This is the kind of film that parents think their kids will love, and which looks, on paper, like a classic for the ages. Boy plus horse plus adventure story and lush scenery and cinematography should equal a classic, but it really doesn't. For all its virtues, and there are many, this picture is really hollow at its core.
I was taken to see this when I was 7 years old. I vaguely recall liking it, and certainly understanding while…
I'm a huge fan of the 1984 David Lynch film, and I've read the book, which is largely incomprehensible but still enjoyable. My expectations for this were fairly low but the film managed to exceed them and left me quite excited about the second part of the story. Timothee Chalamet, one of my favorite actors, is excellent as Paul Atreides, and the rest of the supporting cast is equally good, especially Javier Bardem and Sharon Duncan-Brew who I think should…
For years I have been a staunch defender of this film; I was one of two human beings on planet Earth who saw it in the theater when it came out in 1995. (You could have set off a glitter bomb in that theater and no one would have come out sparkling). I'm a historian, my forte is early America and I love Thomas Jefferson. On this most recent re-watch I finally got a clue as to why the rest…
"Gangs of New York" is the greatest film made in the 21st century so far. I know that's a tall statement that absolutely no one who reads this review will agree with. It blew me away when I first saw it more than 17 years ago, and I avoided watching it for the last few years thinking, "It won't hold up." Guess what? Not only does it hold up, it got even better in the intervening years.
The plot is…
