Change Your Image
louie-18
Reviews
The Winslow Boy (1999)
Excellent film!
I found The Winslow Boy to be quite a departure for Mamet from The Spanish Prisoner, but very enjoyable. Again, scruples and honesty are the centerpiece and the strain it takes on the Winslow family. Nigel Hawthorne is once again brilliant as the world-weary father who leads the fight for justice in clearing the family name. Very uplifting!
Anything for Love (1993)
Alanis, Alanis, Alanis
Alanis Morrisette (pre-makeover) as the teeny-bopper singing 2 minutes before the credits roll - what else is there to watch in this movie? Alanis' mere pre-introspective presence is worth the rental!
La vita è bella (1997)
Deeply moving
"Life is Beautiful" affected me so profoundly I could not stop thinking about it for days afterward. As a father of a small child, I too know the strides one takes to preserve their innocence. I have never seen a movie that captures this essence of parenting so beautifully and so originally. Benigni has struck gold!!!
Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)
QUIRKY & POIGNANT
I picked this up at the video store not knowing what it was about and was pleasantly surprised. Lyonne and Arkin are excellent! The characters are bizarrely fascinating and the story moved along quite well in this comedy. One of the better dysfunctional family comedies I've seen in awhile.
Henry Fool (1997)
INCONSISTENT
I really loved Hal Hartley's "Simple Men" and looked forward to this movie, but it was so inconsistent I kept watching only because I assumed it was an allegory that would pay off eventually. It didn't. The title character was unbelievably irritating. Thomas Jay Ryan overacts so much I was beginning to think the movie was meant to be this bad, but with the "flawed hero" image that's painted by Hartley I knew by the end that it was intentional. He tries to pack so much into this one he creates innumerable holes in his storyline (i.e., Posey's pregnancy coincides with Simon's burst of fame, but he doesn't sign his publishing contract or read Henry's confession until the baby's born - 7-8 months later!; and after living there for 7 years, why is Henry unaware that Mr. Deng's corner coffee/poetry-reading shop has been changed to a fad-following rock n'roll club?) I guess I just didn't embrace the spirit of the message regarding the merits of nonconformity because of the bad acting and storyline. Hartley has done much better.