Year: 2003

I’ve heard tell that there are women who find Paul Bettany positively dreamy. I’m not one of them, but there’s no doubt that his fans will swoon at this enjoyably morose and tragic tale of love and betrayal and tea — it’s Sense and Sensibility, with cheating. In fabulous 1930s England, where everyone dresses for … more…

G’day, mates. Here we have a little triffle from Down Under that wants to be all Hollywood, and does a pretty bang-up job without the big bikkies Hollywood woulda spent but with some damn fine Aussie star power to make up for the lack of moolah. The Twentyman brothers, for whom armed robbery is a … more…

It’s a measure of how far Hollywood has debased itself — and, by extension, the audience — and how literally disgusting movies have become that *Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd* could barely move me to feel anything — not disgust, not anger, not annoyance — except a kind of listless boredom. Oh, I glanced at my watch every 10 hours or so only to discover that mere minutes had passed, but never did it even cross my mind that if I really wanted to leave, no one could stop me.

Dear Harrison, It’s over. I’m sorry to be so blunt, but that’s the way it is. I don’t think you can honestly say that this comes as a surprise — certainly, I’ve been feeling the strain in our relationship for several years now.

Maybe the title is meant to imply something about the incredible lightness of forgiveness or redemption or the washing clean of your soul of bad things. That’s what very earnest movies about gentle ex-cons are usually about, aren’t they? Excessiveness or unseemliness simply won’t do here — frivolity is the enemy of earnestness, and surely there is nothing frivolous and everything earnest about redemption.

I’ve always found something vaguely sad and creepy about the circus, but nothing circus-y I’ve ever seen has been sadder or creepier than this stunningly tragic and oddly visually beautiful documentary about little girls sold — sold! — into the circus by their desperately poor parents. Dutch filmmakers Chris Relleke and Jascha de Wilde finagled … more…

I can’t pretend to appreciate for myself the eww-gross humor of Rugrats and their dirty-diaper jokes, but it delights me to see that kids today do appreciate such an imaginative crew of enthusiastic youngsters as Tommy Pickles and his pals. And ya gotta love The Wild Thornberrys with its pro-environment undercurrent and its snarky depiction … more…