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Martin Paule's Micro Movie Reviews: A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z-

Blowout

Brian De Palma’s 1981 film is both a Hitchcock homage and a variation on Antonioni’s Blowup which stars a youthful John Travolta as a sound editor of  grade-Z horror flicks. While recording ambient sounds outdoors one night, he inadvertently documents the seemingly accidental death of a leading presidential candidate, and thus becomes ensnared in a suspenseful cat and mouse game. The story is tautly told and DePalma has a fine time telling his tale in a characteristically flamboyant yet controlled manner.

Blast From the Past

This clever little comedy delivers the old fish-out-of-water story in novel trappings. During the Cuban missile crisis in 1963, mistaking a plane crash for a nuclear attack, an eccentric scientist (played with verve by Christopher Walken) goes underground with his pregnant wife in the elaborate fallout shelter he has constructed in their backyard. 35 years later their son, Adam, (Brendan Fraser) who has been raised in total isolation and impressed with the mores of the late ‘50s is sent above ground to reconnoiter and get supplies. Hence the juxtaposition is set up between the fresh-faced Adam and his encounters with the ironic ‘90s. It’s during this first foray that the jokes come hot and heavy—the old neighborhood is gone and a sleazy bar with a neighboring porn shop have been built over the previous home site. Adam quickly meets his Eve (Alicia Silverstone in an annoyingly one-note, scowling performance) who initially assumes Adam is a nut case but finally succumbs to his charming naivete. The film becomes somewhat derailed in its final act. A half-baked subplot involving a religious cult that worships the family doesn’t go anywhere despite some funny moments. A second plot device involves a government psychiatrist and it too serves to do little other than set up a car crash. Despite these flaws, Blast is in the final analysis a charming and funny trifle.

The Book of Life: 2000 Seen By…

Director Hal Hartley’s contribution to the 2000 As Seen By…series, a collection of films dealing with filmmakers’ perspectives upon the advent of the new millennium, is a typically oddball entry portraying the second coming of Christ played by Hartley favorite Martin Donovan decked out in a business suit and accompanied by Mary Magdalene. Jesus sets the Apocalypse in motion when he opens the fifth seal using a laptop computer with a video-game like interface. Satan is also on hand lamenting his final days on earth. Dispensing with his usual hyperealistic style, the film is full of blurred images and slowed-down film effects creating a hypnogogic look.    

Beau Pere

What could have become a tawdry and exploitative film is treated with great sensitivity and imagination by director Bertrand Blier. It is the story of a child-woman of 14 and her stepfather whom she persistently attempts to seduce following the death of her mother. Their story goes in directions that are not easily anticipated and result in a tale that despite its potentially shocking narrative emerges as a gentle comedy-drama with winning performances by all concerned.

Buffet Froid

Bertrand Blier’s absurdist comedy deals with the alienation produced by a vast, sterile urban landscape in which an unemployed man (Gerard Depardieu) finds himself caught up in a series of shootings and other nightmarish doings. Whether you find this comic or merely tedious will probably depend on your attraction to the work of Buñuel, Bresson, Jules Feiffer and Godard. Its well-wrought design will be scant recompense for those intolerant of the surreal.

The Bed You Sleep In

It is a toss up whether viewers will find this film self indulgent or innovative. Shot in rural Toledo, Oregon in the early 1990s by the indie filmmaker Jon Jost, this is the story of a log mill owner who is faced with disturbing developments in both his business and his family. Jost uses long, lingering shots, a unique cinematic sensibility, highly saturated, vibrant color film, and a melancholic score to paint a picture of not just the central character, Ray, but also his environment. With some shaky performances from what appears to be a largely amateur cast, and a glacially-slow exposition of the story, such as it is, I can only recommend this to viewers with patience and a taste for the unusual.

Beijing Bicycle

Although comparisons with Bicycle Thief are inevitable in considering this modern Chinese film, the story here takes its own trajectory while sharing much of the poignancy of the neo-realist classic. A country boy newly arrived in Beijing lands a job with a courier service and is issued a brand-new bicycle, the cost of which is to be deducted from his wages. Just when he has nearly paid off the bike, it is stolen. What follows is his indomitable quest to recover his bike from a schoolboy who has bought it at a swap meet. Set against the intriguing backdrop of emergent consumer culture in the Chinese capital and full of commentary about classes in this once officially classless society, this is an involving and well-realized work from the newly liberalized Chinese cinema.     

Beyond The Mat

Though you may put off by the rowdy circus that is professional wrestling, this stirring documentary examination of professional wrestlers and their lives beyond the ring is exceedingly well done. Focusing on a half-dozen established vets and wannabes, the film takes pains to show these people in the context of their day-to-day lives offering a humane glimpse into the demimonde of people who we might ordinarily dismiss as irremedial yahoos.

The Blond aka La Bionda

A young shy Southern Italian man who is studying watchmaking in Milan hits a girl with his car, then takes her in when she claims amnesia. Hitchcockian in construction, he inevitably falls for her and is soon ready to give up his distant fiancé as well as his studies. Though we know he’s headed for a fall, the film involves us in that gripping descent as the blonde’s story is slowly revealed.

A Beautiful Mind

It is dubious that this allegedly based-on-fact bio of the brilliant mathematician, John Nash, who struggles with schizophrenia, deserved the wild praise it received upon release. Questions have since arisen about director Ron Howard's treatment of his subject. It is said that much that was disagreeable about Nash is glossed over in the interest of creating a heart-tugger. That may well be true, but taken on its own terms, and despite a tendency towards the mawkish, the film succeeds in large part due to the uncanny performance of Russell Crowe. His underplayed, subtle treatment of the part suggests some of the complexity of a character that unfortunately the screenplay fails to match. His ability to play his character convincingly over a 40-year stretch depends more on Crowe's skills than on latex and wigs. Jennifer Connelly is also excellent as his long-suffering wife, despite being saddled with an underwritten part.

The Big Knife

When The Big Knife was released in 1955, the Hollywood studio system was already coming apart and this independent production scripted by Clifford Odets served as a harbinger of that trend. Jack Palance is a movie star who is locked in a battle with a studio that forces him into execrable movies by threatening to reveal a dark secret that could end his career. Aside from the heavily muscled Palance who delivers the performance of a lifetime, the hard-working cast includes an especially memorable turn from Rod Steiger playing a quirky, domineering studio boss. Though some of the characters might come across as stereotypical today, the ideas posed here were novel in their day.

Black Orpheus

This French/Brazilian production is a retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth set in Rio during Carnevale. Beautifully filmed and brimming with fine naturalistic performances and wonderful music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luis Bonfa.

Bye Bye Brazil

This episodic film tracks a rowdy, ribald group of performers as they tour a theatrical circuit through the hinterlands of Brazil. The story lines are sketchy but the fascinating glimpses of life beyond Rio ably compensate.

 
Bob Le Flambeur 

The under-appreciated director Jean-Pierre Melville developed approaches in this 1955 gangster flick that would be echoed years later in the French New Wave. Working on a shoestring, Melville shot his film incrementally as he raised film stock money shooting on the streets of Paris without permits. The title character is a sometimes criminal and compulsive gambler with astoundingly bad luck. Nearly tapped out, he hatches a plot to rip off a casino but things go wrong when he his luck suddenly changes. Very hip, very French, and existential to the bone.

Buffalo ’66

Written, directed and starring Vincent Gallo, this supremely strange and wonderful movie has a look and feel quite unlike anything else you will see. Gallo plays Billy Brown who has just come out of prison after serving a five-year stretch for a crime he didn’t commit in order to pay off a bookie. Billy is a complete head case; full of tics, self-delusion, and suffering from a serious intimacy phobia, he is highly unappealing. On the way to see his parents to whom he’s maintaining the pretense of a successful life, he abducts a young woman (Christina Ricchi who does wonderful things with her underwritten role) demanding that she pose as his wife. Meeting Billy’s parents (Ben Gazzara and Anjelica Huston) we come to see the source of his craziness. They are the classic parents from hell. From there, the plot shambles along towards a remarkable conclusion that suggests redemption and much more. Though Gallo’s direction and editing gets a little too cutesy in spots, there is an authenticity of tone that comes across powerfully. Gallo has dropped hints that there are autobiographical elements in Billy’s character and the house Billy’s parent’s occupy in the film is the home Gallo was actually raised in. All of which could explain a lot.   

Blue Car

This very well written and acted story focuses on a high school girl with a troubled family played with conviction by Agnes Bruckner and her relationship with an English teacher (David Strathairn in another fine performance) who attempts to nurture her career as a poet. His kindness and mentorship slowly turns into something far more unwholesome. Don’t become disenchanted by the sophomoric poetry in the early going; this film firms up and becomes a powerful coming of age tale with a striking resolution.

Blue Collar

Paul Schrader’s directorial debut has a strong cast with Harvey Keitel, Richard Pryor and Yaphet Koto playing auto workers who discover that their union is riddled with corrpution. Hard edged and powerful.

Boiler Room

In case you’re not familiar with the term, boiler room is the slang expression that describes a sales office run by telephone scammers. This movie details what goes on in a Long Island operation that promotes phony stock deals. If you liked Glengarry Glenn Ross or Wall Street (both reviewed here), you’ll find this story of greed and redemption fulfilling.

Bombshell aka Blond Bombshell

This 1931 film starring Jean Harlow and Lee Tracy is one of the first jabs Hollywood took at itself. Harlow plays an exploited star who is misused and abused by her studio’s publicity apparatus. Stinging stuff for its day.

The Bone Collector

Denzel Washington plays a quadriplegic police forensics expert who enlists the help of a policewoman (Angelina Jolie) to catch a serial killer who is playing games with him. Reminiscent of Se7en, this is not for viewers easily upset by violence. Yes, the story seems a bit contrived, but the suspense is unremitting and the whodunit aspect is challenging.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

A hilariously bad cheese-and-sleaze sendup of the original, written Roger Ebert. Tasty if you’re up for a large helping of cinematic junk food.
 

Buffalo Soldiers (2001)

This is a dark and satirical variation of the Sergeant Bilko riff with Joaquin Phoenix playing Specialist Elwood, an utterly corrupt army supply clerk during the waning days of the Cold War in Germany. He and his cohorts traffic in stolen army gear and cook up heroin to raise cash and combat peacetime boredom, all under the nose of their incompetent base commander (Ed Harris playing against type). The plot heats up when a new Top Sergeant (Scott Glenn) won’t play ball and Elwood becomes involved with his daughter. Some of the events that are detailed seem unlikely, underscoring that this is a twisted satire in the tradition of M.A.S.H. rather than an exposé. 
 

Bloody Sunday

In 1972, during a relatively peaceful march by Irish Catholic protesters in Derry, itchy-fingered British paratroopers began firing on the crowd resulting in the death of 13 with 14 more wounded.  This documentary-like re-creation of the events of that day are brought to the screen with hand-held cameras and a cast of largely non-professional actors creating a powerful sense that you are there. The film depicts a massive cover-up by the British government of an act that extended hostilities for nearly three more decades and helped swell the rolls of the IRA. 

The Barbarian Invasions AKA Les Invasions Barbares

French-Canadian director Denys Arcand (Jesus of Montreal, Love and Human Remains both reviewed here) has created a work of enormous appeal with this look at mortality. A Montreal professor is dying and his ex-wife summons the man’s estranged son from London. The son, a powerful businessman and the polar opposite of his father, in turn arranges for the latter’s comfort. Friends and lovers from the past come to attend his bedside and engage in fond remembrances. What might have been a maudlin or grim exposition of family dysfunction instead develops into a superb film that uses wit and love in its confrontation with death. (The dying man is Rémy, the protagonist of Arcand’s 1986 film, The Decline of The American Empire in which the professor as a much younger man caroused with the people who now comprise his deathwatch.)  Highly recommended.

Brideshead Revisited

Evelyn Waugh’s paean to homosexual love and Catholic angst was given deluxe mini-series treatment by Britain’s Granada Television in 1981 causing the business of the entire nation to come to a halt each week when one of its 11 episodes aired. Now available in a rather shoddily transferred DVD set that attempts to squeeze too many pixels into each of its three discs, the series still retains much of the glory that transfixed its original audience. Covering the 1920s through 1940s, the story concerns the somewhat enigmatic Charles Ryder (Jeremy Irons built his reputation on this part) and his various relationships with members of an aristocratic clan who occupy Brideshead, a massive baronial mansion. Rife with Waugh’s acerbic take on British bluebloods and resplendently furnished and wardrobed, this is a 13-hour odyssey into a time and place that shall never come this way again.     

Bang

Shot on the streets of L.A. on a $20,000 budget with handheld cameras and no film permits, this is a variation on the story that fueled Michael Douglas’s Falling Down: a law-abiding citizen flips out in the face of urban pressures. In this case, the flipper is a woman (Darling Narita) who is locked out of her apartment for non-payment of rent. In an unpleasant run-in with a corrupt cop, she turns the tables stealing his motorcycle and uniform. The film then follows her over the course of a day as she experiences life as cop. Highly engaging and creative.

Bound

Sexy and smart, this Wachowski Brothers film stars Gena Gershon as a butch handyman and Jennifer Tilley as psychopathic gangster’s (Joe Pantoliano) girl. With echoes of Diabolique, the two women set about turning the tables on the mobster. Some memorably steamy sex scenes, a powerful scenery-eating turn by Pantoliano, and lots of nail-biting moments make this a lot of fun.

Bound for Glory

This is a highly detailed and beautifully filmed account of songwriter Woody Guthrie’s years on the road during the 1930s. The film pulls no punches in treating Guthrie’s shortcomings as a family man while putting his body of work clearly in the context of the time from which they grew.

Bread and Chocolate

This wonderfully droll Italian comedy stars Nino Manfredi as an irrepressibly optimistic pilgrim traveler who goes to Switzerland in search of work. Manfredi’s sympathetic character reminds us a great deal of Chaplin.

Bread and Tulips aka Pane e Tulipani

This Italian romantic comedy is a frothy confection in which a 40-something woman touring Italy with her husband and two sons is left behind at a rest stop and embarks on an adventure in which she recovers her sensuality. Nicely acted.

A Bronx Tale

Robert DeNiro directed and stars in this story of a boy growing up in the Bronx torn between two father figures—his law abiding, hard-working natural father (DeNiro) and a neighborhood crime boss (Chazz Palminteri) who serves as the boy’s mentor introducing him into a life on the wrong side of the law.  Based on a play by Palminteri, the material is strong, the ‘60s settings seem historically accurate, and the the acting is uniformly strong. It does however seem a little long-winded and could have benefited from more judicious editing. 

The Burmese Harp AKA The Harp of Burma

This beautifully realized and poetically structured film follows a Japanese soldier at the end of WWII who makes it his mission to bury the many corpses left in the war’s aftermath. A powerful if longish anti-war statement.

Butcher Boy

Veering between tragedy and dark comedy, this is the story of a young Irish boy born into hopeless circumstances with a drunkard father and emotionally unstable mother. Despite it all, with an irrepressible spirit, he soldiers on presenting a happy face to the world using his gift of gab to get by. Sadly, mental disease is alwats lurking nearby for him too. Extremely moving.

Bright Young Things

Evelyn Waugh's wonderfully funny 1930 novel Vile Bodies that chronicles the lives of Britain's aristocratic social butterflies and their endless rounds of parties has been brought to the screen by first-time director Stephen Fry with a fine ear for the novelist's dialog and biting humor. The movie's name (which undoubtedly was used to avoid confusing horror film fans with Waugh's title) is taken from the name of the novel written by the story's protagonist, Adam Symes, who has his manuscript confiscated at the outset of the film by bluenose customs officials. Symes, who is intent on marrying lovely Nina, finds his fortunes rising and falling moment by moment as the story hastens forward at a tumultuous pace. Waugh had envisioned in 1930 the rise of fascism leading to another world war and Fry's adaptation replaces his suppositions with the actuality of Hitler's invasion of Poland, an event that marks the fin de cycle for the non-stop party Waugh's cast of characters have enjoyed. These developments cast a pall on these hedonists and tinge the film with a realism and sadness that has hovered below the surface until this difficult new world rears its ugly head.  One of the smartest and most energetic comedies you are likely to encounter and one that is highly recommended. 

Bon Voyage (2003)

A head-spinning farrago of genres that includes screwball comedy, murder mystery, and wartime romance, this French film could easily be dismissed as being terribly overcooked. Yet the film is a wonderful evocation of its time: the early days of WWII when the Germans were overrunning France.  A top-notch cast delivers the breathless story expertly with Isabel Adjani playing a manipulative film star who looks a good 20 years younger than you would expect. Yes, it's all a bit more frivolous than one would expect given the time and place, yet the film offers a lot of wonderful moments and scores as a solid piece of entertainment. 

The Barefoot Contessa

This melodrama about a Spanish dancer of humble origins (Ava Gardner) who rises to Hollywood stardom and her mentor, a faded director (Humphrey Bogart) hasn't aged well. Though Bogey is quite good, Gardner comes across as a full-blown star from the get-go. And writer-director Joseph Mankiewicz's script is a bit too clever for its own good; everybody's dialog is oh-so witty and cynical. Though it doesn't compare favorably with The Bad and the Beautiful that covers the same turf, still this is attractive filmmaking with a strong cast and is well worth a look. 
 

Blind Spot aka Hitler's Secretary

This stripped-down documentary consists entirely of a series of three interviews-cum-monologues by 81-year-old Traudl Junge who as a young woman served as Hitler’s secretary from 1943 until 1945.  There’s no archival photos or footage; we are forced to exclusively focus on this woman and the story she has to tell. Rather than the result of the directors’ attempt at artistic minimalism, the format resulted from a minimal budget and urgent time frame. (Though she seems spry, Junge succumbed to cancer just as the film debuted.) Her thoughtful and articulate account is a telling and very personal look into the Third Reich and Hitler’s mesmeric effect that turned Germany into a nation of unquestioning zealots. Junge had clearly suffered great torment following the war as the realization and enormity of the horror of which she had been a part came home to her. Especially involving are her reminiscences of the final days of the war in which Hitler became increasingly remote and life in the bunker grew more and more surreal.   

The Big Show

Christopher Guest has done better work (Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind) since making this film, his directorial debut. But here he lays the groundwork for those pictures with this story of a grad fresh out of film school (Kevin Bacon) that runs up against the Hollywood establishment in attempting to get his film made. The cast is packed with notable cameos while Martin Short as a goofball agent and J.T. Walsh as a studio mogul who wants to turn every movie into Beach Blanket Bingo are both a scream. A worthy dalliance. 

The Bad and the Beautiful

In a manner somewhat similar to the technique used in Citizen Kane, we slowly gain insight into the life of a hard-driving Hollywood producer (Kirk Douglas) via the recollections of a series of friends and colleagues. Exceedingly well written and acted.

 
The Baker's Wife

Life in a French village comes to a grinding halt when the baker’s wife runs off with a young man and her spouse’s resulting depression renders him incapable of baking up the staff of life. Funny stuff. 

   
The Basileus Quartet

When the violinist in a long-standing string quartet dies, he is replaced by a brilliant young man who creates havoc in the lives of the surviving musicians. Insightful and beautifully made, this is a perceptive look at male relationships and the artistic temperament.

 
Battle of Algiers

Using documentary-like techniques that remind the viewer of films such as Z, this film recounts the struggles of Algerians against their French colonial masters during the 50s and 60s. Especially interesting in the context of modern-day tensions between the Western and Islamic worlds.

 
Beautiful People

An involving look at the lives of contemporary Londoners, both emigres and natives. Their stories intersect and overlap in intriguing ways and finally offer some rays of hope in what are often discomforting narratives. Prominent among the immigrants are some Bosnians relentlessly fighting each other far from the shambles of the Balkans.

 
Before Sunrise

From Richard Linklater who made the very different Slacker and Waking Life (also reviewed here), Ethan Hawke plays Jesse, a young American traveling across Europe by train, who on the final day of his journey, encounters and promptly falls for a French girl, Celine (the luminously beautiful Julie Delpy).  They spend a day and a night together against a backdrop of picture-postcard Viennese settings and by dawn's early light, having become entirely enamored with one another, agree to meet six months hence. Unabashedly romantic without the biliousness often brought on by such cinematic fare, this is a great date flick.

 
Before Sunset

In this sequel to Before Sunrise, we learn that the characters played by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, Jesse and Celine, didn't hook back up in six months time as they had agreed in the first film. Instead, Hawke returns to Europe nine years later on a promotional tour for his novel that recounts the lovers's first encounter. They have both become harder-edged personalities during the intervening years in part due to relationships that haven't worked out and their reunion is an awkward, less overtly romantic affair. The dialogue, that comes across as unscripted and also  self-conscious at times, is full of suggestions of regret and missed opportunities. As with the first film, the story ends on an open-ended note setting up the possibility for yet another sequel.

 
Belle Antonio

The marvelous Marcello Mastroianni was the ideal actor to play the title character who, being more than a bit neurotic, is unable to consummate his marriage to an attractive bride (Claudia Cardinale).  Lots of shouting and gesticulation in the best tradition of Italy's 60s sex farces.

 
Belle Epoque

This very visceral Spanish comedy concerns an army deserter who is befriended by an eccentric anarchist who it turns out has four very comely daughters. The young man falls in love with each serially setting up lots of funny romantic moments. Nicely made with lavish attention given to re-creating pre-Franco Spain.

 
Bend It Like Beckham

With its feel-good message and a spry cast, this comedy-drama about a British-born Indian girl who is crazy about soccer much to her Sikh parents consternation, has been a big hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Parminder Nagra as the girl and Kiera Knightley as her pal offer a pair of spirited performances in what is a rather predictable and well-worn plot trajectory that is nonetheless a pleasant diversion.

 
Between Your Legs aka Entre Les Jambes

After having watched this Spanish film twice, I am still uncertain what to make of it except to say that it kept me involved if bewildered both times. Briefly, the story concerns a couple that meets at a sex-addicts support group and takes up a love/hate relationship. Plot complications and convolutions come hot and heavy with the woman's husband, a detective and his investigation of a murder becoming a major feature. I am loathe to recommend this film except perhaps to obsessives who have watched The Usual Suspects three or more times.

 
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Co-scripted by film critic Roger Ebert and junkoid director Russ Meyer, this is a followup and parody of the trashfest original Valley of the Dolls. Silly beyond words and potentially great a companion feature to Plan Nine from Outer Space in a double bill for the tragically hip.

 
The Big Bang

This entirely singular documentary by director James Toback poses the ultimate existential questions to a motley assortment of interviewees including an Auschwitz survivor, boxer Jose Torres, basketball player Darrell Hawkins, and even an ex-mobster.  Some of the best segments witness Toback trying to put together financing for this one-of-a-kind flick. If you liked Waking Life, this should work for you.

 
Big Deal on Madonna Street

This 1959 Italian comedy about a group of bungling robbers and their plan to make a big score created the template for many imitators that followed. With Marcello Mastroianni's trademark performance, this is still among the best of the genre.

 
The Big Fix

Set in the 1960s and pulsating with all the trappings of flower power, this whodunit with a complicated  (and apparently nonsensical) plot stars Richard Dreyfuss as a former campus radical who is now a private eye. A fun period piece.

 
The Big Red One

Director Samuel Fuller's greatest accomplishment, this is his saga of an army infantry units experience over the course of America's involvement. Full of authentic detail, believable characters, and dramatic events that maturely reflect the experience of men at war.

 
The Big Steal

Shot on location down in Mexico, this 1948 film stars Robert Mitchum as a special army agent who chases a payroll thief. Mitchum is fine in a typically hard-boiled role and William Bendix is solidly menacing as his foil.

 
Black and White

James Toback's messy, sprawling film about interactions between New York white kids and their black hip-hop brethren earned a lot of notoriety for an opening sex scene that required recutting several times to skirt a dreaded NC rating. With a large and very mixed cast that includes Robert Downey Jr., Brooke Shields and Mike Tyson often spouting improvised dialogue, the story lines are often muddled but never boring.   

 
Black Cat, White Cat

From the feverish mind of Bosnia director Emir Kusturica  who created Time of the Gypsies and Underground comes rollicking this comedy about a gypsy hustler that is full of grossout details, wacky characters, and tucked deep within, a sweetly romantic love story. A little trimming could have helped move this unusual film from the very good to magnificent bracket.

 
Breaker Morant

Three Australian soldiers are court martialed for the execution of three Afrikaaners during the South African Boer War in the early days of the 20^th century. Their ultimate conviction is part of Lord Kitchener's strategy to force the Boers to the negotiating table and the soldier's roles as pawns are pitiable. The film explores the boundaries of what constitute the rules of war versus outright barbarity and is buoyed by excellent performances and cinematography.

 
Boy Meets Girl (1984)

Leos Carax's first film set the tone for the rest of his work that would follow. The director's alter ego, as always played by Denis Lavant, falls in love with a woman while hearing her break up with her current boyfriend on an apartment intercom. Gorgeous black and white photography that's reminiscent of New Wave work and lots of surreal comic moments make this a worthy watch. 

 
Besieged

It has been a while since Bernardo Bertolucci has produced any films of the caliber of his The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, or The Last Emperor. His Little Buddha and Stealing Beauty, though gorgeous to look at, were ultimately piffle when compared with those earlier master works. Besieged is something of a return to form.  The story is a simple if elliptical one: An African woman (Thandie Newton) whose husband has been jailed in her repressive homeland studies medicine in Rome and serves as housekeeper to a pianist/composer (David Thewlis) who furtively watches her every move. He is obsessively in love with her and finally one day blurts out his passion. In response, Newton tells him that if he truly loves her, he should get her husband freed. In response he sells off most of the contents of his lavishly furnished Roman villa to finance bribes. The real star here is the villa itself and especially its spiral staircase around which most of the action in the film is centered. No one moves the camera like Bertolucci and he finds endless ways in which to reveal his setting. As to the relationship, it works best when Bertrolucci depends on looks and body movement. Conversely, some of the dialogue is rather ludicrous and overblown leaving his two skilled actors mouthing banalities that do not do their skills justice. Despite this recurring flaw, Besieged is a wonderful cinematic experience heightened by a fine soundtrack composed of African pop and Western art music.       

 
Boyz N the Hood

The film begins with a sobering statistic: one out of every 21 black males will die of murder, mostly at the hands of other black men. Set in the South Central LA ghetto, we follow three friends from the relative innocence of their pre-teen years to their coming of age in an environment rife with violence and poverty. Director John Singleton sometimes grows heavy-handed in telling his story, but his largely unfamiliar cast is dynamite. 

 
Boiler Room

Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi) is drawn to a boiler-room operation of J.T. Marlin by the promise of quick money selling worthless stocks over the phone. There is a lot of detail offered in depicting the scams involved and Seth's story of attempting to earn his father's respect while attempting to reach is own goal of becoming a millionaire is a compelling one.  

DVDs To Your Doorstep!
 

Bad Manners
Nancy (Bonnie Bedelia) and Wes (David Strathairn) are a pair of academics
caught in a staid and probably loveless marriage. Into their lives as house
guests come Matt, a musicologist and Nancy's former boyfriend, along with his
young lover, Kim. He is there to deliver a lecture  at Harvard about a quote
from a Martin Luther liturgical piece he claims to have discovered in a
computer-generated music composition. Kim who is a bright and seductive
computer scientist, sensually toys with the apparently impotent Wes. Dark fun
and games ensue when a $50 bill goes missing from Wes's wallet. Vaguely
reminiscent of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?", the four talented leads
engage in deceit, games  and lies that are squirmingly funny. A denouement
that resolves a central question in the story seems tacked on at the film's
close. Aside from that, this is a smartly written and acted sleeper
recommended to fans of Albee and Mamet.

Bread and Roses
Socialist British director Ken Loach's first film made in the U.S. is his
best yet. Returning to his abiding interest in social and economic justice
issues, this is a dramatized account of a janitors' strike in 1990 Los
Angeles. His heroine is Maya, a Mexican illegal, who in the opening scenes is
conducted into the U.S. by a couple of sleazeball coyotes (professional
people smugglers). When Maya's sister comes up short on the coyotes' fee,
Maya is imprisoned by one of the smugglers in a grimy hotel room where he
means to take his fee out in trade. Showing a feisty resourcefulness that is
evident throughout the story, she escapes and manages to land a much
sought-after, if underpaid job for a janitorial company. The sleaze factor
once again arises when she must kick back a month's wages to her slimy boss.
She meets a ballsy, Anglo union organizer and becomes instrumental in seeking
fair pay and benefits for her co-workers. Though Loach's cinematic glasses
are occasionally a bit more rose-colored than realistic, this is all the
same, a gripping testament to the power of organization.

Bridget Jones's Diary
With a plot that loosely borrows from Jane Austen's "Pride and
Prejudice" and that's adapted from a popular modern novel, the central
delight is the star turn of Renee Zellweger who put on some pounds and a
dead-on accent to nail this London career girl's story. She's nicely matched with
Hugh Grant who is asked to do what he does best: play the absolute rotter.
The script by the writer of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" is a craftily
built confection with plenty of terrific one-liners.

Being John Malkovich
A film of great imagination, this surrealistic, melancholic  romp  concerns a
failed puppeteer (John Cusack) who takes a job as a filing clerk in a strange
firm that occupies Floor 7-1/2 of an old skyscraper where workers are obliged
to double over due to the very low ceilings. He discovers a portal that leads
literally into the head of actor John Malkovich. Those who enter the portal
are magically given a Malkovich-eye view of the world for 15 minutes before
being shot into a weedy field alongside the New Jersey Turnpike. Cusack is
bored with his frowzy wife Lotte (a nearly unrecognizable Cameron Diaz) and
lusts after a femme-fatale co-worker (Catherine Keener).  He starts up a
business with Keener in which they offer trips into Malkovich's head at $200
a pop. This has  disconcerting results for the actor, especially when Cusack
finds that he can superimpose his will over Malkovich's body. Though the
premise is outrageous, director Spike Jonze tells his story in muted tones at
a deliberate pace. A gem.

Body Heat
An early entry in the so-called school of  Florida Noire, it owes an obvious
debt to 40s classics such as "Double Indemnity". William Hurt is an indolent
lawyer who becomes ensnared by the vixen wife of a wealthy businessman. She
(Kathleen Turner in her first major role) coolly plays Hurt by letting him
believe that the murder plot they cook up is his idea. In fact, this femme
fatale is the only thing that is cool in this film. The action takes place
against a simmering South Florida summer in which breezes only bring more
heat�everyone other than Turner  is suffused in sweat. Smartly plotted, well
filmed, and offering a couple of great performances by Hurt and Turner, this
is highly recommended for fans of noire cinema.

Brother of Sleep AKA Schlafes Bruder
This not entirely successful story of a music prodigy who is born a bastard
in a remote Bavarian Alps village has daring visuals and multifaceted
themes that tend to miss as much as hit their marks. Following a
breathtaking opening credit sequence in which we soar over a mountainous
landscape, we are dropped into a dank 1800s hamlet where Elias is born into
the hands of a bitter midwife. The village is riddled with inbreeding, the
priest is a drunkard and the schoolmaster a sadist. Accompanied by
supernatural events, Elias' life unfolds as he displays an early genius at
the church organ and later is caught up in a love triangle involving a
village girl and a boy who has homosexual longings for him. Flawed as it
is, this German movie has some genuinely stirring moments of unusual visual
splendor.
 

Beautiful Thing
Two teenage British boys come out of the closet and come of age in this
feel-good look at homosexuality between adolescents. During a hot East
London summer these two neighbors in a depressing apartment complex grapple
with their inclinations and try to deal with the non-comprehension of their
families and friends. Sensitively handled and tightly directed, I have just
two quibbles. A neighbor girl is convinced that she is Mama Cass Elliot
reincarnate, and the soundtrack is thus larded with the late singer's
schmalzy numbers. I also had trouble with the final scene, audacious as it
is, which seems to belong to another film; perhaps, if you'll pardon the
expression, a fairy tale mounted as a musical.

Blind Trust AKA Pouvoir Intime
This taut Canadian heist flick commingles inventive camera work with an
involving script to raise it a notch or two above most caper genre films.
An aging con is commissioned by a shadowy government operative to hijack an
armored car. The con can keep all the loot, the spook just wants one
satchel. A gang is recruited including the con's son. The job is botched
when one of the armored car guards is unwittingly kidnapped along with the
truck. And things just keep getting messier. The truck is taken to a
scenery warehouse (a terrific setting) where the gang attempts to flush the
armed guard out. With a fine twist at the end, solid performances all
round and a passing resemblance to "Reservoir Dogs", this is a rewarding
sit for cops and robbers addicts.
 

Bringing Out the Dead
Superficially, Martin Scorcese's '99 film shares a hellish vision of
Manhattan with his earlier "Taxi Driver". But where cabby Travis Bickel's
demons were internal, paranoid creations, ambulance driver Frank Pierce
(NicolasCage) is tormented by horror that is external and very real.
Shattered by stress and broken down by chronic insomnia, Pierce's life is
punctuated by one crisis after another. Through it all he struggles to
reach some sort of state of grace. The film grows repetitive after a time,
and the horrific scenes slowly become enervated and circular. As always,
Scorcese has enriched his story with well chosen music including some
obscure R&B and soul material. Not the best Scorcese, but even this
director's second-tier work offers rewards in its mordant humor and
horrific perspectives.
 

Bowfinger
OK, so the story's preposterous and the jokes are largely cheap shots, but
I found this a very likeable Hollywood fable based on the premise that
everyone wants to be in pictures. Film producer Bobby Bowfinger (Steve
Martin-who also wrote the script) is at the very bottom of the Hollywood
feeding chain. He assembles a crew of incompetent wannabes to make a sci-fi
flick (penned by his Iranian accountant) called "Chubby Rain" about aliens
coming to earth in raindrops. His plan is to use Kit Ramsey (a paranoiac
Wesley Snipes-styled action star played to the hilt by Eddie Murphy)
without the star's knowledge. He tells his witless crew that Ramsey insists
on not seeing the camera and then sets up ludicruous sitations in which the
already mentally unstable star is caught up and filmed in absurd
situations. Murphy also plays Jiff, a dopey but loveable Ramsey lookalike
used as stand-in for the star. Heather Graham is amusing as Bowfinger's
leading lady. Fresh off the bus from the hinterlands, she knows she has to
sleep around to get on in pictures and does so with alacrity. This ain't
great art, but in the tradition of "Blazing Saddles" and"The Producers" it
should elicit plenty of chortles.
 

Badlands

In the wake of such lurid lovers-on-the-run movies as "Natural Born
Killers", "True Romance" and "Wild at Heart", this story of a couple of
kids on a killing spree might seem tame. But in bringing his adaptation of
an actual 50s case to the screen, director Terrence Malick creates such a
stark landscape and intensity of mood that we become drawn into the story
of these cold-blooded killers. Rarely has the sweep of the upper midwest's
land and sky been so completely captured on film. Sissy Spaceck and Martin
Sheen are both very strong as the pathological pair.
 

Blood and Wine

What casting: Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine and Judy Davis! Though this
story about high-end jewel thieves is only so-so, the performers raise it
several notches with great chemistry. Everyone gets truly nasty when the
big job starts to come undone.

Broken English

I just caught this release in video. It was produced and directed by the
same folks who did "Once Were Warriors", recommended earlier. Like its
forerunner, "Broken English" deals with cultures in collision in Aukland,
New Zealand. This time the story revolves around an emigrant Croatian
family whose daughter, over the objections of her father, becomes involved
with a Maori cook at the restaurant where she works. This is a superb
retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story full of fascinating characters and
details. There's a subplot in which the Croatian girl agrees to marry a
Chinese immigrant to help him get residency. In one scene, the Croatian
family holds an immense cookout in their back yard, while their neighbors
from Fiji put on their own shindig next door. It's an unforgettable
juxtaposition with polka-esque Croatian ditties competing for airspace with
the Polynesian tunes next door. This film aside from its comedic strengths
features lots of violence and eroticism. It earned an NC-17 rating on
account of, as the director was told during his appeal to the MPAA,
"pronounced buttock thrusting"! You'll recognize some of the Maori actors
from "Once Were Warriors", again turning in superb, natural performances.
 

The Bad Lieutenant

It deserves to be seen for Harvey Keitel's bravura performance. Delving
into the life of a rogue cop who mines the deepest depths of perversion and
moral bankruptcy, it is an unpleasant but compelling character study.
 

Baghdad Cafe/Rosalie Goes Shopping

Percy Adlon is a German director who makes terrific little comedies in the
U.S. including the two above. They both star Marianne Sagebrecht, a
heavyset German actress who brings a curious persona to her roles. The
first title is about a German tourist who leaves her husband in the middle
of the desert and begins living at a motel/truck stop with a strange
collection of permanent residents including Jack Pallance in a very unusual
role as a retired Hollywood production designer/artist. The latter movie is
about a spendthrift German woman married to a crop duster pilot who goes
through incredible changes to prevent her debt-ridden household from
crashing down around her. She may be the movies' ultimate consumer with the
possible exception of Welles' Charles Foster Kane.
 

Baraka/Koyanisqatsi/Powaqqatsi

These three films share a certain vision and style in that they all attempt
to paint a picture of the history of the earth and humankind through a
series of startling images and striking soundtracks with virtually no
narration. Unfortunately none of them fare so well on a TV screen-they
deserve to be seen in a theatre-so keep your eyes peeled for screenings.
 
 

Barfly

Based on the autobiographical writings of L.A. Beat poet Charles Bukowski,
this is a mean, grungy and funny movie. Faye Dunaway who plays a boozy,
washed-up love interest is terrific.
 

Bartleby

Herman Melville's compelling story of an accounting clerk who refuses to
leave his job after being given the sack has been updated with a modern
London setting. This is an odd little film with minimal plot but a lovely
portrayal of a failure trying to survive in a cruelly demanding world.
 

Barton Fink

Another Turturro movie made by the Coen ("Fargo" etc.) brothers. This is a
very wicked view of Hollywood with tons of style, fabulous production
values and superb acting by Turturro and John Goodman. Be forewarned though
that after setting you up with a rather conventional narrative style, the
Coen boys take an abrupt left turn and head for bizarreville.

Baxter (1991)

The dog of the title is the dark side of Spuds Mc Kenzie - the bull terrier
used to flog oceans of beer some seasons ago. This terrier is a real terror
through whose eyes this French film discloses some of the more disturbing
aspects of human nature. He is passed on through a series of masters and
mistresses until he finds the perfect match: a young boy who is fascinated
by Hitler and Nazism.
 

Black Rainbow

An offbeat psycho drama about a phony medium (Rosanna Arquette) and her
alcoholic father (Jason Robards) who travel the South putting on revival
shows in which she demonstrates her ESP. Things get weird when she
describes a murder during one of her performances only to have the event
actually occur nearly immediately thereafter.
 

Blood Simple

Maybe my favorite Coen Bros. flick. It's a tossup with "Fargo". At first a
seemingly routine murder for hire plot, it get progressively more
labyrinthian as the movie unfolds with tons of very noirish humor.

Blue/White/Red aka Tricoleur Bleu/Tricoleur Blanc/Tricoleur Rouge

This trilogy of films by Polish director Krysztofv Kieslowski is subtitled
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity referring to the French flag and national
motto. Each deals with a different aspect of modern life in Europe. I think
the series got progressively better with the release of each film. "Blue"
deals with a woman whose family is killed in an accident causing her to
make dramatic changes in her life. Despite a great performance by Juliette
Binoche, this is the least successful of the three films. "White" is about
revenge. A Polish shnook is divorced by his lovely wife because he can't
satisfy her in the erotic department. He gets the last laugh in this
cynical comedy/drama. The final installment is the best. In "Red", a woman
discovers that a respected, retired judge is electronically eavesdropping
on his neighbors. They form a very strange relationship. If possible, see
all three over a short space of time as certain characters and events carry
over from one film to the next. In some cases, pivotal characters in one
film appear in the background of the others. Overall, quite an achievement.
DVDs To Your Doorstep!  
 

Blue Velvet

My favorite David Lynch movie-though "Eraserhead" , reviewed later, runs a
close second. An exploration of the underbelly of a seemingly Ozzie and
Harriet-type townscape. This defines the term weird!
 
 

The Big One (1997)

Michael Moore is an unrepentent lefty filmmaker who during the 80s made the
ripping exposé of GM's abandonment of Flint, Michigan, "Roger and Me". This
one tracks Moore's book signing tour promoting his book "Downsize This!",
an indictment of American companies that have gone off shore for cheap
labor leaving millions of U.S. workers in the lurch. Moore loves to pull
stunts to spice up his work and here he delivers an outsized cardboard
check to Johnson Controls for 80 cents-to cover the first hour of Mexican
labor in that corporation's new plant south of the border. Moore also gets
a lot of press by setting up several phony special interest group checking
accounts, like Satan Worshipers for (Pat) Robertson which he uses to
embarrass presidential contenders in the '96 elections when they cash his
checks. The ultimate question posed here is why are corporation sanguinely
purging employment rolls in this era of unprecedented profits. Like most
polemecists, he tends to oversimplify the issues, but if you don't think
too critically about his political agenda nor the ways in which Moore
manipulates his subject matter, the documentary offers loads of funny
encounters.
 

Bird

Clint Eastwood proved his directorial chops with this moving biopic of
legendary alto saxman, Charlie "Yardbird" Parker. Though somewhat
overlong, the story of this genius of jazz and his many personal problems
is involving. Bird's actual playing was stripped out of historic recordings
and modern backing bands were added. Essential viewing for the jazz fan.
 

Bitter Moon

A fairly recent Polanski movie about a very proper British chap played by
Hugh Grant of Hollywood Blvd. blowjob infamy, who while traveling with his
wife on a luxury liner becomes ensnared by a kinky couple who play endless
mind games with him. A bit long but full of vicious humor.
 

Bottle Rocket

A nicely off-kilter indie production about a trio of friends who are
serious screw-ups attempting to pull off a robbery. It's all been done
before, but rarely with this level of creativity and freshness.
 

Das Boot aka The Boat

Seeing this claustrophobic story of a hunted German U-Boat in a theatre
really helps to put across its intense, atmospheric energy. But a newly
released video version with some additional footage offers a reasonable,
second-best option.

Bob Roberts

Tim Robbins plays a calculating right-wing politician who uses his folksy
charm and populist songs to mount a campaign for the U.S. Senate. Wickedly
satirical, we see Roberts cynically manipulate the press and populace with
his boyish wiles. Robbins directed and wrote the songs that charge his
campaign. Peppered with a number of cameos by big-name stars playing
air-head TV journalists.
 

A Brief Vacation

When an ill-educated Italian woman is diagnosed with TB, she is sent off to
a sanitarium that offers a wonderful respite from her bastard of a husband,
mean-spirited in-laws and a grueling job. Sure handed direction by
Vittoria de Sica and a fine performance by Florinda Bolkan in the lead
create a credible, bittersweet ambience.
 

Betty Blue

A handyman falls in love with a free spirited young woman who, it turns
out, is quite disturbed. After she sets fire to their seaside cottage, the
couple hits the road seeking home and happiness. They settle down in a
southwestern French town where he manages a piano store for a friend and,
for a time, it appears they will live on in happiness. But her madness
reasserts itself with tragic consequences. Beautifully photographed with
several erotic scenes that push the envelope in non-exploitive films.
 

Blowup

A technically demanding film uses color and setting to create tension and
mood in this study of swinging 60s London. A photographer becomes obsessed
with a picture he has taken that may - or may not - have captured a murder.
Directed by the Italian master, Michelangelo Antonioni.
 

A Boy and His Dog

Though I'm not usually fond of sci-fi movies, this adaptation of a Harlan
Ellison story is something very different. In a post apocalyptic landscape,
a guy assisted by his telepathic dog hunt for women and food and eventually
are drawn into a nightmarish underground civilization.
 

Burden of Dreams

This is Les Blank's documentary recording the filming of "Fitzcarraldo",
Werner Herzog's apocalyptic story of a madman who hauls a steamboat through
the Peruvian Amazon. We see the director confronting enormous natural and
cultural obstacles in trying to get his movie made. This documentary is
very nearly as enthralling as the subject film and is best seen immediately
following the viewing of "Fitzcarraldo".
 

Burnt by the Sun

For all its sunny lighting. picturesque settings and madcap characters,
"Burnt" trembles with a sense of impending doom which, in the end, proves
itself out. Set in 1936 Russia, a revolutionary hero enjoys his retirement
in a comfortable cottage surrounded by a loving family. But these halcyon
days are threatened when his wife's former lover shows up. He is now a
member of Stalin's state police and has a hidden agenda. You may recall
that when the film's director, Nikita Mikhalkov received a well-deserved
Best Foreign Picture Oscar for this movie a few years back, he brought his
little daughter who plays the protagonist's daughter on stage on his
shoulders. As well he should have-she's a delightful and fresh presence in
the film.

Bustin' Loose

A feel-good movie with balls. Cicely Tyson is the teacher of a group of
troubled and handicapped children who are forced to relocate from Philly to
the Northwest. She enlists the reluctant help of Richard Pryor, a
streetwise ex-con to serve as bus driver and mechanic. In a particularly
effective scene, Pryor buffaloes a KKK chapter when things look their most
dire. Esentially a series of episodes along the way, the film is buoyed by
the terrific chemistry between the two adult stars. (Though production was
suspended for over a year while Pryor recovered from the explosion in his
home chemistry lab, the final result is quite seamless.)
 

Beautiful Girls

A young man uncertain about his impending marriage returns home to his
Massachusetts neighborhood where he finds things virtually unchanged among
his high school circle of friends. A first-rate ensemble cast including
Rosie O'Donnell, Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, Mira Sorvino, et. al. do a
smashing job of depicting how people fall into ruts. They're helped along
by a wittily perceptive script.
 

Belle de Jour

Under the aegis of Martin Scorcese a new video print with enhanced
subtitles is now available of this Buñuel classic. Catherine Deneuve is the
frigid, virginal new bride of a physician who is unable to perform her
conjugal duties. She takes an afternoon job at a toney Paris brothel where
she readily overcomes her hangups.
 

Benny and Joon

A charming story about a mechanic and his dysfunctional sister for whom he
casts about for a caretaker. The perfect candidate turns up in the form of
a peculiar young man who thinks himself the reincarnation of Buster Keaton
and who forges a special bond with the sister. All three leads, Johnny
Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson and Aidan Quinn are excellent in this modern
fable.
 

Best Boy

Ira Wohl lovingly crafted this documentary about his 50-something cousin
Philly who's mentally retarded and his ongoing struggle to make his way in
the real world. Very moving and very real without any pandering by a
scrupulous avoidance of cheap emotional shots.
 

The Big Lebowski

The Coen Brothers' return to the full-tilt comedy style of "Raising
Arizona" is a triumph coming on the heels of the more ironic "Fargo". Jeff
Bridges plays a disarmingly loopy doper approaching middle age who becomes
involved in a complex (and somewhat contrived- but who cares) plot that
involves a seeming blueblood from the other side of the L.A. tracks who
shares his name. John Goodman plays his conspiracy-obsessed Vietnam vet
buddy together with Steve Buscemi as the dumb third in their bowling night
confrership. John Turturro is a standout as a bowling ball-licking,
pimped-out pederast named Jesus who gives one of the most luminous and
remarkable walkons in recent memory. There's also a hilarious band of
so-called nihilists wielding an attack marmot (don't ask) and dozens of
references to all sorts of Coen preoccupations.
 

The Big Sleep (1946)

I defy anyone to explain exactly whodunit or more precisely, who did which
murder. But that hardly matters. This is perhaps the preeminent film noir
of the 40s. Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlow becomes enmeshed in a
labyrinthian plot involving all sorts of decadent and deadly characters
spouting terrifically hard-boiled and cynical dialogue.

Big Night

Don't attempt to watch this hungry. Full of involved food preparation and a
lavish feast as a finale, it is the story of two immigrant Italian brothers
who struggle to make a go of their New Jersey restaurant offering epicurean
fare in the face of competition from a pretentious spaghetti and meatballs
joint nearby. Wonderfully human and lovingly crafted it might have been
titled "Waiting for Louis Prima".
 

Boogie Nights

The rise and fall (sorry, couldn't help myself) of a 70s porn star, this
film is as much a portrait of swinging L.A. as it is a cautionary coming of
age story. Mark Wahlberg of the Beastie Boys is vacuously convincing as
Dirk Diggler, the protagonist, Burt Reynolds in a comeback role is fine as
as skin flick director as is Julianne Moore playing his coke snorting, yet
nurturing lover. Painted in the same vivid tones as the city it portrays,
like "The People vs. Larry Flynt", the movie rises above its tawdry subject
matter.
 

Billy Budd

Based on Melville's novella, this is the story of an innocent and naive
seaman in the 18th century English navy who is court-martialled for the
murder of his sadistic master-at-arms. Terrence Stamp is superb in the
title role standing as an emblem of good in a wicked world.
 

Billy Liar

A young British man escapes his humdrum middle class existence and boring
job through flights of fancy. Tom Courtenay is appealing as Billy, backed
by a cast of English stalwarts including Julie Christie, Wilfred Pickles
and Mona Washington.
 
 

Blade Runner

Over time Ridley Scott's sci-fi gem has become the progenitor of several
lookalike productions, but none has the sheer originality and cohesiveness
of the original. Harrison Ford is a cop in 21st century L.A. who tries
to round up a gang of mutant androids who have developed minds of their own.
Get the director's cut released in '93 which clears up some plot muddles
from the theatrically released version.

The Blue Kite

The story of a Chinese family struggling through the upheaval of the 50s
and 60s, the film is highly critical of many aspects of the Revolution
causing its censorship at home. While the story line at times verges on the
melodramatic, the compelling history it tells coupled with fine
cinematography compensates fully.
 

Brother From Another Planet

A truly novel premise: an alien arrives on earth looking like a black man
who then hits the ghetto with unexpected and hilarious results. Made on a
tiny budget the movie relies on smart situations rather than big effects to
make its points. Like Chance in "Being There", the alien creates a powerful
impression as a tyro by keeping his mouth shut.

The Browning Version (1951)

A middle-aged teacher at an English boy's school comes to the realizations
that he is both a failure and a cuckold. Based on a play by Terrence
Rattigan, the entire cast turns in superlative performances with Michael
Redgrave especially touching in the lead. This story was remade in '94 but
I have not seen it. It's hard to imagine what reasons may have prompted the
remake given the quality of the original.
 

Before The Rain

Past, present and future constantly shift in this compelling story about a
burned out Macedonian photojournalist, a Greek Orthodox monk, a career
woman in London, and a young girl caught between the combatants in
Yugoslavia. Each arrives at a pivotal point in their lives, and as they do,
the fates of these people intersect in unpredictable ways. You need to stay
with this one for a while; at first things appear to be a bit of a muddle,
but as the film progresses the stories come into sharp resolution. Highly
recommended. (The photojournalist is played by Rade Serbedijza who
possesses a very commanding screen presence and plays the Croatian father
in "Broken English" recommended earlier.)
 

Black and White in Color

This sardonic French film is set in Africa on the eve of WWI and tracks a
group of smug colonialists who, overcome with patriotic fervor, decide to
launch an attack on a neighboring German garrison.
 

Being There

A deliciously cynical comedy about an innocent, child-like gardener who,
following the death of his wealthy master, falls in with the high and the
mighty who, through his bewildered silence, mistake him for a savant. Lots
of terrific jabs at the television age. One of Peter Seller's great roles
made that much more challenging by the tiny amount of dialogue given his
character.
 

Bugsy

The life and times of one of the more notorious gangsters of the modern era
is played to the hilt by Warren Beatty. Intelligently scripted this
biography of a sociopathic crook manages to avoid most of the cliches of
the mobster biopic. There's great chemistry between Beatty and his
real-life main squeeze, Annette Bening.

Barry Lyndon

Someone said that just about any frame in this film could be extracted and
hung on a gallery wall. Though perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, this is a
gorgeously mounted production with lush color photography and lighting to
die for. Kubrick shot one scene using only candlelight. Sadly, the story
about the life and times of an Irish rogue, taken from a Thackeray novel,
plods a bit in spots, but the meticulous period reconstruction and superb
production values more than offset that drawback. I believe there's a
letterboxed version now available which should compensate a bit for the
lack of impact on the small screen.

Brassed Off

This showed up on American screens just after "The Full Monty" but failed
to register. Which is a shame as it offers many of the same serio-comic
rewards. A brass band made up of English coal miners faces dissolution when
the mine they work at is scheduled to shut down. Thanks to the infusion of
some fresh blood (and some cash) from a sexy flugelhornist played by Tara
Fitzgerald whose grandfather formerly played in the band, they go to the
Royal Albert Hall to compete in a national contest. Though much of what
happens is predictable, the wonderful ensemble acting and powerful
socioeconomic metamessage make points on all levels. The only weak spot's a
somewhat contrived romance between Fitzgerald and a poorly fleshed-out horn
player portrayed by Ewan McGregor (of "Trainspotting and "Shallow Grave"
fame).
 

Brazil

This too has a Pythonesque stamp all over it, not surprising since it was
directed by Terry Gilliam. A sort of loopy take on "1984" it has
sensational visuals and production values but tends to go on a bit too
much. A clerk caught up in a nightmarish paper factory tries to hold onto
his humanity in the face of a monolithic, authoritarian society.
 

Barbarians at the Gate

A fine companion piece to the documentary "Roger and Me", this is a
high-octane fictional account of corporate greed based closely on the
leveraged RJR-Nabisco buyout. Though this hardly seems to be the stuff of
great comedy, the scintillating script and on the money performances
produce just that-a heady look at late 80s mega-greed running rampant.

Brother's Keeper

Produced by the team that did "Paradise Lost: The Robin Hood Hills Murders"
reviewed earlier, this is an involving documentary that examines a case of
fratricide in upstate New York. A group of four dull-witted and reclusive
brothers live on a ramshackle farm and are largely unknown to their
neighbors until one brother is charged with the murder of another. The
prosecutor claims it is a case of misguided euthanasia. As in their earlier
film, the producers demonstrate an amazing ability to earn the trust of all
parties concerned and thus record highly candid interviews from all
perspectives of the case. Though at the end we come away with no clear
insight into the truth, the very ambiguity of the case proves to be this
documentary's strength.
 

Blue Sky

Jessica Lange won a richly-deserved Oscar for her portrayal of a sexy and
somewhat troubled woman married to an army career guy played winningly by
Tommy Lee Jones. Despite tremendous disturbances, their unshakeable love
for each other survives an avalanche of problems including a slightly lame
subplot involving nuclear secrets.

Bullets Over Broadway

A very entertaining Woody Allen trifle about a 20s era playwright with a
burning social conscience who readily sells out when he's offered a job
directing a play that will star the gangster-producer's girlfriend. The
four key roles are handled expertly by John Cusack, Jennifer Tilly, Chazz
Palminteri and Dianne Wiest. Palminteri is particularly good as the hood
assigned by the producer to keep an eye on the former's girlfriend. He
turns out to have a gift for the theatre that would hardly be suspected
from outward appearances.

Butley

An off-kilter British comedy about a teacher with a host of emotional and
sexual problems. Brilliantly directed by Harold Pinter and featuring a
fine performance by Alan Bates as the neurotic pedagogue.
 

Bye Bye
 

Two adolescent French-born Arab boys go to live with relatives following a
tragedy that befalls their Parisien family. Tunisian director Karim Dridi
has created a non-sentimental, closely observed work in which the lives of
second-class citizens in modern France are scrutinized. There are a handful
of weak narrative points that cause the film to fall short of masterpiece
status, but it is nonetheless well worth seeing.

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