Change Your Image
rblument
Reviews
Femme Fatale (2002)
What a pleasant surprise!
A friend of mine, whose taste I generally trust as quite discerning, raved about this movie. I had read rather lukewarm reviews and was somewhat suprised at his opinion. I rented the video and saw it last night. I was unduly impressed. I think it is definitely one of De Palma's best efforts and one of the best thrillers that has come out in years. The plot becomes rather complex as the movie evolves, but, as in the works of the great master himself, Alfred Hitchcock, it is rather easy to follow. The script is excellent, and De Palma pulls it all together in the end in a very clever and very effective manner. There are a couple of scenes that a few people will see as being a bit over the top, but if you stick with the movie, they seem less so by the end. Be warned, however, this is not a movie for the prudish. It was much less violent than I expected and rather tame for a De Palma film in that regard. However, there is a rather erotic lesbian scene between Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and Rie Rasmussen (both totally gorgeous)and another striptease scene that borders on soft core porn. The rest of the movie is your general very good thriller fare. Bravo Mr. De Palma--thank you
La Ciudad (The City) (1998)
Wonderful, spare and touching film
This is certainly not a movie for the Ahnold, Rambo, blast 'em out of the galaxy crowd. It is, rather, a spare, black and white, mise en scene depiction of Hispanic immigrants in New York City. There are four different stories, the first three ending in a somewhat frustrating, unresolved manner. The fourth story lifts the film up tremendously with a subtle, but very powerful scene that involves no dialogue or music at all. This is the type of film that is not overly exciting, but will stay with you for quite a while and has many layers of meaning that all come together at the end.
Waking the Dead (2000)
Keith Gordon has done it again. A beautiful movie.
Keith Gordon, who scored a great victory in his film "A Midnight Clear" scores highly again with this reflective, engrossing, and beautifully photographed film about the relationship between two extremely attractive, intelligent, but politically divergent individuals in the late sixties. Fielding Pierce, played by Billy Crudup, is running for Congress in the 1980's while being haunted by his love with the lovely Sarah Williams, played by Jennifer Connely. Their relationship was extremely passionate and emotionally supportive despite their differences. Fieldings life is turned upside down when Sarah is killed in an explosion (I'm giving nothing away here--this happens in the first scene in the movies). The movie jumps around in time, but each scene is clearly captioned so that the viewer always knows exactly the time frame.
The romance is top notch, the chemistry between Crudup and Connelly is very good, and their both lovely to look at. There is a sense of urgency throughout the film as the viewer is kept guessing as to whether Sarah really did die, or is that her ghost that is haunting Fielding as he is running for Congress. Once again, Keith Gordon, the director, has created a mystical and engrossing atmosphere in telling a very good story. As in "A Midnight Clear," he uses snow in a way that is becoming a signature. A visually and emotionally stunning experience all around. Definitely on of my favorite movies of the year.
The Pianist (1991)
Amateurish in just about every aspect.
What a huge disappointment this movie was. The story was one that was ripe with possibilities, but the ineptness of the direction and most of the acting, as well as the script, left the movie with a totally lackluster dullness. The story of two sisters both having a crush on a good-looking Japanese pianist was quite enticing. Unfortunately, the script was trite and narratively all over the place, the acting was extremely self-conscious, the technical qualities of the film were very low, especially the sound (this may have been the fault of the particular video that we watched), and the movie lacked a clear focus and direction. On top of all that, there was a narrator who spoke as if he were narrating a Calvin Klein commercial.
There were a couple of good points. The acting of the Macha Grenon, who played the sister Colette, and that of Maury Chaykin was pretty good. I'd love to see Macha Grenon in a movie with a better script. Also, there was one scene where the Japanese student, Yoshi, was in bed with both of the sisters. This scene was quite effective--it was quite sensual and rather tender. Otherwise, the film was flat, and reminded be often times of the quality of the 1960's B horror films. Leonard Pince Darnell would have had a field day.