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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-

My Wife is an Actress

This lighter-than-air romantic comedy from France concerns a sports journalist who becomes neurotically anxious about the constant attention paid his film-star wife. Leads Yvan Attal (who also directed) and his real-life wife Charlotte Gainsbourg are fine as is Terence Stamp as her co-star and source of Attal’s jealousy. Pretty to look at, the film has a couple of pithy edges that add a bit of substance while a subplot involving Attal’s sister and her husband fight about circumsising their child seems a distraction. However, the interplay between the two families is well-realized and adds a warm, humanist dimension.  

Minority Report

Steven Spielberg knows how to spin a yarn and does himself proud with this adaptation of a Phillip Dick short story. Set in 2054, Tom Cruise plays a cop attached to a police unit that with the help of a trio of clairvoyants prevents crimes before they occur by arresting the would-be perpetrators. Our hero uncovers a potential flaw in what the government touts as a failsafe system thrusting him headlong into a mystery in which he becomes a government target. One part Hitchcock, the film is rife with fabulous effects and interesting surmises about the nature of life in the mid-21^st century. Unlike so many of the brain-dead entries we see nowadays bursting with hot CGI effects and bereft of original ideas, Minority Report uses its technical flash to further its ideas rather than as eye candy replacing intelligence. I didn’t care for the under-saturated bluish caste of the film (undoubtedly intended to suggest a cool, digital future) though otherwise, production values are near faultless. This is a solid entertainment with some thoughtful overtones about preemptive crime control and the question of predestination versus free will that rivals Spielberg’s Close Encounters.

Marathon Man

John Schlesinger’s taut suspense film of 1976 has retained all its punch over the years. Memorable for its dental torture scene and a finale in a water works, the movie’s real strengths lie in the unlikely casting of Dustin Hoffman as a graduate school nebbish who likes to jog opposite Laurence Olivier as a Nazi war criminal who has been hiding out for decades in South America. Though the leads take diametrically opposite approaches to their craft, the characters they forge work well together. Discounting the rather murky and implausible plot, the set pieces and terrific location photography make this an entertainment worth revisiting. The DVD release is somewhat disappointing in terms of picture quality that appears to have been taken from a darkish print. As a plus, the DVD includes both modern and contemporaneous featurettes about the making of the film that are quite interesting.

Me, Myself and Irene

The Farrelly Brothers have built a portfolio of silly, politically-incorrect, and more often than not, screamingly funny movies such as There’s Something About Mary and Kingpin (both reviewed here). They have appropriately cast the often-annoying Jim Carey as Charlie, a milquetoast Rhode Island state motorcycle cop who is invariably pleasant, even in the face of being cuckolded by a black dwarf. As a cop, he gets no respect with scofflaws flaunting their disdain for his authority. His anger suppression leads to a full-blown case of schizophrenia in which Hank, a violent, angry Clint Eastwood-voiced alter ego emerges. As with their other films, the Farrelly’s plot is little more than an excuse on which to hang gags that violate taboos left and right. Carey’s facility with physical comedy is put to good use and the effervescent Renee Zellweger is perfect as his foil.   

Moonlight Mile

Of late there have been a spate of films about families dealing with the loss of a child (The Son’s Room and In The Bedroom being the best). Moonlight Mile is both funnier and perhaps a little weaker than that competition. Jake Gyllenhall, an actor who seems to be everywhere these days plays a young man whose fiancé is violently killed on the eve of their marriage. The story concerns his relationship with the girl’s parents played knowingly by Susan Sarandon and Dustin Hoffman, and also with a woman who helps him share the grief. This latter character is played by newcomer Ellen Pompeo in a career-establishing turn. Much of Gyllenhaal’s portrayal involves his wandering about in a daze reacting to the other players and more than once I was reminded of Dustin Hoffman’s Graduate character. His performance depends on a certain charm that this young actor has in spades. The primary weakness here is the script which tends towards the manipulative and which renders Sarandon ‘s part a one-note affair. Further, the dialog is scattered with 21^st century phraseology while the film is set in the 1970s—a defect it shares with so many other period-specific film scripts  that fail to accurately replicate the speech of the day. On a positive note, the score is peppered with well-chosen songs that reflect the era perfectly.

Werner Herzog, the German director who created Aguirre, Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo (both reviewed here) has fashioned from archival footage, film clips and a handful of newly-created scenes, a riveting portrait of the infant-terrible star of those films. Kinski who teetered at the brink of madness often played characters just as brilliant and erratic as himself. His relationship with Herzog, who is also known for his tempestuous personality, was one of love and hate. This relationship is perfectly realized by the opening and closing clips in the film. In the first, Kinski is captured live in Berlin in a stage show cum psychodrama in which he takes on the persona of Christ while berating his audience and launching into crazed, spittle-flecked monologues. In the film’s last scene, an angelic Kinski ,captured impromptu on location, flirts with a butterfly that dances around his head and body. By the way, the title noted above is not a typo. The play on friend/fiend is intended.  

Mulholland Dr.

In the early '90s, director David Lynch managed to piss off a whole lot of people with his much-debated TV series Twin Peaks. After launching into a fairly conventional murder mystery set in a town full of strange characters, the series began to veer away from any semblance of rationality growing increasingly hallucinogenic week by week.  Mulholland Dr. shares that same trajectory moving during the final third into the realm of complete irrationality. Viewers with strongly developed Aristotelian needs are bound to be displeased while those who revel in the non-rational and who welcome strange dreams will find much to enjoy. Briefly, the story concerns a young woman freshly arrived in Hollywood seeking a film career whose life becomes entwined with that of another actress in a story that has passing similarities with Conrad's Secret Sharer.

The Man Who Wasn't There

Above all, the Coen brothers are stylists, and in that regard, this somber yet comedic film noire delivers the goods in spades.  Eschewing much of the strangeness that has become their trademark, the freres Coen keep the story largely down to earth here. It concerns Ed Crane, a laconic, sad-faced barber played astonishingly well by a practically unrecognizable Billy Bob Thornton who delivers deadpan narration throughout the film telling us far more than his face does. Though the plot strikes me as a slightly undernourished homage to Hitchcock, the story is secondary to the intensity of mood rendered by Roger Deakins' superbly realized black-and-white photography and the indelible characterizations achieved by Thortnon, Frances McDormand as his philandering, boozing wife, and a host of other Coen regulars. Fans of classics such as Double Indemnity will find much to cherish here.

Master and Commander

Director Peter Weir has fashioned a crackling-good sea-borne adventure by cobbling together elements from several novels by Patrick O’Brian that focus on the exploits of Captain “Lucky” Jack Aubrey. Set in 1805, the story is framed by two tremendously well-staged naval battles and concerns a British and French frigate that play cat-and-mouse games with each other. The sense of being aboard a 19^th century sailing ship seems highly authentic and the film is filled with intricate details of the sailors’ lives. Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany are respectively, Captain Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin, the ship’s surgeon, and they serve as the thematic core of the film with the Crowe character dashing and impulsive while the Bettany character is reserved and thoughtful. Their screen chemistry is superb as are all the visuals in this stunningly mounted picture which can only be faulted for longeurs that occur in the middle stretch.

The Man From Elysian Fields

A struggling writer (Andy Garcia) suffering from the sophomore jinx and desperate for cash takes a job with a male escort service in this reworking of the Faust story. He finds himself providing physical solace for a woman (Olivia Williams) married to a dying novelist and he is later enlisted to help the husband (James Coburn) bring his final novel to life. In so doing, Garcia turns his back on his wife and child with fairly predictable results. Though the role doesn’t quite fit Garcia, he acquits himself well as a weak man and the raffish Coburn is particularly fine in one of his last roles. This is an interesting brew of melodrama and subtle comedy with the added bonus of Mick Jagger playing the enigmatic, sophisticated owner of the escort service in a role that caters to the singer’s strengths.

Medium Cool

Master cinematographer Haskell Wexler shot his film against the tumult of the actual 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago in this highly creative, groundbreaking film that blurs fictitious story lines with real events.  A remarkable time capsule of a hectic era, the film is most successful in raising questions about TV journalism's ethics. Unfortunately neither Wexler's so-so script nor his wobbly direction of a shaky cast serve the more personal story about a journalist facing a crisis of conscience while becoming involved with an Appalachian woman and her young son.

Monsoon Wedding

Director Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala) offers us a film that is both a derivative of Father of The Bride and a riotously colorful and chaotic concoction inspired by Bollywood. In New Delhi, a couple is about to be wed in an arranged marriage and members of their extended families turn up from all corners of the world to join the celebration, bringing with them foibles and even dark secrets. Indeed, the bride has a shocking confession to make. Particularly successful is a subplot in which a goofy, hired wedding planner falls for a maid in the household and courts her amidst all the frenzy. The settings are exotic, the themes and familial dramas are universal, and an unalloyed joyousness will have all but the most curmudgeonly viewers smiling.

Monster’s Ball

Billy Bob Thornton delivers another staggering characterization as a Southern prison guard who becomes involved with the widow of a man he helped to execute. Haille Berry as the single-mother widow proves that empowered with an intelligent script, she can deliver the goods offering a performance that goes toe to toe with Thorntons’s. This is a quiet film with sudden, shocking moments. It deals with racism in a wholly unsentimental way and handles the twin themes of loneliness and emotional paralysis with well-wrought dialogue, often allowing silence and body language to express the emotional landscape. Berry’s Oscar-winning role includes an astounding scene near the end in which she undergoes a wordless transformation registered wholly in expression and movement.

Man of the Century

Johnny Twennies is a newspaperman and an anachronism. He is caught in a time warp with his 1920s-style values, rapid-fire and dated slang, dress, and world view. Johnny’s the kind of wisecracking guy that was the rage in comedies of that far more innocent era. He seems oblivious to late 20^th century values typing his stories on an ancient typewriter and getting uncomfortable when his modern girlfriend tries to bed him. There is a plot about gangsters but it’s half-baked and merely serves to help move along what is ultimately a one-joke premise. But it’s a good premise, shot in black and white. At just under 80 minutes the movie doesn’t wear out its welcome and offers entertainment of a novel sort.    

Meet John Doe

A somewhat under-appreciated Frank Capra film that mines the same populist turf which was to become the director’s calling card. Barbara Stanwyck plays a newspaper columnist who invents a non-existent Everyman and then is pushed by her publisher into finding a man to fill her creation’s shoes and hence further the dastardly political aims of the newspaper’s owner. Gary Cooper is perfectly cast as the noble but naïve schnook she recruits for the role. Overlong and often preachy, the film still stands as a fine piece of Americana. The montage that runs under the opening credits is particularly well conceived, and issues such as corrupt corporate practices have a great deal of resonance today.

My Architect: A Son’s Journey

This is a powerful piece of documentary filmmaking by Nathaniel Kahn, the illegitimate son of Louis I. Kahn, one of the most respected 20th-century architects. The elder Kahn was a secretive man who maintained a long-term licit relationship with a wife and daughter while fathering two children out of wedlock with two other women. Nathaniel Kahn was the son in one of those unions and in his film he sets out to understand the man he barely knew. In a series of encounters with colleagues and clients as well as with the structures his father designed, the director slowly brings his father into focus. Completely absorbing and very moving.

Million Dollar Baby

Clint Eastwood has staged a return to form with his Mystic River and now Million Dollar Baby. With his Dirty Harry days far behind him Eastwood has turned to creating sad, thoughtful films that take roads less traveled. In the case of Baby this latter trait is not at first apparent; in fact it looks like what will follow is highly predictable. Hilary Swank, who largely carries the film with her powerful performance, plays Maggie Fitzgerald, a 31 year-old waitress attempting to put her trailer-trash origins behind her by becoming a boxing contender. Eastwood is Frankie Dunn, owner of a seedy L.A. gym and former pro fight cut man with a past and an unspecific troubled relationship with an adult daughter. Morgan Freeman plays his sidekick that keeps the gym running against all odds (and annoyingly adds way too many philosophical voiceovers during the course of the movie. Dunn reluctantly agrees to train Maggie as they forge a partnership and spiky relationship. Though perhaps overly praised upon release, the movie works well within the leisurely structure Eastwood gives it, and in its final third the story takes on new dimensions far beyond the conventions of the fight picture.     

Mystic River

In a return to form after his anemic Blood Work,Clint Eastwood demonstrates a powerful directorial hand in the this tale of guilt and punishment that is based on and quite faithfully adapted from Dennis Lehane’s novel. The story centers on a molestation that occurred 30 years earlier and its repercussions in the present that are triggered by a murder. Tremendous performances by Sean Penn especially, as well as by Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins shift the emphasis of the story from a police procedural to a nuanced three-way character study.  An abiding tone of sadness and darkness infuses this film making it a lousy date-night pick, but the sort of movie you’ll mull over for days and perhaps weeks to come.

Maria Full of Grace

This is the superbly-made profile of a feisty young Colombian woman who upon losing her job and discovering she is pregnant becomes a mule for heroin exporters. The film covers in gripping detail how mules must swallow dozens of huge pellets of coke knowing that if any of them rupture, they are dead. We watch Maria contend with U.S. customs officials suspicious over the flimsy cover story she offers for her trip and then witness horrific developments as things go terribly wrong. With all the tension of a Hitchcock thriller coupled with glimpses into the lives of impoverished Colombians struggling to survive in the old country and struggling to make it in the U.S., this is extraordinarily good filmmaking. As a bonus, Catalina Sandino Moreno's performance as Maria is an exceptional.

Mauvais Sang aka Bad Blood

Another stunning if self-indulgent effort from French enfent terrible Leos Carax, the story is set in Paris in the near future.  A low-level conman (played by Carax regular Denis Lavant) is talked into helping steal a culture virus that strikes victims who make love without love. The plot though is secondary to Carax’s dizzying camera techniques and tendency to make to make love via the camera  to his  co-star Juliette Binoche.
 

Manny and Lo

In an eye-opening performance Scarlett Johansson plays 11 year-old Manny who has been kidnapped by her older sister Lo (Aleksa Palladino) from a foster home. They live on the lam in model homes and out of an old station wagon. When Lo reluctantly acknowledges that she is in the late stages of pregnancy, the girls kidnap a woman from a maternity store (Mary Kay Place) because she seems to have the obstetrical knowledge they need.  The story keeps taking unexpected turns and all three leads are extremely good, especially Johansson who exhibits enormous pose. Sadly, the film loses some energy as it winds down.

The Machinist

Christian Bale shed 60 pounds to play the emaciated title character in this horrifying tale of an insomniac harboring a dreadful secret. The film borrows from several genres while remaining quite uncategorizable in its portrayal of a loner who goes through the motions at work then spends his nights frequenting a regular hooker (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and an airport coffee shop where he banters with a waitress. But, as we learn late in the proceedings, nothing is as it seems. Dark, scary stuff.

Mean Creek

The film’s set-up seems clichéd: a group of teenagers lure a bully into a boating trip down a remote Oregon river with revenge on their minds. Though the players at first all seem like types, they slowly resolve into three-dimensional, full blooded and complex characters and the film itself grows into far more than a junior version of Deliverance or a rehash of coming-of-age stories like Stand By Me. What emerges is a thought-provoking look into the dynamics of bullies and their victims and how those roles can flip flop. Highly recommended.

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Jonathan Demme’s reworking of the 1960s paranoid suspense film is successful in updating the story to the current era and adding some plot develolemt not in the original.

Mumford

Lawrence Kasdan’s serio-comic story of a psychologist with fake credentials and a secret past is an earnest and pleasing look at the nature of identity and the process of starting over. Dr. Mickey Mumford (Loren Dean), despite having a mysterious past and tendency to talk about his clients, is a guy everyone wants to confide in because he listens well and murmurs all the right empathetic responses. A talented ensemble of actors exhibiting a range of neuroses (with Martin Short a standout as a wacky attorney) and a charming picket-fence village setting make for a non too-serious take on eccentricity and borderline madness. 

Mr. And Mrs. Bridge

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward are remarkably good together as the titular couple in this story set in Kansas City and spanning the late 1930s and early 1940s. Newman plays a strait-laced, humorless and nearly colorless country-club Republican who, when asked if he’s ever experienced joy, replies that he has felt contentment. He resolutely wears the pants in the family and gives his wife’s feelings and intelligence short shrift. Beautifully made by Merchant-Ivory in the tradition of that production team, the film meanders through several underdone storylines ultimately scoring its points by way of the two fine central performances.

Monsieur Ibrahim

Set in 1960s Paris, this is the story of any elderly Turkish grocer (a grizzled yet still charismatic Omar Sharif) who forges a powerful bond with a neighborhood kid (the engaging Pierre Boulanger) suffering the effects of a dysfunctional family. It liberally borrows elements from countless films, including the superior Cinema Paradiso, yet there is much that’s worthwhile here.  The boy is Jewish, the man is Muslim, and the story takes pains to underscore their commonalities as Sharif evolves into the father figure the boy sorely lacks. Some sketchy plot elements, a slathering on of sentimentality, and too much dime-store philosophizing are overcome by the warmth and chemistry of the two leads. A well-chosen selection of era R&B tunes and a bright, colorful design also help move the proceedings along.

The Magdalene Sisters

A glum yet revelatory story about Irish girls in the 1960s who, in disgrace, are sent to a convent where they are impressed into service as char women and laundresses under the cruel administration of the sisters. The story centers around a trio of girls who struggle to survive and ultimately escape the repressive atmosphere. Especially moving is an early scene in which one of the trio is raped by her cousin during a wedding reception. We observe the events in a chilling pantomime during which the rapist is apparently forgiven, yet the girl due to her resulting pregnancy is cast away in the convent. Each of the girls’ stories is equally outrageous and it is hard to imagine that the conditions depicted could have existed as recently as the 1960s. In the DVD version’s additional materials we meet the women on whom the screenplay is based who confirm all the particulars so horrendously detailed in the screenplay. 

Morvern Callar

Morvern Callar is a cipher. She’s a young woman who spends her days working in a supermarket and her nights haunting the rave clubs of her Scottish town. One morning she awakens to find that her live-in boyfriend has committed suicide and left a message for her on his computer. The note assures her that his death is not her fault, tells her to be brave and directs her to print out the manuscript of his novel and send it to a publisher. She does this, after replacing his name with hers on the manuscript.  Instead of doing the normal thing—calling the cops—Morvern lives with his corpse for some time before disposing of it quietly. She then withdraws money the boyfriend has earmarked for his funeral from the bank and heads off on holiday to a tacky Club Med-style  Spanish resort with a pal in tow. What we get superficially is Morvern’s surface; a placid,hedonistic girl seemingly being buffeted about by the fates. But thanks to a subtle, suggestive performance by Samantha Morton, the film engages us and keeps us guessing right up to the finale.
 

My Father and I aka How I Killed My Father aka Comment j’ai tué mon pere

This arid and enigmatic family drama concerns a successful gerontologist whose long-estranged father suddenly turns up after having abandoned his family years earlier to work as a doctor in Africa. The father is mild-mannered and ingratiates himself with his daughter-in-law while offering seemingly innocuous advice. Soon his presence begins pulling apart the son’s life that is  on a fabric of lies. There is a diabolical coldness to the father that casts a pall on everything in his path. Austere and chilling, this is not for all tastes.

Maitresse

This off-kilter love story from the eclectic director Barbet Schroeder concerns a dominatrix (Bulle Ogier) who provides her services to a cast of twisted masochists who demand ever more bizarre punishments. Against all odds, she falls in love (with a young, virile Gerard Depardieu) and the tender romance that ensues is madly juxtaposed against her odd professional life. This is decidedly not for all tastes as the film incorporates some scenes of surpassing savagery including a penis nailing and the bloody slaughter of a horse.

Mayor of the Sunset Strip

For nearly four decades Rodney Bingenheimer has been a Hollywood fixture—the world’s most avid and visible groupie. Surviving with no visible means of support and befriended by countless members of rock’s royalty, he has carved out a career of sorts based entirely on celebrity worship. In the course of dozens of interviews sprinkled through this documentary, the stars profess loving Bingenheimer for his child-like naivete and lack of ulterior motives. Yet there is a sense of overwhelming sadness that emanates from this gnomish man with the ‘70s-era rock hairdo. This may have something to do with a complex and troubled relationship with his now-dead mother, a woman who, according to him, also worshiped celebrity and who dropped teenaged Rodney off in front of singer/actress Connie Stevens home and didn’t see him again for five years. Though Bingenheimer is happy to talk on camera about all his celebrity shoulder-rubbing, he is silent on many aspects of his personal life. This is an engaging portrait of man who is at once intensely public and private, outgoing and shy.  

Menace II Society

The story focuses on two ghetto gangbangers Caine and O-Dog whose lives spin out of control after they shoot some Korean shop owners in an early scene. It is a testament to directors Allen and Albert Hughes and to screenwriter Tyger Williams that we care about these thugs and lament their fates.
 

Magnolia

As a followup to his masterful Boogie Nights, Paul Thomas Anderson wrote and directed this study of people in various forms of crisis. Drawing on a cast of Anderson regulars that includes Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, William Macy, Philip Baker Hall, and Luis Guzman, he creates a web of stories about anger, fear, isolation, and alienation that is emotionally draining and always fascinating. Tom Cruise makes an uncharacteristic appearance as a male chauvinist guru who teaches men how to dominate and emotionally trample women. Warning: you too may feel trampled after sitting though over three hours of this stuff.   

Make Mine Mink

A crackerjack little British comedy about a ring of fur thieves led by Terry-Thomas, a former military man who tries to shape his hapless crew into a precision team. Lots of comedy veterans and some inspired situations make for plenty of fun. A must for fans of Ealing comedies.

A Man in Love

This French-Italian production concerns an American actor (Peter Coyote) who falls for his leading lady (Greta Scacchi) while shooting in Rome. The sensuality is heightened by a hot chemistry between the stars.

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

In a part tailor-made for him, Gregory Peck plays a Madison Avenue advertising  executive who tussles with existential doubt while pushing forward his career. A smart script by director Nunnally Johnson addresses the mid-century angst produced by the spiritual/material piush-pull of the day.

A Man of No Importance

Albert Finney is characteristically fine as an Irish bus conductor who in the midst of his involvement in an amateur    production of Salome begins to address his own suppressed sexuality. What begins as a slight comedy slowly darkens in tone into a serious story; a shift that times feels uncomfortable.

The Man Who Loved Women

Francois Truffaut's subtle comedy is told in flashback form as his title character recalls a life of womanizing while writing his memoirs. Though the director has made more powerful films, this can be counted among his most enjoyable work. 

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

When it was first released in 1962, John Ford's western received derisive reviews. Today it is considered among the directors finest movies, and justly so. James Stewart plays a naive lawyer from the East who attempts to bring civility to the West. His efforts are largely futile until John Wayne, playing the masculine, brave character he trademarked, saves the day. Great locations and a first-rate supporting cast add to the impact.

Married to the Mob

Jonathan Demme's deft direction and sprightly performances by Michelle Pfeiffer and Dean Stockwell help make this comedy work. Pfeiffer plays a Mafia wife who seizes on the opportunity to get out of mob life when her husband (Alec Baldwin) is assassinated by capo Tony Russo (Stockwell). Demme has crafted a very likable film about some very unlikable people.

Mildred Pierce

This is one of Joan Crawford's best roles. She plays a divorcee who parlays a restaurant into a tidy little fortune while failing to see that her daughter is growing into a world-class bitch. Things become intense when they tangle over the same love interest. Meaty melodrama.

My Favorite Season

Andre Techine's study of relationships and communication stars Catherine Deneuve and Daniel Auteiul as estanged brother and sister. When their mother suffers a stroke and comes to live with Deneuve the two resume their uneasy relationship. In a chilly scene depicting a holiday dinner, the strained history of this family is slowly revealed and the mother's presence works big changes. Quiet, intelligent and passionate in an understated sort of way.

 DVDs To Your Doorstep!

 
Malena
Italian writer-director Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema
Paradiso) returns with another tale of hot-headed Sicilians.
Though it shares his earlier film's fascination with cinema, this is a
lot tougher story with much meaner Sicilians. The protagonist is again
a barely-disguised Tornatore as a young boy who views the title
character, a falsely-accused war widow, through the eyes of a future
director and full-time heavy breather. More tragic than its earlier
brethren such as "The Starmaker", the film's tone shifts between
comedy and tragedy are a bit disconcerting.

Man Facing Southwest
A young man mysteriously appears in an Argentinean psychiatric hospital and
maintains that he is from another world. Initially dismissed as a raving
loony by the psychiatrist who attempts to help him, it soon  becomes apparent
to the shrink that the patient clearly possesses some remarkable abilities.
This isn't sci-fi but rather an examination and condemnation of the mental
health industry and its dependence on chemical and electroshock therapies. In
a telling scene, while listening to a patient drone on about his failed
suicide, the psychiatrist reflects on his ineffectual practice and muses
about what effect he might have by simply touching the patient's hand. He
realizes that it could express real sympathy for the patient's torment. But
with his ingrained professionalism, he resists the impulse to do so. In a
series of conversations he has with the enigmatic alien,  all of the
doctor's assumptions and precepts are assailed and pronounced wrong. Whether
the patient is what he claims is never answered.  This may be slow going for
some as this is a conversation-heavy think piece with a lot to say about the
seeming conflict between rationalism and emotionality.

Mondo
Directed by the French documentarian Tony Gatlif, the title character is a
young gypsy boy who suddenly materializes in the French town of Nice. Not
much "happens" in the conventional narrative sense; we observe Mondo making
his rounds in search of a bit of food or shelter, always with a disarming
smile. People generally treat him well, his personality is an ingratiating
one. One of these townspeople becomes very attached to the waif and looks
into adoption. A lovely bit of magical realism, a charmer of a lead actor,
supported by a cast of real street people, striking photography and
well-chosen music makes this a welcome addition to the small but growing
library of films dealing authentically with the gypsy experience.

Monterey Pop
Before there was Woodstock, there was Monterey Pop, the first of the big rock
festivals. Director D.A. Pennebaker's documentation of the event  seems fresh
today, more than 30 years later. His hand-held camera work and intercutting
of the acts and their audience set the style for the Woodstock movie and
dozens of other rock features and videos that have followed. Watching the
newly-reissued Rhino video, I was struck by the innocence of the time. By
comparison, even Woodstock, "The Festival of Love and Peace", seems slightly
studied and jaded. Among the outstanding performances: Janice Joplin at her
peak, exhibiting dynamics that were soon to disappear from her act; Hendrix
dry-humping then setting his Stratocaster afire as the coda to "Wild Thing";
South African trumpeter Hugh Masakela fronting a killer band; Ravi Shankar
entrancing the gathering with a call-and-response duet with his tabla player,
Alla Rakha; and above all, Otis Redding electrifying the "love crowd", as he
refers to his audience,  with a seamless transit  from the kinetic "Shake"
into his show-stopping ballad "Try a Little Tenderness."
 

The Minus Man

A serial killer story with little overt suspense sounds like a yawn, yet
this minimally constructed story about a young man who drifts from place to
place poisoning people seethes with an understated tension. Mild mannered
Van doesn't come across as a psychopath; then I suppose Jeffery Dahmer
probably didn't strike his victims that way either. Van ingratiates himself
with all he meets and his targets never know what hit them. There are
elements of David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" hyper-reality rolled up with
Hitchcockian understatement that creates a disturbing and memorable whole.

My Life So Far

This is the filmed memoir of a British TV honcho's upbringing in 1920s
Scotland. Dark undercurrents seethe beneath life at Kiloran, an idyllic
Highlands estate where 10 year-old Fraser Pettigrew and an assortment of
eccentric relatives and visitors grapple with all manner of human
frailties. His father is an enthusiastic dabbler who produces an array of
Rube Goldberg inventions and runs a fiscally marginal cottage industry
based on sphagnum moss. The father is a complex character; at once a
playful and loving , but also a luster after his brother-in-law's comely
French fiance. In the end, though, the optimistic luster of Fraser's point
of view wins out.
 

The Muse

Albert Brooks directed and stars in this story of a Hollywood screenwriter
whose career is going down the drain. Repeatedly he is told that he has
lost his edge. Through a fellow writer who has enjoyed a string of
succesful scripts, he is referred to Sarah (Sharon Stone in a surprisingly
effective performance) who is a professional muse. As it turns out, muses
don't come cheap. Sarah needs a lot of very expensive maintenance-Brooks
finds himself anteing up $1700 a day for her lodgings at the Four Seasons
Hotel and delivering a Waldorf salad in the middle of the night to her
suite. Not the best Brooks film (both "Lost in America" and "Mother" have
more edge) it does offer a satirical look at Hollywood mores and a clever O
Henry-styled twist ending. And the film is sprinkled with amusing cameos
including Martin Scorcese who talks about doing a remake of "Raging Bull";
this time with a thin guy!

Metroland
A happily married young man (Christian Bale) living in a commuter housing
estate outside London is visited by an untamed buddy from the past who
causes him to question his life choices. It is hardly untilled soil; there
are many entries in this genre dealing with 60s hellraisers who have turned
in their bongs and sandals for security and suburbia. But this effort is
imbued with a wit and knowingness that many predecessors lack, together
with a superior performance by Emily Watson as the wife.
 

My Son The Fanatic
Hanif Kaureshi who wrote the wonderful screenplay for "My Beautiful
Laundrette" has created a complex character in Parvez, a Pakistani
cabdriver living in the British midlands. He works long hours often
ferrying hookers and their johns sometimes putting these pairs together. He
is a tolerant man who loves to retreat to the basement where he sips
whiskey and listens to bluesy jazz away from his wife's disapproving gaze.
When his son becomes an ardent Muslim and brings a religious leader home to
stay, Parvez' life is turned on end. Complicating matters is a burgeoning
relationship with one of the hookers he drives and a wealthy German who
abuses her and who gets Parvez to set up a sex party. Rife with humor and
pathos, we are given an engaging glimpse into the life of Asians attempting
to assimilate into British culture. Be sure to let the end credits run as
it's only as they roll that a resolution, or perhaps resignation, is
reached.
 

The Machine AKA La Machine

Gerard Depardieu plays a scientist who develops a device with which he can
swap the personalities/minds of people. Working an old theme, he switches
bodies with a serial killer who then escapes putting the scientist's family
in extreme jeopardy while he is stuck in the mental ward trapped in the
criminal's body. Though the acting is uniformly competetent, Depardieu's
hulking physical presence seems wrong for his role. At times he even seems
to be mimicing the moves of Mary Shelly's famous monster. But the
intriguing premise is otherwise well handled and inevitably reminds viewers
of the similarly-plotted Face/Off (reviewed earlier). Be forewarned that
there are a couple of intense slasher scenes which will have the squeamish
squirming.

My Left Foot

What we have here is a contradiction in terms: a heartbreaking comedy. It
is the non-manipulative story of Irish artist and writer Christy Brown born
with monumental disabilities. It is an extraordinary account of a lusty,
feisty man dealing with the rage and frustration of being imprisoned in a
body that won't work. Daniel Day-Lewis is tremendous in the lead, as is
Brenda Fricker playing his mother. Funny, tragic and warm, the film never
panders to cheap emotions.

The Man Who Would Be King

John Huston's rip snorting yarn is a terrific adaptation of a Rudyard
Kipling short story about two former British soldiers who decide to set
themselves up as the rulers in a remote part of Northern India. Sean
Connery and Michael Caine are perfectly cast as the soldiers who manage to
convince the natives of their deity. Though their attitudes and actions are
utterly despicable, somehow you are charmed by their gusto and derring-do.
This was shot in Morocco when Huston was 70 and is quite an achievement.
 

Man Bites Dog

This plays like one extended sick joke. A Belgian film crew follows a
serial killer around and captures, cinema-verité style, his vicious crimes.
The violence is non-stop and so over the top as to be laughable. It becomes
clear that the killer is spurred on to new heights of viciousness by having
the film crew present and they, in the end, become a part of the crime
spree.

Metropolitan (1990)

A thoughtfully made study of class consciousness in America. A college
student of modest means attempts to become a part of a clique of debutante
and social register-types. A debut for the director and most of the cast
demonstrates very mature skills.
 

El Mariachi

Made on a minuscule budget, this is the story of an itinerant Mexican
musician who is mistaken for a big-time hoodlum who has escaped from
prison. With lots of over-the-top violence blended with a healthy serving
of humor, it offers a heap of entertainment despite its limited production
values. The director, Robert Rodriquez later remade the story as
"Desperado" with a big Hollywood budget, but with much more ordinary
results. Just goes to show that bucks don't necessarily improve a premise.
 
 

Margaret's Museum

Helena Bonham Carter plays a toughminded woman whose family of Canadian
coal miners has suffered mightily in their vocation. She hooks up with an
oddball bagpipe-playing maverick who initially refuses to have anything to
do with the mines. They marry and he builds her a whimsical house of scraps
facing the ocean where they live a mostly idyllic life. Then another
tragedy strikes leading to Margaret's creation of her museum. Told in a
rather novel flashback form, a question raised in the first scene isn't
answered until the very last.
 
 

Matewan

John Sayle's story about the attempt to unionize West Virginia coal miners
in the face of Pinkerton thugs is historically accurate and dramatically
compelling. He even wrote some labor songs for the movie that sound
amazingly authentic.
 
 

Mephisto

The Faustian theme is given new life in this Hungarian film in which an
egomaniacal actor cooperates with the Nazis. This is a rich production full
of period detail and tragic plot elements.
 
 

Men with Guns

Watching this engaging work by John Sayles, I was reminded repeatedly of a
couple of Graham Greene novels, "The Power and the Glory" and especially,
"Monsignor Quixote". The film shares with those books a concern with the
loss of innocence and the exploitation of indigenous people. Dr Fuentes is
a genteel Latin American physician who embarks on a road trip into the
jungle to find some medical students he had trained years before to go out
and serve the indian population. He has reason to believe that some of
these students have been murdered. As he travels from the city to the
jungle an allegory emerges: in his journey he is traveling from the current
era into a ravaged colonial world where the natives are abused and murdered
by the militia who suspect them of supporting an insurgent guerilla group.
But in fact, the indians are killed by the men with guns simply because
they are men without guns. Along the way, Fuentes joins up with an army
deserter on the lam, a defrocked priest and savvy young boy who serves as
their guide. It has been suggested that there are Wizard of Oz elements
here. Each of the quartet brings his strength to the group creating a whole
greater than the sum of its parts. Like most of Sayles' films, this is a
challenging, maverick effort with its subtitled Spanish dialogue and
interest in liberation theology-elements that hardly spell box office
success. (Be sure to rent the right tape; there was another movie by the
same title issued in '97 which I've not seen.)
 

Midnight Express

Although Oliver Stone's screenplay has been accused of massive distortions
in telling the true story of Billy Hayes, a young American busted for hash
smuggling in Turkey, the film is still gripping. The most paranoiac and
tense moments come early on when Billy is caught with his stash duct-taped
to his body. (Departing the Istanbul airport a couple of years ago, where
baggage and passengers are still matched up on the tarmac, I couldn't help
but flash on those scenes.) What follows is a horrendous account of his
captivity in a Turkish prison where he is subjected to all manner of
inhumane treatment and conditions. This is not for the squeamish.
 

The Mission

Set in 18th century South America, the Portuguese and Spanish are involved
in a quest for control of Indian territories that provides the manpower for
their empire building. A dedicated Jesuit (Jeremy Irons) with the help of a
reformed slave trader (Robert DeNiro) find themselves in the middle of this
maneuvering and gamely attempt to protect an Indian tribe that has taken
refuge within their mission. A Vatican emissary is sent to determine the
rights of the parties which leads to a bloody conclusion. Though the story,
and especially the final battle scenes are a bit garbled, the scenic
splendor and compelling story hold the viewer's attention.
 

Mosquito Coast

Based on the Paul Theroux novel of the same name, Harrison Ford plays an
iconoclastic and dictatorial American inventor who, disgusted with the
consumerist culture in the U.S., emigrates with his family to a
God-forsaken spot of land in a fictitious Latin American country. There he
sets about creating a utopia and impressing his values on the locals as
well as his family. One of Harrison's finest turns, he subtly conveys all
the heroic and hateful aspects of his character.
 

Mountains of The Moon

This big, adventurous film manages to be a rousing actioner and thoughtful
personal saga rolled into one. It's the story of Sir Richard Burton who
"discovered" the source of the Nile and was the first white to see Victoria
Falls all at great personal cost and hardship. Vivid location filming puts
you right there.
 

The Music of Chance

A fireman on an extended road trip picks up a guy stumbling along the
roadside. Learning that he's a professional gambler, he decides to back him
in a high-stakes poker game that results in some very strange events. A
genuinely unusual entry with a practically unrecognizable James Spader
playing the card sharp. If you like Kafka, you'll dig this!
 

Mac
 

This is a quiet little movie that's very touching and stars a particular
favorite of mine, John Turturro, who also directed. It's about three
Italian-American brothers living in 50s Queens NY - blue collar guys trying
to get their piece of the American Dream. It's full of closely observed
details and nice bits of wistful humor.
 

The Magic Christian

Peter Sellers plays a mischievous millionaire who happily spends lots of
cash in order to see people make idiots of themselves in their thirst for
filthy lucre. Along the way, he adopts Ringo Starr, an innocent waif who
enthusiastically joins in with his adoptive dad at playing wicked games.
 

Man of Flowers

Another quirky Australian picture about a guy with a bit of an Oedipus
complex who is obsessed with beauty. It too runs the gamut from sadness to
silliness, but it's easy to like if you're not too intent on lots of plot
and action.
 

The Manchurian Candidate

Debuting on the eve of the JFK assassination, this unusual and disturbing
film which dealt with a plot to kill the U.S. president quickly
disappeared. It has since developed cult status-and deservedly so. Laurence
Harvey is the son of a bombastic senator and manipulative mother played to
the hilt by Angela Lansbury. A great, paranoid plot and terrific
performances all around, including Frank Sinatra's as a disturbed G.I,.
give this sleeper lots of punch.
 
 

Map Of The Human Heart

This is an ambitious film that attempts and very nearly pulls off a
remarkable fable about an Eskimo boy who is drawn into "civilization" by a
Canadian mapmaker and whose life undergoes remarkable changes. It has a
dreamlike quality that leaves you thinking about it for days afterwards.
 

Mean Streets

Martin Scorsese's early effort still carries a lot of punch as an early
precursor to "Wiseguys" and "Goodfellas" et. al. The soundtrack is terrific
with some fairly obscure R&B and doo-wop tunes. Harvey Keitel and Robert
DeNiro demonstrate their long-standing powers in this one too.
 

A Midnight Clear

Thematically, there's nothing in this anti-war film that's new here: it's
the story of two contingents of soldiers, one American, the other German
stalking each other near the end WWII. What makes this special is terrific
acting, a smart script and a lot of irony.
 
 

The Miracle (1991)

An unusual coming-of-age film set in Ireland and directed by Neil Jordan
("The Crying Game"). Two teenagers suffering from the boredom and cynicism
that come with puberty become fascinated by an American mystery woman who
they begin stalking. An unpredictable story ensues.
 
 

A Midwinter's Tale

Kenneth Branagh's story concerns a down on his luck actor who sets about
staging "Hamlet" in a dreary British village over the Christmas holidays.
Flying in the face of the "Panto Season", he recruits a company of, to say
the least, marginalized thespians to mount his vision. Branagh's script and
direction is dead on with the gags flying fast and furious-he leaves no
comedic stone unturned with great groaning puns, wacky literary allusions
and a first rate cast of English character actors. Joan Collins is fine in
a small but memorable role as a go for the throat agent.
Though the story lapses into sentimentality in the last reel or two, there
are enough finely crafted gags to suggest the best of the Ealing Studios
comedies of the 50s and 60s. The show biz myth of putting on a production
against all odds is a well worn path in both film and theatre, but this one
is done with enough spirit and elan to overcome the clichés.
 

Mister Johnson

An ambitious and corrupt African who works for the local magistrate keeps
coming a cropper as result of his persistent scheming. He is relatively
well educated and is probably far too smart for his own good-an intriguing
character study based on a novel by British novelist Joyce Carey.
 
 

Melvin and Howard

The story of Melvin Dumars who allegedly found injured Howard Hughes in the
Nevada desert following a motorcycle wreck. A good natured, luckless
milkman from suburban L.A., the film tracks Melvin's meandering lifestyle,
tenuous domestic affairs and the changes wrought when he is named as an
heir to the Hughes fortune. In a brilliant bit of satire, Melvin's wife
(played by Mary Steenburgen in her film debut) competes on a hokey TV show
modeled on a combination of The Gong Show and Queen for a Day with an
unspeakably smarmy host. A first rate sleeper.
 

Men...

A great farce from Germany in which an advertising man discovers that his
wife is fooling around. He promptly moves in as a roommate of her lover
while keeping his identity a secret which leads to uproarious circumstances.
 

A Merry War AKA Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Based on an H.G. Welles story, this modest romantic comedy achieves its
small aims brilliantly. Gordon Comstock, played winningly by Richard E.
Grant, is a successful advertising copy writer who flogs laxatives to the
masses. He finally decides to chuck in his job to become a romantically
struggling poet. And thus begins his descent into abject poverty while his
girlfriend (Helena Bonham-Carter) staunchly stands by Gordon, waiting for
him to regain his senses and return to his real job. The aspidistra, a
houseplant that will survive neglect and thrive in dark corners was a
favorite in Victorian middle class homes, and Gordon comes to identify with
the plant that crops up in the dingy rooming houses he inhabits. The movie
does a bang up job of reflecting Welles' scorn for the British bourgoise as
well as the wrongheaded romanticism of his hero while surefootedly
recreating the look and feel of the era. It's interesting to note that
this is the second time (of which I'm aware) that Grant has been cast as a
once-cynical, reformed advertising man. In "How to Get Ahead in
Advertising" reviewed earlier, he also engaged in this maligned trade while
struggling with the dichotomy of cynicism and love. Talk about typecasting.
 

Mona Lisa

A low-level British crook is hired to drive a high-priced call girl to her
assignments. Despite the job and his underworld connections, the driver
(Bob Hoskins) remains surprisingly naive for a time about the seaminess of
her work. Slowly he awakens to the world of debauchery in which she
operates and we come to see the underbelly of London along with him.
Michael Caine is very effective as a cockney slimeball.
 
 

Moonlighting

A great Jeremy Irons vehicle in which he plays a scheming Pole who brings a
group of his countrymen to London to work under the table renovating a
townhouse. Besides keeping the job under wraps from British authorities, he
must also keep his workmen from learning about the Solidarity movement and
imposition of martial law taking place in Poland.
 

Monument Ave. AKA Snitch

Comparison with Scorcese's "Mean Streets" is inevitable in considering this
gritty tale about low level Irish-American hoods in a tough Boston
neighborhood. Denis Leary turns in a subtly nuanced performance as Bobby, a
professional car thief, boozer and coke sniffer who becomes locked in a
deadly struggle with his criminal boss played menacingly by Colm Meaney.
Bobby and his buddies are an unlikable lot: racist, violent and criminal to
the depths of their souls, yet their rough and tumble camaraderie comes
across and we end up caring about them.
 

Monsieur Hire

A terrific French thriller about a voyeur who helps his neighbor with her
involvement in a murder that took place in their neighborhood. Great acting
and a very compact screenplay make this tense and involving.
 

Muriel's Wedding

A nicely off-center serio-comedy about an ugly duckling who leaves her
backwater Aussie town and neurotic family to seek her fortune in the big
city together with her best friend who is a much quicker study. This film
took me by surprise; it's not the ugly- duckling-becomes-beautiful-swan
story that the trailer and first reel would lead you to expect. Its
considerably darker, funnier and more creative than that particularly tired
formula.

Mi Vida Loca AKA My Crazy Life

An interesting contrast to "Girls Town", this is the forceful portrait of a
group of Chicana gang girls in the Echo Park area of L.A. The episodic
structure reveals the violence and group rituals that these girls confront
every day while the largely non-professional cast contributes a palpable
sense of realism. Director Allison Anders lived for a time in the
neighborhood where the film was shot, getting to know these women and their
lives. That intimacy is reflected in both the realism as well as the
director's occasionally over-romanticized take on her subjects.
 

My First Wife

Australian director Paul Cox ("Man of Flowers", "Cactus", "A Woman's Tale")
has a singular vision that is at once quirky and beguiling and that makes
each of his films an unforgettable and original experience. This one's no
exception. John is a work-obsessed classical DJ, composer and college
lecturer whose wife, Helen, suddenly leaves him. That she has fallen out of
love with him comes as a shock. More shocking still is her confession that
she has been carrying on a longstanding affair with a mutual friend. The
revelation angers and ultimately plunges the hypersensitive John into an
acute depression in which he is seen as the needy, clinging one; Helen is
quite assured and sanguine about the breakup. The soundtrack includes a
great deal of choral work that cunningly comments on the emotional climate
in the manner of a Greek chorus. Though the story ends on a slightly
dissatisfying, irresolute note, "My First Wife" should provide an involving
experience for anyone with a yen for relationship dramas.
 

My Own Private Idaho

I get the impression that Gus Van Sant who directed this story of male
street hustlers in Portland was inspired by "Streetwise" (above). River
Phoenix and Keannu Reeves each give the best performances of their
otherwise lackluster careers. Sadly, the story heads a bit south during the
second half removing it from contention as a true masterpiece of American
film. Nonetheless, it is still a striking look at life in the nether world.
 

My Sweet Little Village

As its title implies, this is a gentle and sweet look at a Czech village
and the relationship between a roly-poly truck driver and his stringbean,
simpleton helper. With plenty of jabs at the socialist state and a
first-rate cast of oddball villagers, it leaves a pleasant taste in the
mouth.
 

The Madness of King George

During the late 18th century the British monarch who lost America starts to
go off his rocker putting into play all manner of court intrigue, with
notably his son, the Prince of Wales, angling to take over for his ailing
daddy. A top notch cast, impeccable period detail and a winning adaptation
of the successful stage play offer an intriguing look into monarchical
monkeyshines.
 
 

The Music Room aka Jalsaghar

Indian director Satyajit Ray's meditation about pride and vanity involves
an aging noble who has squandered his wealth, primarily on hosting lavish
musical evenings for his neighbors. Despite encroaching poverty, he
continues to maintain an affluent front in his crumbling mansion until he
literally blows his final rupees on one final extravaganza. This will be of
special interest to those with an affinity for Indian music-the score
includes music by Ravi Shankar and Bismillah Khan.
 
 

Matinee

A genuine sleeper featuring John Goodman as the producer of Grade-Z horror
and sci-fi movies who is about to launch his latest dreck-drenched effort
with lots of hoopla at a theatre in Key West while the Cuban missile crisis
looms large in the background. (He hires a "nurse" in starched white
uniform to tend to those overcome by the sheer horror of his creation!) The
movie-within-the-movie called "Mant" is a real scream, parodying the worst
of the horror pix of the 50s and 60s. Older kids should like this one too.
 
 

Meeting Venus

During the hectic development of a multinational staging of Wagner's
"Tannhauser" in Paris, beset by strikes and other impediments, the
Hungarian conductor gets intimate with the Swedish diva played brilliantly
by Glenn Close. A sly comedy-romance that opera lovers should especially
enjoy, Close's dubbed singing was done by Kiri Te-Kanewa.
 
 

My Beautiful Laundrette

A terrific examination of race relations and sexual orientation in the
Thatcherite England of the mid-80s, this is the story of the friendship
between a young Pakistani man and a British street punk and what happens
when they take over operation of a ragtag laundromat. The screenplay is by
Hanif Kureishi who wrote "Sammy and Rosie Get Laid" and"The Buddha of The
Suburbs" and directed "London Kills Me"which are reviewed earlier. Fine
entertainment with a look at race relations and homosexuality unfamiliar to
most American viewers.
 
 

My Father's Glory/My Mother's Castle

These two delightful reminiscences based on Marcel Pagnol's memoirs are
superb storytelling for both children and adults. In "Father's" a
precocious little boy and his family spend their summer in Provence where
they become enmeshed with the country community. "Mother's" continues the
story in the same innocent, sweet-natured style. See them in the order
given for fullest appreciation.

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