Cyrano de Bergerac (review)

It’s mired in the dirt and the grime of 17th-century France, but there’s a kind of soaring beauty to this expansively passionate film, 1990’s Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign Film, perhaps the grandest adaptation yet of Edmond Rostand’s verse about the swordsman, adventurer, poet, and would-be lover whose heart is held in check by … more…

The Cuckoo (review)

A Finnish sniper branded a coward and abandoned by his fellow soldiers. A Russian captain, the only survivor of a road accident en route to his own court-martial. A Lapp war widow trying to keep her farm afloat. In 1944, in rural Lapland, these three, political enemies and cultural strangers, come together just as World … more…

Crime Story: Season One (review)

After a blockbuster debut on NBC in 1986, this grim series wallowed in the ratings basement and was condemned for its unflattering portrayal of cops, its violence termed “X-rated” by one police organization. Today, its nihilistic attitude feels thoroughly modern, a stark vision of obsession and pursuit from executive producer Michael Mann (Collateral, Manhunter). A … more…

Chi-hwa-seon (Painted Fire) (review)

Even those with no background in appreciating the sensuous, inky brushstrokes of Asian painting will be enthralled by this majestic and reflective biography of Jang Seung-up, considered Korea’s greatest artist. Some aspects will be familiar to fans of the artist-exposed biopic — the drinking, the philandering, the general debauchery — but director Im Kwon-Taek and … more…

Changing Rooms: Trust Me… I’m a Designer (review)

The Brits invented reality decorating and guerrilla design, and here it is in all its (dubious) glory. This compilation disc, which collects high- and lowlights from the BBC TV series (which has inspired numerous imitations on American cable), features a slew of designers with over-the-top, made-for-TV personalities who deploy garish colors and outlandish do-it-yourself projects … more…

Carnage (review)

In her compelling debut feature, Delphine Gleize achieves a mastery of the visual, the metaphoric, and the dramatic that few other veteran filmmakers could pull off. This is an expansive story about the whole shebang: life and death and sex and babies and food and dogs, all the really important things. A toreador is wounded … more…

Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie 2: The Sealed Card (review)

“Sakura Kinomoto has finally captured and converted all the Clow Cards into Sakura Cards and now… someone or something is stealing them away and is erasing vast parts of town including the people she cares about!” If this makes any sense to you, can you explain it to me? I’m not sure I could tell … more…

Yeah Right! (review)

Mind-bending director Spike Jonze — of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation fame — returns to his skate roots with this feature-length montage of exciting street skateboarding, shot in music video-size chunks with codirectors Cory Weincheque and Ty Evans. None but the most devoted fans of the sport will be able to sit through the entire … more…

Will & Grace: Season One (review)

It’s the show that made Middle America comfortable with gay stereotypes, and watching them pile up episode after episode is nauseating. It’s the flip side of the power of TV-on-DVD: The good stuff gets more intense and more fun when consumed in whole-season chunks, but the bad stuff gets worse, its sins magnified and amplified. … more…

The West Wing: The Complete First Season (review)

It may just be the finest prime-time drama ever to grace the airwaves. The smart, snappy zingers of office politics meet the Gordian knots of global politics behind the scenes at the White House of the Bartlet administration, full of intelligent, compassion people you can’t help but wish were more than the stuff of civic … more…