In a previous post, I mused about the incessant swearing in the premier episode in the new HBO comedy Veep and wondered how normal it was. The comments from people familiar with that world suggested that it was quite common for people in high levels of government to swear all the time. [Read more…]
I saw the Ben Stiller film Greenberg (2010) recently. It is not your typical Stiller comedy. In fact, it is not a comedy at all, more a drama as he plays a neurotic and self-centered person recovering from a nervous breakdown returning from New York to his roots in California and trying to connect with his old friends and society and having a rough time doing so. [Read more…]
In his latest film The Descendants, George Clooney plays the father of two daughters, one of whom is grown, coping with the consequences of his wife being in a coma as a result of an accident. He is suddenly thrust into a parenting role that he had abdicated up to that point and for which he is not prepared. The film begins with a familiar trope that I detest but one that American filmmakers seem to be enamored by, that of rude and obnoxious children who mouth off to their parents. But fortunately that phase passes fairly soon and the rest of the film deals with the three of them coming to terms with each other and their situation. [Read more…]
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a Woody Allen film. I grew up enjoying his early silly comedies and while Allen grew as a filmmaker and went on to make films aimed at a more sophisticated palate, I remained in my juvenile state of mind for some time and so we went our separate ways, so to speak. [Read more…]
This is the name of a new documentary by Debbie Lum who wanted to examine the phenomenon of “yellow fever”, the extreme attraction some American men have for Asian women that sometimes borders on fetishism. While starting out with every intention of being just a dispassionate observer of one man’s search for an Asian bride, she ended up as an awkward participant. [Read more…]
This film did not receive much publicity when it was released although it came out recently (2011), has a stellar cast (Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, and John C. Reilly, the first three being Oscar winners and the last a nominee), and was directed by Roman Polanski. It is set in New York City but was actually filmed in Europe, since Polanksi is a fugitive from the law in the US due to charges of rape of a minor. [Read more…]
The man who, along with his brother Richard M. Sherman, wrote some memorable songs for many musicals such as Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks died yesterday.
Here is a song they wrote for Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967), a film that captivated me when I first saw it and remains one of my all-time [Read more…]
Michael Caine is one of my favorite actors and has a reputation for knowing lots of arcane bits of information that he brings out in conversations, ending it with what has becomes his catchphrase, “Not many people know that”.
Because of his distinctive manner of speaking he is also widely impersonated by his fellow actors. In this interview with Michael Parkinson, Caine is [Read more…]
It is undoubtedly going to be the case that same sex marriage will expand the variety and range of the kinds of family relationships that will occur and we might as well be prepared for them. This is an excellent film that looks at one particular aspect of it.
This 2010 film stars Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple who [Read more…]
When the above film based on Moore’s 1988 graphic novel series came out in 2006, it immediately struck a chord with me. (See my review here and later reflections in the light of the Arab spring here.) I felt that it would become a cultural icon and so it has proved, with the Guy Fawkes mask becoming a ubiquitous symbol of popular uprising against an entrenched oligarchy.
Moore reflects on how the ideas for his book and [Read more…]