Tuesday, March 24 2009
Part 2: The Virgin Suicides to The Blair Witch Project (May - August 1999)
In Part Two of our look at the most memorable films of 1999, we experience music, foul-mouthed mayhem, and a late, great auteur's final cinematic statement.
Wednesday, January 14 2009
Our sob stories: Beyond ‘Marley’ — tear-jerking music, art, TV, plays and books
Wednesday, December 24 2008
Marley & Me
Granting Marley & Me's source in John Grogan's columns, the dog's service as metaphor in the movie is both obvious and uninspired.
Tuesday, December 16 2008
Body Heat
Body Heat manages to take ideas from the noir genre without turning it into a cliché.
Friday, September 12 2008
Talk, Talk, Talk: December 2008
Just like the end of an inspiring speech that may or may not succeed in making its point, these final four weeks before 2009 tend to define or defeat the entire awards season purpose.
Tuesday, July 29 2008
Serial Mom: Collector’s Edition
John Waters’ broad satire on suburbia and celebrity still holds up. Just not in the way he might have expected.
Thursday, June 14 2007
The Lisbon Bunch
Purposefully ending one's life is often seen as a last act of personal desperation. But in Jefferey Eugenides' poignant, bewitching novel, it may actually be a form of salvation.
Wednesday, September 27 2006
Romancing the Stone/The Jewel of the Nile (1984)
Everything in Jewel of the Nile is predictable, right down to the romantic final scenes at sunset.
Sunday, January 1 1995
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
And yet, for its many pleasures, I find myself conflicted in thinking about The Virgin Suicides.
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
It's hardly a new idea, to read into adolescent girls' suicide something poetic, passionate, and deeply meaningful. Neither is it a secret that countless girls have admired Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, Joni Mitchell and Tracy Chapman, seeing in their wounded and inviolate art reflections of themselves, their own pain and enchantment.
