Arts + Life

Every woman who thinks about her weight should see this movie,...

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

...hip-hop is an important cultural contribution even white boys can offer.

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

Like "Evita," "Frida" is a romantic treatment of a flawed but immensely interesting Mexican icon.

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

Any attempt to make a biopic of an artist is bound to be imperfect because I always want immediate access to the source of inspiration and complete art deconstruction of the artist's important pieces. Neither is possible in a film and may not be desirable.

Forget the laughs in Jerry Seinfeld's "Comedian"...

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

Forget the laughs in Jerry Seinfeld's "Comedian" because what you learn from this documentary is not how to construct a joke or how funny he can be. You learn about the pain involved in being a professional; you learn that going back to what you were before you made half a billion dollars is difficult but essential to make you better at what you are now.

The 50's never looked so good or so insidious as in Todd Haynes' "Far from Heaven."

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

The 50's never looked so good or so insidious as in Todd Haynes' "Far from Heaven." Julienne Moore plays a stereotypically Women's-League do-good mother of 2, Cathy, whose life starts the deep descent into hell with the revelation that her husband, Frank (Dennis Quaid), is gay and she is attracted to her black gardener.

Sony Pictures Classics
Rated R

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

The success of the film, then and now, rests with the leads, and they failed.

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

"8 Women" is eight women short of the brilliant turn by one woman last year, Charlotte Rampling, in Ozon's superior "Under the Sand."

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

The film is filled with regular people making Asses of themselves about guns.

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

Michael Moore ("Roger & Me") knows no shame. In this funny, flawed, and ultimately important documentary about guns in America, "Bowling for Columbine," Moore's greatest moment is when he corrals poor Charlton Heston, president of the NRA, into an interview.

Pfeiffer does her best work here...

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

"White Oleander," adapted from Janet Fitch's best-selling novel, is hard and edgy about the bond between single mother and daughter, letting us see the reality of a strong artistic mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) tyrannizing her gifted daughter (Alison Lohman). After murdering her lover, mom goes to prison and daughter goes on an odyssey of self discovery in foster families, reminiscent of Burt Lancaster's episodic journey in John Cheever's "The Swimmer."

The story is slow, the dialogue trite, and nothing new has been added to the themes of father/son relationships and Mafia honor.

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

"Derivative without wit" is what I would call "Knockaround Guys." Blood, yes. Redemption--yes. Caring about anyone in this movie-No.

Four mobster sons descend on a small Montana town to locate a bag of cash meant for one of their fathers. Problem is, corrupt sheriff (Tom Noonan of "Manhunter's" Tooth-Fairy fame) plans to keep the $500K for himself and his deputy.

This "Red Dragon" is a second-rate "Silence" imitation and a poor remake of "Manhunter."

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

Director Brett Ratner's remake of Michael Mann's "Manhunter" is a vain attempt to capture the wide-eyed horror of the original and marry it to the genius of Jonathan Demme's "Silence of the Lambs." Because there is no better serial-killer story than "Lambs" in cinema history, Ratner's version is a lamb sacrificed silently on the altar squarely dominated by Demme and Anthony Hopkins.

...I witnessed one of the great comic satirists of our time.

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

Margaret Cho is a standup comedienne of surpassing talent, an American born to Korean parents. Her first theater release, "I'm the One That I want," treaded relatively softly on her bisexuality and established the imitation of her mother as a signature bit.

"Some Cupids kill with arrows, some with traps, " the poet once said.

By John DeSando, WCBE's

The compilation of the eleven films, then screened, covered the full range of human emotions.

By Clay Lowe, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

It was a somber evening in Toronto, the air heavy and moist with heat. The voices of those waiting outside Roy Thomson Hall were muted and subdued. The usual buzz of excitement anticipating the arrival of the limos full of world famous directors and stars was conspicuously absent.

Gabriele Muccinio's "The Last Kiss" is a rapidly paced bedroom romp...

By Clay Lowe, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

...when people follow their hearts, much as their heads resist, everything will turn out happily.

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

Reese Witherspoon does a Meg-Ryan imitation in this typically-American romantic comedy about a successful NY fashion designer who must choose between a glamorous marriage to a handsome patrician or staying married to a charming redneck back home in sweet Alabama.

See this documentary to find out what the title means...you may never be sure you are getting the true story.

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

We can talk about Hollywood endlessly from our experience with its movies and the endless gossip in our media. Some of us even have family members in the business, but we haven't completed our education until we've seen the documentary of mogul Robert Evans's life, "The Kid Stays in the Picture."

"The Four Feathers" is old-fashioned moviemaking at its best.

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

"Rules of Attraction" proves romance just isn't what it used to be.

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

Roger Avery's "Rules of Attraction" has taken Brett Easton Ellis's social satire and not only depicted a degenerated privileged class at a fictional New England college in the '80's, but he has also ironically idealized the students' search for love and identity.

Sex and drugs are rampant while class attendance is rare. The parties are called pre-Saturday night, dressed-to-get-screwed, or the end of the world.