Email Author Todd Anthony

1996 Stories by Todd Anthony

• We're Not in Nashville Any More

  published August 15, 1996

  The last time Robert Altman named one of his movies after the city in which it took place, he gave us 1975's sweeping satire Nashville, one of the... More >>

• Gags and Satire to Spare

  published August 8, 1996

  It comes as no surprise that the recent release Kingpin has been rolling gutter balls at the box office. The promotional campaign for the film... More >>

• Repeat of a Remake

  published August 8, 1996

  A lot of people, myself included, enjoyed director Andrew Davis's wildly improbable but winning chase flick The Fugitive, which bore little... More >>

• A Cliche to Kill

  published August 1, 1996

  A few bombshells from the movie adaption of John Grisham's A Time to Kill: The U.S. criminal justice system has flaws. Matthew McConaughey walks... More >>

• Film Is in the Details

  published August 1, 1996

  Nicole Holofcener sits at an elegantly set table in the nearly deserted Mayfair Grill and studies the cover of the press kit for her engaging new... More >>

• Just Say Junk

  published July 25, 1996

  Trainspotting is the most powerful, disturbing, and darkly funny movie I've seen since Crumb. The second film from the team that made... More >>

• Liv and Let Act

  published July 25, 1996

  Well, now we know: Liv Tyler can act. That probably doesn't qualify as an earth-shattering revelation of the magnitude of, say, discovering life... More >>

• Acting with Valor

  published July 18, 1996

  Every time Denzel Washington dons a military uniform you know you're in for a damn good movie. The actor has done some of his best work playing... More >>

• Beyond the Valley of the Dull

  published July 11, 1996

  Stealing Beauty has two things going for it: the lush, inviting beauty of the Italian countryside of Tuscany where the movie was filmed, and the... More >>

• The Aliens Are Coming! The Aliens Are Coming!

  published July 11, 1996

  If other intelligent life forms do exist in outer space, let's hope they never catch wind of Independence Day. Director Roland Emmerich's... More >>

• Sappy Psychic

  published July 4, 1996

  Jon Turteltaub's Phenomenon wants so desperately for you to like it that you feel guilty if you don't. In an attempt to create a Capraesque fable,... More >>

• Skin Diving

  published July 4, 1996

  Striptease may not be as precious as pure platinum or solid gold, but for most of its nearly two-hour running time the film is tauter than its... More >>

• Bell, Book, and Vandals

  published June 26, 1996

  Demi Moore continues her one-woman assault on classic literature with her appearance in Disney's latest animated feature, The Hunchback of Notre... More >>

• Delete When Necessary

  published June 26, 1996

  If his new turkey Eraser has any effect on Conan the box-office Barbarian's future per-picture asking price, perhaps Maria Shriver's square-jawed,... More >>

• Blue Jean

  published June 20, 1996

  Mark Rappaport makes funny movies. Not funny in the ha-ha, laugh-out-loud sense; rather, funny in the oddball, hard-to-categorize sense. Rappaport... More >>

• Fear and Loathing in Middle School

  published June 20, 1996

  A little girl gets picked on. It's amazing how Todd Solondz's stark, painful suburban comedy Welcome to the Dollhouse takes that simple premise... More >>

• Knock the Rock

  published June 13, 1996

  Excess shaped producer Don Simpson's movies, just as it shaped his life. With his partner Jerry Bruckheimer, Simpson latched on to a hit-making... More >>

• Murder by Numbers

  published June 13, 1996

  It took a sick mind to find humor -- even of the darkest shade -- in the murderous real-life exploits of Graham Young, a brilliant but twisted... More >>

• Light at the Edge of the World

  published June 6, 1996

  What do Anita Bryant and David Schwimmer have in common? In addition to whatever punch line you may have come up with, they also both grace this... More >>

• The Young and the Shiftless

  published June 6, 1996

  Rarely have I felt the urge to punch out a movie character as strongly as I wanted to deck John, the sullen protagonist of George Hickenlooper's... More >>

• May the Force Be with You

  published May 30, 1996

  The plot of the new movie Mission: Impossible probably makes sense, but I wouldn't swear to it. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt because it... More >>

• Blond Angel's Death Song

  published May 30, 1996

  Why do we glamourize beautiful people who willfully crash and burn, especially when they choose heroin to fuel their self-immolation? It's not as... More >>

• This Heaven Can Wait

  published May 23, 1996

  Alec Baldwin's newest star vehicle, the muddled thriller Heaven's Prisoners, wastes no time descending into cliched detective-movie hell. The... More >>

• All Hail the New Olivier

  published May 23, 1996

  French director Jean-Paul Rappeneau's The Horseman on the Roof is the kind of grand, stirring epic that lightweight pretenders such as Hollywood's... More >>

• The Heat of the Moment

  published May 16, 1996

  "The male is obsessed with screwing," wrote Valerie Solanas in her funny-scary radical feminist primer The SCUM Manifesto. (That's SCUM -- Society... More >>