On every level, Quiz Show is astonishing. It’s more than just a satisfying epic melodrama about the television scandals that rocked the broadcast industry almost 40 years ago; it’s the best American movie of 1994, and the most eloquent examination of the country’s contradictory sense of ethics since The Godfather…
Few movies pack as much potential for stirring up controversy as Cyril Collard’s Savage Nights. At heart it’s a traditional love story. But what sets Savage Nights (originally titled Les nuits fauves) apart is its topicality. Consider: Collard adapted the film (in French with English subtitles) from his autobiographical novel…
Redemption. Now there’s something I could use a little of. It’s been one of those weeks, man. Like any red-blooded American boy who ever played in little league, I experienced emotions I never thought were there when I heard about the cancellation of the baseball season. It was without a…
Quentin Tarantino and I have something in common: We’re both movie nuts who once worked behind the counter in video stores. I can’t speak for Tarantino, but most of my customers were couples (or one member of a couple renting something that both would see). And in nearly every case…
Don’t fuck with Fresh. He may be only twelve years old, but Machiavelli himself couldn’t play the street any better than this pint-size prince. Fresh Sr. is a speed-chess hustler in New York City’s Washington Square Park — “Bobby Fischer? Put him on speed and I’ll chew his ass up”…
There are three possible reasons to see Baton Rouge: Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, and Carmen Maura. If you’re not fond of the work of at least one member of that triumvirate of popular Spanish actors, you probably will have a hard time sitting through this clumsy Spanish film noir. And…
You can’t really blame the distributors of A Good Man in Africa for emphasizing the presence of Sean Connery in the film’s cast. After all he’s perfect for the role of high-principled Dr. Alex Murray, the only white man in the emerging West African nation of Kinjanja who cannot be…
Be afraid. Be very afraid. Oliver Stone has gone over the edge and he wants to take you with him. Stone’s new film Natural Born Killers is a splatterfest with a heart as black as gunpowder. Think Bonnie and Clyde with assault weapons. Remember that scene in Brian De Palma’s…
While the actors all turn in fine performances in director Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman the real star of the film is the food. Not since Babette’s Feast and Like Water for Chocolate has a motion picture given such mouthwatering due to meals. The film opens with widower Tao…
Although I’ve always been a vocal opponent of censorship in almost any form, after viewing the racy Color of Night I’ve had a change of heart. The time has come for Hollywood to start policing itself. I’m not talking about explicit sexual content A no, if anything I’d like to…
Last summer’s Cliffhanger elicited gasps from audiences as macho action-movie hero Sylvester Stallone scaled up and rappelled down sheer mountain walls. Stallone’s biceps bulged, his deltoids popped, and his face contorted like a world-class athlete’s from the strain. Stories appeared in the press portraying Stallone as fearless as a Wallenda…
It’s “the last decade of the Cold War” (as the opening titles inform us) in post-Franco Spain. Anti-U.S. sentiment is sky-high. Fred, the gung-ho advance man for the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet, has just arrived in Barcelona, showing up unannounced at the apartment of his less-than-thrilled cousin Ted, a sales…
I wondered where Tom Clancy, the inexplicably popular flag-waving hack author of The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games, was going to turn for source material now that the Cold War has ended. As Gomer Pyle, a U.S. Marine with an understanding of the complexities of international politics about…
The Lone Rangers, a struggling L.A. rock and roll power trio, can’t even come up with a name that makes sense; as several characters in the film Airheads point out, you can’t be a lone ranger if there’s more than one of you. But, like most unsigned bands, they believe…
I’m guessing I’m not the only Floridian who’s ever played the “What would I do if I won Lotto?” game. You know the drill: It’s Saturday night. 10:55 p.m. In two minutes the six numbered Ping-Pong balls that will change your life forever will be drawn. You sit in front…
Trivia question: What do eight of the twelve top-grossing films of all time have in common? Answer: Special effects by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the production studio founded by George Lucas in 1975. In less than two decades ILM has garnered thirteen Academy Awards for its handiwork. E.T.: The…
Here is what I look for in a thriller: a plot that turns on logic, not one that defies it. Characters whose behavior arises from believable motivations and whose actions do not feel arbitrary. Good guys who are not invulnerable, and bad guys who shoot accurately. An opening that grabs…
Good morning, class. Today we’ll be studying the laws of probability. Let’s begin our lesson with a word problem that will help you understand the basic concept. Pretend we’re making a movie. We want to calculate the likelihood that our movie will be a dog. Here’s our picture’s premise: A…
In Poland they have a saying that has become particularly popular in the wake of communism’s fall: “Everyone wants to be more equal than everyone else.” White is the second installment in masterful Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski’s film trilogy based on the trinity of precepts that guided the French Revolution…
It’s a pretty widespread practice in professional sports to retire the number of a player who has excelled at a given position. Hollywood ought to try something along the same lines. Oh sure, they’ve got the sidewalk stars along Hollywood Boulevard and the hand- and footprints in front of Mann’s…
Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest ones. And sometimes they’re so simple that you wonder why no one thought of them before. For example: Miami has been extremely receptive to quality Spanish-language cinema over the past few years. This should come as no surprise; it’s no secret that many…
“You have the most amazing weather here,” she says. “A minute ago it was raining. Now it’s clear.” More blinding than clear, actually. The sun is bouncing diamonds of light off the hood of my powder-blue Mustang. We’ve got the windows open. Radio blaring. Can’t put the top down, though…
