Arts + Life

An unforgettable study of occupation and defeat.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

That "Dogville" is unlike any other film in this century should satisfy the cinephiles.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

The film relies like many other American offerings too much on special effects.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

The credibility of documentaries and scientists is on the table here.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

Having just seen Kaurismaki's dryly-witty "Man Without a Past," I couldn't believe that director Bent Hamer's "Kitchen Stories" is actually drier and funnier. The Norse/Swedish co-production depicts 1950's Swedes studying bachelors in their kitchens to improve their lives. Swedish scientist Folke, in a high chair like some infantile god, observes Norwegian Isak under the restriction that he must not interact with Isak.

Could we agree that this film should not be cloned?

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

It's a killer.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

A memorably objective documentary and an uncommonly informative biography.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

An existential comic book made into a movie!

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

Hell hath no fury like an "X-Files" type of film faithfully adapting a revered comic book with the darkly existential theme of "choices." Director Guillermo del Toro's "Hellboy" playfully brings to life the story of a demon from hell conjured by WWII Nazis occultists under the supervision of the legendary Rasputin and freed by US troops to fight ghosts and monsters for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

The Coens haven't dug themselves too deeply into the hole of an uneven comedy.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

Throughout this Cannes-winning, almost docudrama, Van Sant turns our expectations upside down.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

What's in the name of a place? Tombstone, Columbine? The former conjures up thoughts of heroic justice, the latter mass murder. Understanding the motives of Wyatt Earp or Dillon Klebold is not as easy as the place names; interpreting a film about either event as antiviolence is not easy either.

"Spartan" may be the best spy movie ever made by a practicing playwright/director.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

"Touching the Void" is satisfyingly serious stuff.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

"Touching the Void" is what successful docudrama should be: thoroughly accurate and terrifyingly dramatic. The accuracy comes from the narration by original climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates; the drama comes from British filmmaker Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September--the terrorist attack on the 1972 Israeli Olympic team in Munich).

I found the ultimate stoner flick.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

I found the ultimate stoner flick, "Starsky and Hutch," a nonsensical satire of the'70's TV show that is so sweet I might even suggest my 11 year old friend, Mariah, see it for a glimpse into the loose, lush, and lurid world her parents experienced at her age.

It's arid and slow.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

The director has not asked any more of us than that we affirm life.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

Like any top-rate documentary, applications to human nature and current events abound.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

I do hope there is a heaven, so I finally can ask to see a life of Christ worthy of its subject.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

I came into "The Passion of the Christ" an agnostic; I left a true believer in the power of marketing. Director Mel Gibson has promoted this film to all of Christendom and more, engaging the pope enough to publicize his alleged remark that the film shows the way it was.

"The Dreamers" is no shock despite its NC-17 rating.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

If you're not shocked to see an anesthetized audience of young people watching Sam Fuller's 1963 "Shock Corridor" during the student revolts of 1968, then you may understand why Bernardo Bertolucci's ("Last Tango in Paris") "The Dreamers" is no shock despite it NC-17 rating.

The most imaginative lampoon of 2 societies.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

When does strange become entertaining? When does satire become art? When does cartoon eclipse film? It all happens in writer/director Sylvain Chomet's French Canadian "The Triplets of Belleville." Bypass your Burton (Tim, that is) and discover that this film is the most imaginative lampoon of 2 societies in at least a decade, maybe forever.

"Miracle" is what American filmmakers do best.

By John DeSando. WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

"Seabiscuit" on ice? "Miracle" is what American filmmakers do best: a rousing true tale of an underdog overcoming insurmountable odds to win the prize. Director Gavin O'Connor's dramatization of the 1980 USA Winter Olympic team's victory over Russia's juggernaut champions for 15 years is even more exuberant than the horse race because the team represented the renewal of American spirit in times gloomy in the recounting. "Mighty Ducks" this is not.