Nicholas-9 Reviews

Kissing a Fool (1998)

Er...Jason Lee?

[10 January 1999]

This film belongs to the infamous group of movies where i sit in the theater wondering "should i be somewhere (anywhere) else?" That isn't a bad review. It's just a comment on worth. The movie is decent enough at what it wants to be--perhaps a little of a stretch at times. It does, however, have one redeeming quality: Jason Lee.

This man makes the movie. He is a little more constrained than he is in his Kevin Smith films but still his desert-in-a-drought-and-more humor strikes me as the unbelievably funny. If you like it dry, and some do, you've could check this movie out, just for Mr. Lee...well, and for the nastiest David Schwimmer i've ever seem...all i can say is "what up?"

You should be thinking "this review is lukewarm" because it is. So is the film. It's not brilliant or ground-breaking but it's funny. Worth a dollar or two on a slow night.

Exotica (1994)

Well Done Flesh

[10 January 1999]

Mirimax's ad campaign for this film made it seem an unlikely twin to "Showgirls" and through this many people doubtlessly got duped into renting what they thought would be one of those, ahem, "legit" porn flicks. What they popped into the VCR was a wonderful post-modern film. Atom Egoyan is a talented director who uses his stories and scenes to weave something like a dream into a mind. At the end, confused and hungry, the mind finds its answer, like a maze--only infinitely complicated.

This film is wonderful because it refuses to condemn or judge. There is no moral resolution, there is only life. Rotten and stuck in a maze the characters deal with their loss but never stop living. It's not so heart-warming...just true. And that is truly wonderful.

All in all, however, a film that seems to hone the skills that made "The Sweet Hereafter" one of the best unheard of films of 1997. Put on your thinking cap and see it--it's not the garbage the cover promises.

You've Got Mail (1998)

Suprise remakes

[3 January 1999]

It wouldn't be a lie to say that Nora Ephron makes the same movie over and over...it wouldn't be a lie to say a lot of directors do. I went into You've Got Mail ready for a replay of Sleepless in Seattle--which wouldn't have been bad or boring, just unsurprising. After the film i find myself happily surprised. While thematically remaking any number of films Ephron succeeds in making it fresh, remarkable and moving. The dialouge balances the talkiness of the late 90's with more sensible scriptwriting. The characters are more than facades.

Especially of note are Greg Kinnear as a radical type-writer lover and Parker Posey playing, well, Parker Posey (and doing it brilliantly!). Hanks' dad's fiancee is also amazing...

This is a movie calculated to pull the heartstrings but i found myself not feeling compromised or cheated (as many huge productions leave me)...i felt good. That's what this movie is about and it does its job with perfection.

Sliding Doors (1998)

Yay!

[11 December 1998]

This movie was everything I've been looking for. It is thought- provoking in, admittedly, a very junior high way ("What if someone gave me a million dollars?") but really explodes the very amusing 'what-if' idea and shows just how much things might change.

The segues were beautiful and the clarity with which the film moved between its two main characters (who were the same person) was wonderfully lucid. The storytelling was always terse but obscure at all the right points.

Terrible acting couldn't have ruined this movie. It was a great blend of non-commercial plotless-ness and mainstream ideology. Very nicely done. I say see it now!

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)

Stop reading--MIRALO!

[1 December 1998]

This movie is fantastic in both senses of the word. Far fetched and technicolor it speeds along, through plot turns and tumbles.

The wit is poignant, the characters are crazy. Somehow Almodovar takes all these elements and blends them into a wonderful and heartfelt film that is both relevant and stylistically exciting. A show to add to the must see list.