Month: September 2002

While it’s unlikely to change any minds on the subject of capital punishment, documentarian Liz Garbus’s disturbing examination of the execution of Wanda Jean Allen is worth a look by those on both sides of the issues, if only for the perspective it offers, one the public rarely sees. In jailhouse interviews and in her … more…

So ya gotta approach *City by the Sea* with a certain amount of trepidation. Sure, it’s got DeNiro and Frances McDormand, Goddess, and the Tormented Boy Wonder of the Moment, James Franco. But it’s also a ‘Franchise Pictures Presents.’

What has happened to our action heroes? I mean, my God. In less than 20 years, we’ve gone from charming, crazy bastards who wreak havoc in the name truth, justice, and the American way to remorseless, antisocial psychotics who wreak havoc because it’s fun and they’re getting paid buckets of money to do so. Are these the role models we want to be able to blame when our children “act up” and ‘jack the neighbors’ Benz? Has Hollywood lost all track of an easily defensible lack of moral focus?

Steven Soderbergh forced his cast to abide by a set of rules that sound a lot like what you and I have to trudge through every day: Drive yourself to work. Leave your friends at home. Dress yourself. Don’t be a big whiny baby.