26 February 2010

21 February 2010

The Invention of Lying

Though structured like a romantic comedy, this is not so much a comedy as an intriguing feature-length Twilight Zone episode, with a few very good laughs and a surprisingly cynical (humanist?) "exegesis" of the Judeo–Christian (emphasis on Christian) tradition. Man in the sky, indeed.

19 February 2010

Niagara

Middling tale of jealousy and revenge, with absolutely superlative use of real world location settings (the classic tourist destination circa 1953) integrated into the story, throughout.

18 February 2010

The Man From Earth

Not to be confused with the 35-year-old movie "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (a personal guilty pleasure), the Man From Earth (2009) has a witty script, is marred by poor production values and suffers from mediocre acting. It would make a brilliant one act play, using a single set. As it is, it's a nice exercise in the "what if" category of a single premise (a person who doesn't age, and so has been around for thousands of years) getting played for maximum speculative effect. Religious history will never look quite the same again.

15 February 2010

The Squid and the Whale

A calm reminder of how the generations pass on their myopias as well as their verve, and what it takes to make sense of some of them, by "growing up."

13 February 2010

Sleep Dealer

Winner of the Philip K. Dick movie of the week award. Or maybe that was the William Gibson award. I forget.

01 February 2010

Taking Woodstock

Ang Lee's worst movie is kind of like an "afterschool special" with clips lifted from the famous documentary that makes Forrest Gump's historical references look witty.