My Opinion: 4.8 || This was Roman Polanski’s first full-length feature, and there’s great skill on display throughout. However, it’s an emotionally cold movie that doesn’t equal the sum of its parts — succeeding… Continue reading
My Opinion: 6.4 || An entertaining, intellectually engaging movie about con men who are as busy trying to swindle each other as their mark. All the pleasures of a good fast-talking, fast-moving crime movie… Continue reading
My Opinion: 6.3 || A sensitive, lusciously photographed film that depicts heartbreaking scenes with very little emotional manipulation. Deepa Mehta, who clearly has a great eye for color and composition, manages to indict the… Continue reading
My Opinion: 6.4 || There’s much to admire, but I don’t think it holds the same fascinating power as Persona (my one other Bergman). As a frequently dreamy meditation on memory and age, it… Continue reading
My Opinion: 4.7 || An intermittently strong but ultimately flawed anti-war film. Strong acting, cinematography, and action staging are undermined by forced and wooden dialogue and too many credibility-straining moments. TITLE: The Front Line (Go-ji-jeon)… Continue reading
My Opinion: 6.2 || A landmark movie that’s in bad physical condition. I wish I could have risen above the technical limitations. But for me, it was a movie more to admire than to… Continue reading
My Opinion: 9.3 || Outstanding film. Like Tree of Life or Annie Hall or Persona, it’s impossible to identify a boundary between script and direction — it’s so obvious that they spring from a singular, cohesive vision.… Continue reading
My Opinion: 5.3 || I’m a sucker for heist movies. One of the few (maybe only) genres where I can be satisfied with mediocre. And Rififi is not mediocre. In fact, the heist… Continue reading
My Opinion: 7.0 || Excellent documentary about a bus hijacking and what it reveals about crime and poverty in Rio de Janeiro. The story of the hijacking is interesting in its own right, but… Continue reading
My Opinion: 7.3 || You go into a movie like this expecting sad, but what kind of sad? Dreary sad, tear-jerker sad, despair-for-humanity sad? Turns out it’s a better form of sad than any… Continue reading
I'm an author and consultant in Portland, Oregon. My novel 'Beheld' will be published this June.
