Month: June 2004

There’s something kinda, well, insidiously Stepford-esque about this new *Stepford Wives.* Like how could anyone not like it, this silly fluffy comedy thing, and even if you don’t like it, it’s just a silly fluffy movie, what’s to complain about? Anti-women? How’s that? Well, my goodness, isn’t this a satire sending up the very same misogynistic attitudes that were so creepy and disgusting in the original film?

Here’s Harry, thirteen years old and bursting with adolescent spunk, doing forbidden things with his wand under the blankets in his Privet Drive bedroom in the middle of the night. He’s practicing ‘extreme incantations’ — when Hogwarts students aren’t supposed to be doing magic outside of school at all — and delighting in pissing off unctuous Uncle Vernon in the process. All completely innocent…

In the cold, windswept deserts of Mongolia, a mother camel rejects her newborn calf, and the nomadic herders to whom the animals belong must perform an ancient ritual to reunite them. Byambasuren Davaa, who grew up in this world, and Italian Luigi Falorni developed this “narrative documentary” — a nominally fictional story with a real-life … more…

If the Amelie–ization of French film is going to continue much longer, count me out. Self-conscious in its cynical Gallic whimsy and exuding none of the innocent charm of its delightful progenitor, this “comedy” — which veers wildly from icky instances of near-incest to repulsive demonstrations of emotional brutality — features just about the most … more…