Desolation therapy
First, The Game. Now, The Edge. Tis’ the season, it would seem, for tycoons to undergo shock therapy. In real life, Ted Turner can find enlightenment with 10-digit philanthropy. But Hollywood requires a more tortured and circuitous route. Witness billionaire Charles Morse (Anthony Hopkins), tagging along on a photo shoot with his super-model wife, Mickey…
Alive and Kicking
Films in which the primary characters have AIDS generally focus on the mechanics of dying, the loyalty of grieving friends and partners, the reconciliation with (or estrangement from) family. At first glance, Alive & Kicking, written by Martin Sherman (Bent) and directed by Nancy Meckler (Sister My Sister), seems to fall into this category. It’s…
The Pillow Book
A pillow book is a sort of aphoristic diary favored by Japanese women of the upper classes during medieval times. In Peter Greenaway’s new film, The Pillow Book, a modern young woman named Nagiko (Vivian Wu), desires to create the ultimate pillow book, written on human skin. This ambition becomes one with the need to…
In & Out
In & Out is just not as incessantly funny as its ubiquitous trailers would have you believe. From that somewhat obvious, back-handed compliment, we dive into a film that is neither the screwball satire nor the touching human drama it takes so many flying leaps at becoming over its hour-and-a-half course. As one or the…
Kicked in the Head
“Terrible!” That’s what one frustrated preview-goer shouted at the screen as the end credits for Matthew Harrison’s Kicked in the Head began to roll. Question is whether that one-word critique might be going too far. Not if you came to this film expecting anything more than Generation X clichés. You know the drill. Un-hunky young…
