Change Your Image
bergman-6
Reviews
The Aviator (2004)
Too much Hughes
Certainly a good and informative film but it lacked dramatic depth and for us didn't generate great emotion. The film so focused on Hughes' ambitions and sad illnesses that the characters with whom he interacted seemed more like part of the scenery than independent characters to care about. (One exception perhaps was Hughes' aviation expert, they did seem to have a real relationship.) Maybe that's a fatal flaw when you set out to cover so much of the productive life of man like this.
I also didn't buy the idea that his mother's warnings and washings accounts for what happened to Hughes. Maybe Scorsese wanted to create a Rosebud/Citizen Kane feel, at least that's what popped into my mind. But Hughes' problems went way beyond an anal mother.
Chocolat (2000)
A fable so smooth it melts in your mouth.
I thoroughly enjoyed the film, as did the other people in my group. It's a simple fable with a predictable ending, but we all got caught up in the mood and felt that we were friends with the quirky characters who live in the small French town where all the action takes place. Even the two children are enjoyable, not nauseatingly cutesy as one fears children might be in this type of film. Juliette Binoche is ravishing to look at and conveys the Mary Poppins-type quirkiness that carries the film. Alfred Molina is the reactionary, super-religious mayor of the town who tries to pressure Binoche into leaving, but his portrayal is sympathetic enough that he doesn't destroy the fable-like quality of the film. Johnny Depp is a charming river rat, and you also have two fantastic pros in Judi Dench and Leslie Caron. Go, and let the movie suck you into its sense of place and time and you'll leave the theater feeling that all is possible in life after all.
Goodbye, My Fancy (1951)
An engrossing romance with a strong anti-McCarthyism subtext
What plays on the surface as a "romantic triangle" film carries a strong anti-McCarthyism message. Robert Young is the once-idealistic President of an exclusive Women's College who years earlier had trysted with Joan Crawford, a Congresswoman who has made a film depicting aspects of injustice. Crawford wants to reunite with Young and have the film played during Graduation Weekend. The school's trustees don't want the film shown, thinking it too "dangerous" for their students to see. The characters' arguments about democratic values play well with a modern audience, and both the political and the romantic aspects of the plot unfold in an engrossing and entertaining manner.
Dogma (1999)
It's darker than you think
I thoroughly enjoyed Dogma, as I have Mr. Smith's previous films. However, I found the film to be darker and a bit more gory than the reviews and other viewers' comments had led me to believe. I don't mind a bit of gore- I loved Scream and Scream 2, but found that it made it more difficult for me to laugh at the clever parts.