CINEMA Journal          [home] [books] [women] [movies]

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-

Jules et Jim

Francois Truffaut’s early ‘60s classic about unconditional friendship is full of techniques that were novel in their day (jump cuts, hand-held cameras, etc.) that occasionally are distracting to today’s viewer. Yet this story of a decades-long friendship between an Austrian and French man and the woman they both love is among the sweetest films one is likely too see while it manages to avoid any hint of sentimentality.

Junk Mail

Roy is a Norwegian postman who is not too fastidious in his duties. He dumps large amounts of mail, routinely reads letters, and, upon discovering a set of apartment keys dangling from a mailbox, has no compunction about using them to nose around. It is this act that sets in motion some peculiar events that should not be recounted here. This is a dour, oddball comedy that rarely follows the expected course.

Joy Ride

Director John Dahl's metier is the western highway. His earlier flick, Red Rock West, was a compact masterpiece of apprehension set in similar territory. On this joyride he explores the horror genre in which the boogieman is only fleetingly seen. The familiar road movie story has three young folks trying to dodge a psychotic ally vengeful truck driver who they've played a practical joke on. What sets the film apart is a series of creatively choreographed chase sequences and enough character development to let us care about these people.

Jerry Maguire

A film that proves Hollywood is still capable of creativity, this is the story of a high-powered sports agent (Tom Cruise) who suffers a crisis of conscience causing him to be canned.  The firing comes when he distributes a manifesto to his colleagues in which he argues that they need to take a more humane tack. Leaving the agency he is able to only retain one second-tier football-player client (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and the loyalty of a single-mother accountant (Renee Zelwegger in a break-through role) at the firm whom he barely knows. All three actors animate writer-director Cameron Crowe's smart script with brilliant performances and smashing chemistry.  This is a heartwarming and crowd pleasing effort that assumes some smarts on the part of its audience.

Judy Berlin

Set in sterile, suburban Long Island, this understated indie production concerns the stalled lives of a handful of residents on the first day of school that coincides with a total solar eclipse.  Only the title character is on the move—she's striking out for Hollywood to try and make it in the movies. Everyone else is caught in exhausted, failed lives brought into surreal focus by the eclipse that goes on and on. A deliberately-paced film that will prove rewarding with careful attention.

JFK

Oliver Stone's highly speculative treatment of the story behind the president's assassination is largely based on the experiences and writings of New Orleans DA Jim Garrison (played in a correctly low-key manner by Kevin Costner.)  Though we may know the general outlines of the story, Stone does a solid job of keeping the suspense boiling and his admirable cast brings the story to life. 

Joe The King

Though some viewers may find it too glum, writer-director Frank Whaley's portrait of a 14-year-old boy (outstandingly played by Noah Fleiss) and his prodiguously abusive father (Val Kilmer) is a powerful work.  Inevitably, the boy who is an essentially good kid drifts towards anti-social behavior as we helplessly watch.

Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000

Director Alain Tanner has drawn a wickedly sharp portrait of life in a late-60s Swiss commune that takes pot shots at the hippies and the establishment too.
 

Judgment at Nuremberg

Everything is big about Stanley Kramer's story of the war crimes trials held in Germany following WWII: the cast, the running time, and the theme. Especially good are Spencer Tracy as an unassuming American judge, Marlene Dietrich as the widow of a fallen German officer, and Montgomery Clift who plays a Nazi victim.
 

 J W Coop

Cliff Robertson wrote, directed, and stars in this story of a dim-witted drifter who becomes obsessed with achieving stsrsom in the world of rodeo. A great character study.

Japanese Story

Toni Colette plays a tough-minded partner in an Australian geological engineering firm who finds herself saddled with the son of a Japanese industrialist wanting a grand tour of the farther reaches of the outback. Their relationship grows more and more strained when they become stranded in some especially inhospitable country. It is impossible to say more about the plot without destroying the surprises that lie ahead. Suffice it to say that this film is much more than it seems on the surface and the relationship that evolves between the two lead characters is an unusual one.  

Juggernaut

Though disaster flicks were done endlessly in the 1970s, this story of a luxury cruise ship carrying a bomb outclassed most of the genre. Richard Harris plays a demolition expert and the red-or-green-wire routines are heartstoppingly good.

DVDs To Your Doorstep!

Jesus' Son
Billy Crudup is an actor who knows how to get into the skin of the characters
he portrays. Despite a substantial filmography, he is yet to get the
attention and respect he deserves. This film which sank with barely a trace,
is a case in point. In it, Crudup plays Fuckhead, a '70s junkie who trips
through life in a constantly zoned-out state. When he meets a woman (Samantha
Morton) and falls in love with her, it is as though he has transferred his
smack addiction to an obsession for her. Crudup's character is a charming one
despite his deplorable lifestyle and choices. The film evolves into a road
movie in which the central pair encounter a succession of strange characters
and dicey situations. Through it all there is an offbeat humor that should
please those with an affinity for bittersweet, dark comedies.
 

Jacob's Ladder
New York postal worker Jacob Singer is haunted by flashbacks of his
traumatic experiences in Vietnam as well as his former life in a failed
marriage in which his son died. Increasingly, the line between delusion
and reality grows frayed as he fights to retain his ebbing sanity.
Startling visuals and highly atmospheric locations charge this tale with a
powerful staying power.

Johnny Skidmarks
John Scardino (Peter Gallagher of the immensely shaggy eyebrows) is a
crime scene photographer who, following his wife's death, numbly goes
through the motions of his life apparently detached from the carnage he
documents. He moonlights for a blackmail ring snapping victims in sleazy
hotel rooms which ensnares him in a murder mystery. Hardboiled dialogue
and a noire design all its own contribute to the movie's sleeper status.
Frances McDormand has a fine supporting role as an alcoholic trying to stay
aboard the wagon.
 

Jack & Sarah

Cast very much against type, Richard E. Grant ("Withnail and I") is Jack, a
self-absorbed London lawyer whose wife Sarah dies in childbirth. Following
a boozy binge his parents and mother in law conspire to get him bonded with
the baby which he does readily. Though Jack initially comes off as a
world-class twit, in time we come to sympathize with him and appreciate his
slow growth towards mensch-hood. Much of the rest of the film deals with
his coming to terms with parenthood and finding a nanny. Though the plot is
of the assembly line variety, a first-rate cast of British stalwarts that
includes Ian McKellen, Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins as well as a colourful
production design save the day.
 

Jackie Brown

Though not up to the standard of his stunning "Pulp Fiction", Quentin
Tarrantino has created another effective piece of nuevo-noir with this yarn
about an airline attendant (Pam Grier) who is busted with a heap of
currency and some coke at LAX upon her return from Baja. In a convoluted
and intricately plotted scenario, she cuts a deal with the Feds to exchange
her freedom for the setup of her boss, a cold blooded arms dealer played
with great verve by the inimitable Samuel L. Jackson. Along the way Grier
gets involved with a world-weary but decent bail bondsman (Robert Forster)
and manages to dodge the murder attempts of her boss and his non too bright
henchman (Robert DeNiro). Bridget Fonda has a fine supporting role as
Jackson's hippy-chick girlfriend. None of it adds up to much more than some
rather exceptional escapist fare, but with a scintillating soundtrack of
70s soul obscurities, snappy plotting and a brilliant cast, there's are
certainly worse ways to expend a couple of hours.
 

Jacquot de Nantes

A loving tribute by Agnes Varda to her late husband, filmmaker Jacques
Demy, with film clips from his many classics included in this story of a
boy growing up in France who falls in love with the medium of film.
 

Jamon, Jamon

A very earthy Spanish film that's obsessed with all manner of genitalia,
especially those of bulls and men. The story involves two families from
opposite ends of the economic tracks with some Romeo and Juliet overtones,
all told in very raunchy terms with plenty of black humor.
 
 

Jean De Florette/Manon Of The Spring

See these two lyrical French films in the order given above. The second is
as much a completion as it is a sequel to the first. The story revolves
around the treachery of a proud French farmer who keeps the presence of a
spring on his neighbor's land a secret from him. Beautifully realized in
every respect.
 

Jesus of Montreal/Love and Human Remains

Two very creative films by the French-Canadian director Denys Arcand. The
first concerns a troupe of amateur actors who want to revamp the annual
Easter pageant of the crucifixion story over the objections of the priest
at whose church it's presented. The actor who portrays Jesus comes to
identify a bit too closely with his role with some very strange and
unpredictable results. Bursting with black laffs. The second film is a
sardonic look at the lives of Montreal singles with a serial murder mystery
wedged into the structure. Terrific dialogue and acting make this a small
masterpiece.
 
 

Jungle Fever

Wesley Snipes is a successful black architect who becomes romantically
involved with an Italian-American temp. setting off all sorts of domestic,
cultural and racial fireworks. From the clever opening titles to the golden
light that suffuses Harlem, Spike Lee's story is dressed in singularly
impressive production values. There's a subplot involving Snipes' crackhead
brother (Samuel Jackson) that derails the story for a while, but in the end
the racial and cultural divides that bedevil America are brought into sharp
focus. One other quibble: Stevie Wonder's score is often cranked up to the
point that dialogue becomes unintelligible.
 
 

Jupiter's Wife

A low budget documentary about a woman who lives in NYC's Central Park with
her pack of dogs and a very strange history to tell, some of which actually
checks out. A former carriage driver in the park, she claims her father is
the actor Robert Ryan and that her husband is Jupiter.
 
 

Jou Dou

Yet another Chinese film with incredibly beautiful visuals. The story is
set in 1920s China and concerns a woman who is paired off with a
mean-spirited dye mill owner in an arranged marriage. She has a torrid love
affair with her husband's nephew who works as a dyer and they have a child
which is raised as the son of the mill owner. The melodramatic plot is
related to "The Postman Always Rings Twice", and the scenes involving the
dyeing of cloth are some of the most sumptuous on film. The title character
is is played by Gong Li, a woman of great beauty and screen presence who
also is the star of the foregoing three films.
 
 

Johnny Suede

Brad Pitt is excellent as the title character, a Mittyesque dreamer who
sports a mammoth pompadour and harbors hopes of becoming a teen idol in the
mode of Ricky Nelson. This lovely fable centers around a pair of suede
boots that manifest like manna from heaven, and, like Cinderella's famous
footwear, propel their wearer into new realms.
 
 

Joshua Then and Now

These are the reminiscences of a Jewish Canadian writer who was born into a
iconoclastic family with a smalltime hoodlum dad, stripper mother and
assortment of oddball relatives. Later he marries into a family of WASPS
with unpredictable results. Not entirely successful; the pacing flags at
times, but winning characterizations are the film's saving grace.

Journey of Hope

The emotionally devastating story of a Turkish family who leave their
miserable, impoverished village to seek work in Switzerland. Their tragic
journey is based on actual events and will touch the heart of the steeliest  cynic.

[home][books][women[movies]

Shakespeare Umbrella-Easy Toys-Natalie Dessay--Lakmé--Rene Fleming--Bonney--von Stade--Kasarova--Rasa:--Love SpecialsWomen's fashion--Bartoli--erotic art--Charlotte Church--100 Hot Books--Gift Ideas--DVDs--Children's books