This is a great adaption of an two incredible plays. There are some missteps: Emma Thompson cannot do a Russian immigrant accent, the dream sequences rely too heavily on CGI and some go on for far too long. But these are small complaints. Some of the comments I read called it 'boring' and 'intellectual'. Well, yes it is an ambitious Pulitzer Prize winning work which incorporates AIDS, the Reagan years, gender identity, Mormons, environmental issues, drag queen dialog, health care, religion, death, forgiveness... The dialog is funny, touching, sad, profane and religious. It is already a classic American play (The Crucible, Death Of A Salesman, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? etc.) and well worth watching for all of it's six and a half hours.
Reviews
4 Reviews
Life Is Beautiful
(1997)
Disrespectful, Sentimental and Trite
28 August 2003
Surely one of the most disrespectful movies ever made. A vanity project for Roberto Benigni and wife which happens to involve deportations to an Auschwitz where children are allowed to run and hide ! A creaky plot which for the first part of the film is devoted to the cult of Roberto Benigni as a socially inept goodhearted soul who wins the heart of his wife. Self-serving in the extreme. Maybe in Italy it was seen as a brave move for a big movie star to take on a Jewish role, but in the U.S. such choices don't even rate a comment. Benigni practically screams love me for most of the movie until the deportation. The scenes inside the concentration camp are suitably graphic but as always the focus is on Roberto. Our poor Roberto, HE is special, his love is special unlike the other millions. Ends ridiculously with Roberto calming down his son before he gets shot. So calculated for maximum Roberto and Oscar love. Have no idea why people let themselves be manipulated by this pedestrian movie. A cynical use of a horrific event to further an actor's lovable persona.
Labyrinth of Passion
(1982)
Polysexual self involved drug fiends in screwball classic!!
12 April 2001
I agree with both comments above but wanted to emphasis what a fun insanely gleeful movie this is. Very camp and sleazy. A movie about being young. Worth viewing for Almodovar and Fanny (Fabio) McNamara's horrendous pop group 'performing' 'Suck It To Me'. Drag queens worship Fanny and you'll see why. A sort of Madrid Liquid Sky with humor and a decent plot. Very cult and very 60's mod. Pure fun.
The Ice Storm
(1997)
fantastic
14 March 2001
The Ice Storm is a wonderful, character driven picture that not only documents upper middle class reactions to the changing morals of the 1970's but also reflects these changes on the actions of their children. Ang Lee's film perfectly captures the New Cannan/Greenwich/Bedford moral and physical landscape. Boarding schools, bongs, bored housewives. The way that the 1970s pop references ( Deep Throat, EST, waterbeds ) are woven into the story that illuminate Lee's themes of social change, WASP repression and juvenile exploration. All the acting is wonderful (except Kevin Kline's routine descent into physical comedy that he seems to put everywhere). Sigourney Weaver gives a wonderful performance as a jaded, feral housewife who damages people and relationships as easily as her youngest son destroys toys. Christina Ricci is amazing as a sexually precocious young teen who acts like the bad girl yet only wants "to touch it". Elijah Wood is brilliant as a spacehead who is obsessed with molecules to the incomprehension of all. There are touching moments that bring tears ( the tragic end, Kline carrying Ricci over the wet ground ) that evoke a family in crisis with itself and the times but their emotional core is still solid. American Beauty got all the attention from Oscar but The Ice Storm is as far as it can be from that satire cum tragedy. Very complex script, wonderful acting make this movie worth repeated viewing. In my opinion a great movie.
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