Eve of destruction
John Scott’s doomsday machines and drawings reach out to one and all….
Veteran debutante
With 20 years of music under his belt, Nikki Sudden is finally landing on American shores.
A Price Above Rubies
Writer-director Boaz Yakin’s second film, A Price Above Rubies, is a clear-eyed fable about what happens when the needs of an individual clash with the expectations of a community. Sonia (Renée Zellweger) has everything her parents wished for her: she’s married to a promising scholar, Mendel (Glenn Fitzgerald), has a new baby son and has…
The Butcher Boy
Author Patrick McCabe calls Francie Brady, the protagonist of his novel The Butcher Boy, a cross between Dennis the Menace and Jack the Ripper. In the film version, co-written by McCabe and director Neil Jordan, Francie hovers uneasily between the two: one minute he’s an impish 12-year-old with a rich fantasy life, the next a…
Nights of Cabiria
Federico Fellini made Nights of Cabiria in 1957, between his contributions to the waning days of Italian neo-realism, La Strada (1954) and Il Bidone (aka The Swindle, 1955), and his first full-fledged, phantasmagoric films, La Dolce Vita (1960) and 8 1/2 (1963). Poised between realism and dream, it’s a darkly shaded fairy tale that unfolds…
The Knowledge of Healing
Aside from the occasional barbs of sitcom filmmaker James L. Brooks, the American health care system gets a free ride from Hollywood. Why is this? Millions of citizens each year go to their graves because their HMO treated them with the same cold actuary science that sets the morning betting line at the race track.…
