| Title |
Overall |
DVD |
Review |
|
| Absolutely
Fabulous Vol 1 |
••••• |
••• |
Clever,
funny, bitter, perfect. 05/01 |
What every queen wishes their life could be |
| Absolutely
Fabulous Vol 3 |
•••••
|
••• |
More clever,
funny, bitter, perfect. 05/01 |
Same |
| American
Pscyho |
••• |
••• |
One of the great misunderstood films of the 90s, this is pure parody with a ax murder thrown in for kicks. It still isn't very good, but lead Patrick Bateman (with fake American accent) has the pecs and the reptilian mannerisms to make a business card comparison as aridly funny as a rhyming pun.
06/01 |
Bateman has what every queen wishes their abs, tits, and ass could be |
| Bamboozled |
•••• |
••• |
Modern
satire is rarely this affecting. The tale of a comedy writer
is a take on "The Producers" so we understand what's
coming. The remarkable moments are when the characters begin
spouting and acting out the most offensive racial slurs I've
seen on film. On purpose. The effect is disturbing and though-provoking,
but ultimately Spike Lee's message is muddied by an unnecessarily
violent and psychological finish. 06/01 |
None. |
| Black Adder Back & Forth (1999) |
•••• |
••• |
Coming. |
None. |
| The Black Bird (1975) |
•••• |
TV |
A universally hated film, which is surprising since the first half has a fantastic comic rhythm, on par with a Mel Brooke's films. The dialog is fast, written for adults, and often witty, plus every Hollywood character actor from the 50s makes a cameo. There's even a 39 Steps homage which is hilarious. Unfortunately, the ending is in fact completely retarded. 12/01 |
None. |
| Bob
Roberts |
•• |
•• |
A failed farce along the same lines of Bulworth. Tiresome to watch and ultimately without much to say. 03/01 |
None. |
| Bottle Rocket (1996) |
•• |
•• |
This film is quirky, which means no one will particularly like it or completely dislike it. It's like seeing your neighbor's entry in America's Funniest Home Videos, if your neighbors were professional filmmakers. The story revolves around talentless, stupid, white middle-waged trust fund babies, which is one of those demographics that no one particularly cares about, even talentless, stupid, white middle-waged trust fund babies. After about fifteen minutes, I wanted all of the characters to die horrible (and fast) deaths. After thirty minutes, I was so out of the story that I just wondered which Wilson brother had the bigger dick. After sixty minutes, I found myself still intrigued, but for no apparent reason.
05/02
|
I think this is why some women become lesbians |
| Bowfinger: Collector's Edition (1999) |
•• |
••• |
Here's one of those films that I really wanted to like, but like a pretty-but-stupid boyfriend you ultimately tire of it. Eddie Murphy does what he does best and disappears into his dual roles; he steals the show.
Steve Martin needs to stop writing screenplays. His work tends to be either absurdist dunks into LA film culture (which no one past Palmdale understands) or funny in a musty18th century French farce way.
05/02
|
Eddie Murphy |
| Bring
It On |
•••• |
•• |
Fluffy,
but fun again. Teen drama as seen through eyes of a cheerleader
captain would seem the most gratuitous piece of shit this
side of escaped convicts on a jet, but hey it is about cheerleading.
If you've never seen a cheerleading competition, this is probably
a good start. There's blood, there's violence, there's girls
in really short skirts who jump up and down. Director's comments
in the Special Features section are rock solid film school
drivel, but hey it's only his first or second feature. 05/01 |
None. |
| Bulworth |
••• |
•• |
Fluffy, but fun, this farce held my attention mostly because of my own brush with an untimely demise. What it lacks is a new message: the acknowledgement of race is as daring as anything from Hollywood, but the characterization of ghetto life still fringes on white fear here. 01/01 |
None. |
| Clerks |
••• |
••••• |
Overly literary dialog, but a remarkable first feature nonetheless. Funny, the way that hanging out with heroin addicts is funny, and that is high praise indeed. 12/00 |
None. |
| Defending Your Life (1991) |
|
|
Coming. |
None. |
| Dogma |
••••• |
••• |
The
slickest film by writer/director Kevin Smith (better known
perhaps as Silent Bob, the recurring character). As with all
of Smith's films, the dialogue is very stilted and literary,
but this time it's delivered by Hollywood actors. True, the
normal bunch of misfits and freaks appears, including the
remarkable Jason Mewes, but the thin roadtrip plot is held
together by actual acting vs. high school hijinks. Big credit
goes to Linda Florentino and Chris Rock, both of whom realize
the possibilities of their roles and play them to the flaming
sword's hilt. DVD offers very little; expect more from
the "Collector's Edition." 05/01 |
None. |
| Dona Herlinda and Her Son |
••• |
VHS |
The remarkable thing about this film is the unremarkable way that a gay love relationship is treated. No one seems to care much, which is interesting considering the film was produced in Mexico in 1986. The story is basically how a middle-class, middle-aged mother manipulates those around her, including her gay son and his lover, towards happiness. The utter lack of reaction from the rest of the cast may be the film's downfall, since it removes the tension inherent in breaking traditional mores. 08/01 |
|
| Drop
Dead Gorgeous |
•••• |
•• |
As with
Bring It On (watch for the premonition during the rehearsal
scene), this would seem to easy a target to spoof: small town
beauty pageants. The documentary-style is overdone, but this
time it actually feels like a smart ass film student subject
material where the participants are routinely shown as morons
and freaks. Denise Richards and Kirstie Alley aren't comedic
actresses, but the supporting cast is so convincingly freakish
that you want to see more of them. Ellen Barkin is surprisingly
good as a trailer park mom, and Allison Janney as her girlfriend
steals most of her scenes. Kirsten Dunst, who seems prebaked
for downtrodden princesses, has great comedic timing and sails
through this role. 06/01 |
None. |
| Election |
••••• |
•• |
A fun
poke at the agony of underachievers and the mental illness
required to truly succeed. The hopeless blandness of suburban
high school ambition is boiled down to a freaked out white
girl tearing down the butcher paper posters of her rivals.
01/01 |
|
| Emma (1996) |
••• |
•• |
Coming. |
None. |
| Evolution |
•••• |
Theater |
Special
effects are fantastic, but it's badly cast, predictable, and
made from a xerox of the Ghostbusters script. I
don't mind adolescent humor, but bad adolescent humor...unforegiveable.
06/01 |
None. |
| Flawless |
•• |
• |
I really wanted this to be a wonderful comedy, but it drags. And it drags so bad even the drag queens can't revive it. It takes a truly horrible director to have a film with Philip Seymour Hoffman as the poor, fat drag queen and Robert Deniro as the bigoted cop
and still make a lousy movie. The strangest thing is that arch-homo Joel Schumacher isn't normally as completely wrong as this. I suspect this film came under the studio knife and Schumacher simply gave up. 08/01 |
None. |
| Gray's
Anatomy |
•• |
•• |
A disappointing
outting for Spaulding Gray, whose "Swimming from Cambodia"
was remarkable. Watching Gray's monologue is interesting enough,
but the subject matter here—his eye disease—just
isn't enough to maintain my interest. It seems so completely
self-indulgent that it's difficult to see beyond this absurdist
me-isms. 05/01 |
None. |
| Happy,
Texas |
•••• |
•••• |
Two convicts
plan to rob a bank by pretending to be gay pagaent directors
in Texas. That's a pretty unique storyline, and one you would
think frought with cliches, but the writer and director of
this tiny indie film have seen the gay light and given us
four three-dimenstional characters worth laughing with. Stephen
Zahn and William H. Macy are geniuses of comedic timing, but
British actor Jeremy Northam and Ally Walker are a nice counternote
as the love interest. Gay two-steppers will recognize Oil
Can Harry standing in for a Texas gay bar. Why is that all
women from the South look like they put out? 04/01 |
|
| High
Fidelity |
•• |
•• |
I didn't
connect with this fairly benign boy-loses-girl-boy-wins-girl-back
story, probably because it featured characters that were as
alien to me as white trash or interior designers. John Cusack
is likeable, but the plot device of having the protagonist
speak to the camera is off-putting and seems particularly
cheap in this film. The female characters are thin caricatures.
DVD features are limited to Cusack and director Stephen Frears
yakking. 05/01 |
|
| Mallrats |
• |
•••• |
Writer/director
Kevin Smith's first big-budget follie. This film is as ugly
and badly directed as it is pointless. It's John Waters by
Gap. Askew View's skewering of their producer and the
distribution company in the Extra Features section is hilarious,
and should be watched by any nascent film maker. 05/01 |
|
| Meantime |
• |
•• |
A slice of life film if life was like a big hunk of lard. I'm not sure what the point is of this dramatic mess, but Gary Oldham is in it for a bit. 02/01 |
|
| Minnie & Moskowitz |
••••• |
•••• |
Cassavetes' improvisational style hits the mainstream, and frankly I love this movie. It's far ahead of its time in terms of capturing the verisimilitude of spontaneity. Gena Rowlands really rocks here, and the meeting of the moms scene is one of my alltime favorites. 12/00 |
|
| Mother (1996) |
••• |
•• |
Coming. |
|
| Muriel's Wedding |
••• |
•• |
I always love a Cinderella stories, even though they conspire to uphold the standards of the middle-class. This frothy comedy from Australia is all about fitting in and why fat girls become fag hags, and, boy, did they cast this one perfectly. Now that I'm middle-aged, I understand completely the panic that descends on unmarried women over 30. 12/00 |
|
| The Opposite of Sex |
•••• |
•••• |
"Absolutely Fabulous" in tone, a step above "Will & Grace" in execution. The writing often outshines the performances here, but how many gay comedies are there that are actually funny the second time around? Watching this movie is like a dinner party I attended, where the guestlist was made up almost entirely of bitchy, snobby vampires and the boys they preyed on. 10/00 |
|
| Parting Glances |
••• |
•• |
A film with a tiny budget and a surfeit of talent. Steve Buscemi and Kathy Kinney both got their start with this low-budget film about love, friendship, and AIDS. Directed with surprising confidence by first-time director/writer Bill Sherwood, the tale is full of twists and spins, and a low-key gay cleverness. The disease hysteria of 1986 is handled with correctness, but its place in history as the first "AIDS movie" shouldn't be the reason to see it; the reason should be that in it has taken 14 years for another worthy gay film to appear.
08/01 |
|
Road Trip
(2000) |
••• |
•• |
This movie cries out for more Tom Green, who is relegated to a subplot far too quickly. The milquetoast lead was better in 54 as the bisexual bartender, but Seann William Scott
is still the reigning prototypical collegiate jock (Scott gets extra points for even pretending to let someone to stick two fingers up his butt to make him ejaculate). 10/01 |
Gives away the secrets of the prostate |
The Royal Tenenbaums
(2001) |
•• |
•• |
I don't understand why people are so in love with this film, but I'll go see any Gene Hackman performance. The cast is first rate and some of the gags are funny, but they're shipped direct from the suburban, upper middle class laff warehouse that brought us Bottlerocket, one of the dullest comedies I've ever sat through. I didn't even bother listening to the director's commentary, because it's the filmic equivalent of Moby: a 70s ripoff with bad new lyrics. 09/02
|
|
| Tampopo |
•••• |
• |
I love movies that mock other genres, and this is one of the best I've seen. The idea of splicing a spaghetti western with a movie about noodles and sex is hairbrained and brilliant. 10/00 |
|
| 10 Things I Hate About You |
•••• |
•• |
This probably would have ben my favorite summer movie if I was twelve. Smart dialog that doesn't condescend pushes this above the average teen comedy. Its roots in The Taming of the Shrew probably help a little, too. 01/02 |
|
| The Truman Show |
•• |
• |
Disappointing given the premise. It's anti-technology and anti-fascist, but doesn't really give us a better option.
03/01 |
|
