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If A Simple Plan was Sam Raimi’s Northern gothic, then The Gift is his Southern gothic. Beautiful in its spareness and simplicity, it spins a chill-inducing tale from a seemingly mundane story by mixing in supernatural elements and treating them with a refreshing down-to-earthness.
So what the Coens did with O Brother, Where Art Thou? is this: They transported Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey to this filmic otherworld of theirs, turning what is perhaps the original on-the-road story into a Depression-era fantasia that wants more for you to recognize the clever fun they’re having with filmmaking conventions of the 1930s than whether you know the least thing about ancient literature.
It’s a story oft told: the star-crossed lovers separated by circumstance, but rarely has it been related so dramatically as in Im Kwon Taek’s Chunhyang. Combining the theatrical and the cinematic, Im draws on ancient Korean operatic traditions while utilizing some of the lushest, most gorgeous cinematography this year to create a film that is poetic and lyrical, both visually and aurally. If only it were as engaging of the emotions as it is the senses.
If you’d like to really scare a child out of the Christmas spirit, plop her down in front of Santa Claus, the Movie. Just be sure to set aside sufficient funds for a lifetime of therapy afterward. Truly, this is perhaps the mind-numbingest, most incoherent, most amoral Christmas movie I’ve ever seen, and that’s including Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Not only is the so-called story a disjointed mess — there are at least three different movies jammed in here — but this disgusting film turns Santa into an idiotic, heartless bastard.
The House of Mirth — based on the Edith Wharton novel and written for the screen and directed by Terence Davies — is a strikingly beautiful film about the discreet ugliness that characterized proper society at the beginning of the twentieth century, and how petty inhumanity set women up, almost inevitably, for ruination.
The Emperor’s New Groove demonstrates how stale the Disney formula had become, and how successful the Mouse could be by daring to break an old mold… even if it isn’t obvious at first that anything new is happening here.
One of the Warner Bros short features, aimed at young audiences, about the teen-girl detective’s adventures, though she’s cast as a rather interfering little brat. Still, it’s good clean fun for kids.
Based on the children’s book of the same name, Olive, the Other Reindeer is the first animated Christmas special from the Fox TV network, and it’s chock full of the kind of quirkiness we’ve come to expect from the net that has given us The Simpsons and The X-Files. And Olive herself is the least of it.
The Meanspirit of the Season When the sticky-sweet sentiments of the season threaten to send into a diabetic coma and you’re ready to take hostages if you hear that Muzak rendition of “Jingle Bell Rock” over the mall loudspeaker system one more goddamn time, then you are ready for the twisted and profane Beavis & … more…
Amália Rodrigues was one of the most popular singers ever, and one of the best, apparently — in 1959 Variety called her one of the four best voices in the world. A veritable ambassador of Portuguese culture, Rodrigues took the “Fado,” a traditional form of sung lament, and brought it to a world that welcomed … more…
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