Arts + Life

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11:43am

Tue August 17, 2004
Movie Reviews

The Saddest Music in the World

"The still, sad music of humanity."

And I thought "Dogville" was stylized. Canadian writer/director Guy Maddin ("Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary," "Archangel") has created a film like no other this year except possibly "Triplet's of Belleville." "The Saddest Music in the World" is a "musical" set in Winnipeg in 1933, where Lady Port-Huntly (Isabella Rossellini) is holding a contest to award $25,000 to the saddest music performer. In "Depression Era dollars," no less.

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2:33pm

Mon August 16, 2004
Movie Reviews

Before Sunset

The real drama is in the talk.

"But at my back I always hear/ Time's winged chariot hurrying near."

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12:46pm

Fri August 13, 2004
Movie Reviews

Garden State

Amusingly quirky it is.

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9:11am

Fri August 13, 2004
Movie Reviews

BAADASSSSS!

It is one of the best ever to show the making of a movie.

BAADASSSSS!

"Rated X by an All-White Jury" may have been one of the most memorable and profound ad lines in film history.

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10:16am

Wed August 11, 2004
Movie Reviews

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter . . . and Spring

Filmmaking at its best.

I have to get off this "9/11" preoccupation--I'm seeing the event underlying too many films. Recently I saw the xenophobia in "Dogville" and "The Village"; now it occupies my imagination again in "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter . . . and Spring," a lyrical Korean masterpiece about isolation, love, death, and renewal.

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4:17pm

Fri August 6, 2004
Movie Reviews

Open Water

You'll know why I'm still living to write this review.

I have always been a little early for appointments, and I avoid taking overloaded tour boats to scuba dive. If you see writer/director Chris Kentis's "Open Water," you'll know why I'm still living to write this review.

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2:32pm

Fri August 6, 2004
Movie Reviews

Collateral

Best buddy team of the year!

Michael Mann successfully directed "The Insider," "Manhunter," and the "Miami Vice" TV series. Tom Cruise's work in "Magnolia, " "Minority Report," and "Vanilla Sky" shows his interest in stretching his acting experiences. Not surprisingly, then, their "Collateral" can be placed next to "Manchurian Candidate" and "Bourne Supremacy" for best of the 2004 thriller race.

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3:12pm

Thu August 5, 2004
Movie Reviews

Door in the Floor

A superlative performance by Jeff Bridges and an excellent turn by Kim Basinger.

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4:40pm

Mon August 2, 2004
Movie Reviews

Homeland Security: Defending "The Village" and "Dogville"

Let's relax and let our visionary directors take us.

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12:54pm

Sat July 31, 2004
Movie Reviews

The Village

A less harrowing experience than his other films but a more intellectually satisfying one.

The very noun "village" connotes a closed community often out of time with an outer world grown increasingly forbidding. M. Night Shyamalan's ("Sixth Sense," "Signs") "The Village" incorporates those notions and more modern isolationism and xenophobia stemming from ultraconservative politics and "9/11" to create a less harrowing experience than his other films but a more intellectually satisfying one.

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12:48pm

Fri July 30, 2004
Movie Reviews

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle

If stoner comedy has a place in the satire canon, this is one of the best.

If two chicks sitting in stalls playing "Battleshits" while the two Indian and Asian "heroes" hide between them suffering the sounds and smells of scatological low humor may be funny to you, then you should consider seeing "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle." My last stoner movie, the remake of "Starsky and Hutch," was indeed Sunday school by contrast.

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4:01pm

Wed July 21, 2004
Movie Reviews

The Bourne Supremacy

"Memento" this film is not; diverting fun it is.

"The Bourne Supremacy" is not a supreme thriller like "Day of the Jackal" but more like the middling "Enemy of State," "The Recruit," or "Spy Game." CIA operative Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is not even a remote substitute for James Bond. But "Supremacy" is an enjoyable chase through Berlin and Moscow and other world sites. The car race through Moscow is memorable albeit unbelievable, ending with curious similarity to the location of Princess Diana's death.

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12:10pm

Mon July 19, 2004
Movie Reviews

The Manchurian Candidate

One of the best American films of the year and the best thriller/political non-documentary.

Allegory is alive and well. If it must be a story with multiple levels of meaning, then Jonathan Demme's ("Silence of the Lambs") "The Manchurian Candidate" (Remade from the 1962 John Frankenheimer version) is a classic example. First level is the story itself of soldiers around the time of Desert Storm brainwashed to perform deeds that ultimately aim at the president of the U.S.

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4:29pm

Wed July 14, 2004
Movie Reviews

I, Robot

It at least continues the intriguing topic of what it means to be human.

Robots in the arts have always been intriguing. Isaac Asimov promoted them in science fiction to remind us as humans to celebrate our emotions and imperfections, usually coveted by our mechanical creations even with the prospect of death as the ultimate payment due.

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12:28pm

Wed July 14, 2004
Movie Reviews

De-Lovely

The allure of true love that transcends sex and ego!

As I think of the many variations documentaries have taken recently, from the polemical "Fahrenheit" to the realistic "Metallica," I am pleased to report the biopic remains more or less whole, with Irwin Winkler's ("Life as a House") "De-Lovely," the life in song about Cole Porter and his wife, Linda.

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4:27pm

Fri July 9, 2004
Movie Reviews

Carandiru

Babenco catches the hard sadness of prison life in "Carandiru."

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2:19pm

Fri July 9, 2004
Movie Reviews

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

We are left with a business partnership reviving its product.

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3:55pm

Thu July 8, 2004
Movie Reviews

The Clearing

"The Clearing" is a garden-variety kidnap movie.

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3:22pm

Fri July 2, 2004
Movie Reviews

America's Heart and Soul

Tired of Michael Moore's crybaby "Fahrenheit 9/11"?

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3:49pm

Wed June 30, 2004
Movie Reviews

Spider-Man 2

The best American movie so far this year and the best comic book adaptation ever.

"I'll peel the skin off your face!"

Spidey nemesis Doc Ock informs one of his victims how he feels. Here's how I feel about director Sam Raimi's ("Spider-Man," "A Simple Plan") "Spider-Man 2": It's the best American movie so far this year and the best comic book adaptation ever filmed.

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