reviews

In 1794, at the height of France’s Reign of Terror, aristocrats are being herded into genteel prisons to await the guillotine. Into this bizarre environment, simultaneously resortlike, what with the strolling on the lawn and the courtly manners, and miserable, what with the mass-grave stench of decomposing patricians wafting up from what used to be … more…

This bit of tween fluff is utterly inoffensive and completely harmless — but it’s also simplistic, predictable, and thoroughly unchallenging. Half extremely mild adventure and half schoolkid soap opera, the earnest plotline follows the new girl at a riding school as she tries to find her place in the society of “horse geeks” and snobby … more…

Not your typical rock ‘n’ roll movie, this is a bitter, angry, down-to-earth flick about a bitter, angry, down-to-earth rock gal who’s starting to wonder whether it isn’t simply too pathetic to be still waiting for a shot at the big time on the edge of 40. Cult favorite Gina Gershon is at the top … more…

It was shocking in its day, perhaps — its day being 1978 — but today Louis Malle’s idyllic, almost documentary-style depiction of a child prostitute can’t hope to be as provocative: One need only look at prepubescent Britney Spears fans to find young girls who are far more overtly sexualized than 12-year-old Brooke Shields is … more…

Patricia Routledge, one of Britain’s most beloved actresses — her “Hyacinth Bucket” character from the sitcom Keeping Up Appearances is practically a national institution — and playwright Alan Bennett, one of the premiere names in contemporary British theater, have teamed up several times on one-woman shows. Three of them, originally produced for BBC television, are … more…

Who knew? John Grisham doesn’t only write legal potboilers that get turned into popcorn movies — he also writes sentimental coming-of-age dramas that get picked up by Hallmark Hall of Fame and transformed into innocuous, if well-meaning, greeting cards: “Thinking of you during your mildly troubled adolescence.” It’s a summer he’ll remember for the rest … more…

What if Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X had secretly met at the height of the civil rights movement? Could they have bridged the distance between their very divergent approaches to the fight for public equality? Such an imaginary intrigue is at the heart of this 1991 entry from PBS’s American Playhouse. Emmy and … more…

Thomas Hardy’s bummer of a tale of personal failings, decorous deceptions, and poetically just comeuppances gets an impeccably mounted production from the A&E cable network, which continues its winner strike of stellar adaptations of classic literary works. In a moment of alcohol-fueled weakness, poor farmhand Michael Henchard (an appropriately austere Ciaran Hinds) betrays his wife … more…

Meee-owww! It’s the rise and fall of Martha Stewart from a manipulative little kid, crushing her 8-year-old competition at the bake fair, to a grabby, greedy, calculating Terminator, the boss from hell who’s rude to her fans, worse to her staff, and an absolute bitch with her friends and family. Cybill Shepherd throws herself into … more…

Forty years ago, in 1964, Bruce Brown’s wave-riding documentary The Endless Summer introduced the world to surfing, and ten years ago he returned with a look at the worldwide phenomenon the sport has become. Now, The Endless Summer II arrives on DVD, though it may as well not have. Following champ surfers Robert “Wingnut” Weaver, … more…