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Reviews
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
An obnoxious waste of time.
This film was dreadful!
Resolved:
1. That it is irrelevant to try to "figure the film out." The symbolism is so hackneyed, it's laughable. (Oooh! A key! Si-lencio! Mysterious!)
2. Never to watch another David Lynch film (except for The Straight Story, which is great, but only because of Richard Farnsworth and Sissy Spacek, who apparently cannot be coaxed into acting like enigmatic robots.)
3. That David Lynch must give me back my two hours and my five bucks. Give them back, David Lynch! You stole them from me! I am an American citizen and I don't have to take this kind of treatment!
Furthermore:
4. That David Lynch must be punished for his unacceptable behavior in the following manner: the Convicted shall be imprisoned in a dark, strangely-lit room with red curtains, keys, scary old people, and a wig-wearing dwarf, and forced to watch his own films for five years straight.
In the Bedroom (2001)
A wrenching, beautiful film
This movie had me crying almost from the start. I had already read the Andre Dubus story upon which it is based, so I knew where the story was headed, but that still didn't prepare me for this gut-wrenching drama. The adaptation was beautifully done: faithful to the story, fleshing out characters and events with grace and subtlety. Everyone in the theater around us was bawling.
If this movie doesn't garner some serious Oscar attention, I'll be very surprised.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
A marvelous adaptation!
I was soooo afraid that this film would be lousy and ruin Middle Earth for me forever! But it's fantastic. The director has managed to accomplish the seemingly Herculean feat of adapting a beloved, epic story in a respectful manner, only omitting parts that really wouldn't work in a film. That's the tricky thing about adaptations; they are not merely one-to-one translations of the original; they entail a complete re-imagining of the story in order to tell it via a different art form. I'm amazed at how well this was done. I was so engrossed in the story that I didn't notice the missing parts until after the movie was over, and I found that I really didn't "miss" them. Plus, people I saw the film with, who had not read the books, also loved it. The filmmakers are obviously doing something right. I can't wait to see the next installment!
Long live Frodo!
The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
A brilliant adaptation
This movie makes me bawl, every time I see it. Beautifully filmed, an exquisite rendering of one woman's gradual entrapment by the world of men and nineteenth-century social constraints.
The drama unfolds slowly, but masterfully, building to one of the best endings I've ever seen.
Nicole Kidman is excellent, and Martin Donovan is a god.
The Book of Stars (1999)
A beautiful, haunting story.
I saw this movie at the Spindletop Film Festival in Beaumont, Texas and was surprised to find myself in a theater full of crying people. It is a beautiful, dreamlike story of intense emotional realism, and a movie I will not soon forget. Why don't movies like this get distributed nationally?