Email Author Todd Anthony

1996 Stories by Todd Anthony

• It Blows

  published May 16, 1996

  In the summer of 1993, director Steven Spielberg and author Michael Crichton collaborated on the highest-grossing movie of all time (a distinction... More >>

• Living for the City

  published May 9, 1996

  A naive foreigner with a funny accent arrives in New York City and learns some tough lessons about survival before adapting and ultimately... More >>

• Dead Reckoning

  published May 9, 1996

  Hypnotism works only if you allow it to. Even then not everyone who wants to be hypnotized can be. Jim Jarmusch movies are like that. You have to... More >>

• Directory Assistance

  published May 2, 1996

  Jeez, has it really come to this? Have cell phones, fax machines, and personal computers assumed such an integral role in our harried lives that... More >>

• The Fire Down Below

  published May 2, 1996

  The makers and distributors of the stale Argentine confection Killing Grandpa would love for me to compare their bland bonbon to the deliciously... More >>

• Monster Smash

  published April 25, 1996

  A different, more "traditional" (in the sense that Naked Killer's gleeful man-maimers are a tad atypical) kind of serial killer prowls the streets... More >>

• That Killer Instinct

  published April 25, 1996

  There's no getting around comparing the lurid Hong Kong lesbian assassin flick Naked Killer with Russ Meyer's Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Like... More >>

• Hollywood Snuffle

  published April 18, 1996

  Know anybody in L.A. who could use a 1988 Nissan Sentra? Filmmaker Matthew Harrison needs to unload his this week, when he returns to New York... More >>

• The Heidi Chronicles

  published April 18, 1996

  How sorry can you feel for an attractive, intelligent young woman who earned upwards of six million dollars per year by willfully engaging in an... More >>

• Sense of a Woman

  published April 11, 1996

  Reviews of each new Pedro Almod centsvar film seem to fall into one of two categories: (1) He's back! [NEW FILM NAME HERE] is his funniest movie... More >>

• Eyrehead

  published April 11, 1996

  Director Franco Zeffirelli reminds me of George Foreman. Like the larger-than-life boxer, Zeffirelli is a one-dimensional slugger. They both hit... More >>

• Dutch Treat or Dutch Bleat?

  published April 4, 1996

  As anyone who reads this column with regularity knows, I make it a point to boycott that annual orgy of industry politics and self-congratulatory... More >>

• Disaster Area

  published April 4, 1996

  In Flirting With Disaster, writer-director David O. Russell continues to tap into the fertile subject of family to create his edgy comedies. In... More >>

• The Thrill Is Gone

  published March 28, 1996

  If men such as Guy Baran didn't exist, neither would books about smart women and foolish choices. Strong, handsome, intelligent, and confident,... More >>

• Disconnected

  published March 28, 1996

  Maybe Spike Lee figured, "I made a great movie [last year's Clockers] about a serious subject [crack and violence and their impact on ghetto... More >>

• Way Too Little

  published March 21, 1996

  Ever notice how you can never wager on really interesting propositions? For example, you could have made a fortune betting that Fernando Trueba's... More >>

• The Caged Bird Laughs

  published March 21, 1996

  Mike Nichols's The Birdcage has a lot in common with Two Much. Both contemporary comedies make extensive use of bustling Miami Beach as a... More >>

• Raising the Coen Brothers

  published March 14, 1996

  Fans of black comedy and fiendishly frisky film noir rejoice: The Coen brothers are back! The savagely funny Fargo is a vicious sidesplitter,... More >>

• The Young and the Shiftless

  published March 14, 1996

  A bottle rocket is little more than a glorified firecracker on a stick. You point one upward and light it, but you can never be sure that it'll... More >>

• Back in the Driver's Seat

  published March 7, 1996

  At the risk of coming off like some stodgy codger bemoaning the passing of the good old days of American cinema, it really does seem to me that... More >>

• Out of the Cocoon

  published February 29, 1996

  Belinda and Philip Haas's (she produced; he directed; they both wrote the screenplay) slow but absorbing production of Angels & Insects reminded... More >>

• Accept No Substitutes!

  published February 29, 1996

  Surely by now the cinematic love triangle has become one of France's most enduring exports. Nobody plays more variations on the old three-part... More >>

• Potboiler 101

  published February 22, 1996

  Just as too many chefs spoil the broth, too many screenwriters spoil the script. In the case of the disappointing City Hall, a roster of four... More >>

• Oscars by Any Other Name Are Still Wieners

  published February 22, 1996

  I have a confession to make: I haven't watched the annual orgy of stupidity, vanity, and self-congratulation popularly known as the Academy Awards... More >>

• Landlocked Love Boat

  published February 15, 1996

  The dreaded date movie. Snotty critics such as myself hate the genre because real-life moviegoers tend to hold date movies to a different... More >>