woolgar, VERA DRAKE) – Adam stumbles into money and out.

What makes this documentary on artist Andy Goldsworthy so good is we get to see him make art. By focusing on his creative process, filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer has also told a fascinating tale about the man behind the art.

Goldsworthy’s work is totally original. The only way of describing it is to call it -- Christo gone organic. Goldsworthy’s work ranges from egg shaped piles of stones, wood and ice to S-shaped stonewalls and various other nature-inspired works. Many of his creations only last for a short time and then are destroyed by nature from which they came.

We watch as he constructs his delicate works that can fall apart in an instant. He also talks a lot about what influences him, the images and themes that are constant in his work and his motivations. By looking into the mind and heart of this one artist, the film looks into the world of all people who have the uncontrollable desire to create.

This isn’t the first and I’m sure it won’t be the last film about the trials of an aging actress. This isn’t ALL ABOUT EVE, but star Annette Bening makes it quite engaging.

Bening (AMERICAN BEAUTY) plays stage legend Julia Lambert, who is worn out from performing. She is feeling her age and is alienated from other people due to her star status. Her husband Michael Gosselyn (Jeremy Irons, REVERSAL OF FORTUNE) is a distant and vain man, who lives a separate life from Julia. One day a young American named Tom Fennel (Shaun Evans, THE BOYS & GIRL FROM COUNTY CLARE), who adores Julia and ends up seducing her, comes into their lives.

This affair sparks new life in Julia, however is becomes obvious that young Tom is an ambitious social climber and more interested in the young actress Avice Crichton (Lucy Punch, ELLA ENCHANTED). Julia is often counseled by her dead mentor Jimmie Langton (Michael Gambon, GOSFORD PARK), her assistant Evie (Juliet Stevenson, TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY), her best friend and crush Lord Charles (Bruce Greenwood, I, ROBOT) and her son Roger (Tom Sturridge, VANITY FAIR).

This film is a smart romantic comedy about looking for Mr. Right or Ms. Right. Erin Castleton (Hope Davis, AMERICAN SPLENDOR) is newly single. Her boyfriend Sean (Philip Seymour Hoffman, BOOGIE NIGHTS) has left her because she won’t participate in his leftist rallies. She’s a sad and cynical person, whose mother puts a personal add in the paper for her. Her personal ad dates contain some of the funnier moments of the film.

Running on a parallel story is Alan Monteiro (Alan Gelfant, MONKEYBONE), a plumber who volunteers at the aquarium and studies hard to become a marine biologist.

The film develops the characters through debates about love and relationships with friends. The two characters' lives weave in and out of each other with them just missing a meeting. The film is smart and observant about relationships and dating.

This film from John Ford (THE QUIET MAN) is the archetypical Western. It tells the legendary conflict that led to the shootout at the O.K. Corral. Henry Fonda (THE GRAPES OF WRATH) stars as Wyatt Earp, who takes the job as marshal of Tombstone after his youngest brother James (Don Garner, THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY) is killed by cattle rustlers. Earp believes Old Man Clanton (Walter Brennan, RIO BRAVO) and his sons are involved.

At first the wild town is reluctant to accept the new lawman, especially the town’s top gambler Doc Holliday (Victor Mature, THE ROBE) and his on-and-off-again Indian girl Chihuahua (Linda Darnell, UNFAITHFULLY YOURS). However, Wyatt and Doc soon become friends. However, Wyatt becomes torn when Doc’s true love from back East, Clementine Carter (Cathy Downs, THE SUNDOWNERS), comes to Tombstone.

There’s nothing revolutionary or subversive about this Western. It’s a fairly straightforward revenge drama. However, skilled writing that plays with story conventions combined with the always-wonderful screen legend James Stewart, the film emerges as a solid piece of cinema. As we will learn, greed for power is a dirty business to be in.

The film begins with Lin McAdam (Stewart) and his best friend High-Spade Frankie Wilson (Millard Mitchell, TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH) riding into Dodge City where sheriff Wyatt Earp (Will Geer, IN COLD BLOOD) is holding a shooting contest for a rare Winchester rifle. Lin runs into Dutch Henry Brown (Stephen McNally, JOHNNY BELINDA) who we can tell by their stare down have had a bad past together.

This famed musical is brought to life with wonderful performances by Deborah Kerr (AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER) and Yul Brynner (THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN).

Kerr plays Anna Leonowens, an English schoolteacher brought to Siam by the king (Brynner) to teach his children and his wives. Their relationship starts out rocky due to a clash of cultures, but they warm to each other as Anna learns the true heart of King Mongkut and he learns what a woman can really teach a man.

Brynner steals every scene he is in. He commands the screen and makes us forget that Hollywood during the 1950s felt any “ethnic” looking actor could be interchangeable as any ethnicity.

Tension arises when the King’s chief advisor Kralahome (British actor Martin Benson [ANGELA’S ASHES] who is the least convincing actor ever cast as an Asian) disapproves of the new idea’s Anna is feeding into the head of the king and young Prince Chulalongkorn (Patrick Adiarte, FLOWER DRUM SONG). Likewise, Anna and the king butt heads over the slave-like treatment of his young wife Tuptim (Rita Moreno, WEST SIDE STORY), who is really in love with Burmese messenger Lun Tha (Carlos Rivas, TRUE GRIT). Both Moreno and Rivas pass as Siamese okay. No more a problem than Natalie Wood passing as a Puerto Rican in WEST SIDE STORY.