Las Vegas has to rank as one of the most fascinating and intriguing places on earth, and I am not just saying this because I met my wife there. Any opinion that you might harbor about America, you are likely to find the affirmation of this belief in the characterization of life that permeates this city that never sleeps. And if we have now ‘officially’ entered the age of simulation, where reality has become a malleable commodity that each one of us can shape to his liking, then Bugsy Siegel, who, probably mainly motivated by financial gain, opened his Flamingo Hotel in 1946, should nonetheless be regarded as a pioneer and visionary for understanding the need that human beings have to escape and to exist in alternate realities.
Yet, behind this façade of glass and metal Egyptian Pyramids and Arthurian castles, which provides the ideal larger-than-life environment against which to contrast the ordinary problems of its inhabitants, unfold the old-fashioned lives of what we traditional refer to as real people. And there is probably no one better in Hollywood than William H. Macy to play the ordinary man caught in life’s strange unfoldings.

In The Cooler, Macy plays a gentle, disillusioned and unlucky man whose job as a Cooler involves working the Casino floors and ‘helping’ clients loose money by spreading some of his own bad luck upon them. But when his old-fashioned mobster of a boss, played brilliantly by Alec Baldwin (Baldwin truly excels in tough guy roles as demonstrated recently in The Aviator and The Departed), inadvertently changes his Cooler’s luck, their relationship quickly deteriorates and leads to a series of more or less plausible incidents.

While The Cooler suffers from several inconsistencies, there is a freshness and simplicity about the script and the acting that makes watching this film a very pleasurable experience. It is clearly much smarter than most Hollywood productions and much less arrogant and overbearing that many so-called ‘indie’ productions.

If there were a French equivalent to the Razzies, then I would sincerely hope that Angel-A would win easily for worst movie of the year 2005.
Luc Besson continues to push the envelope of bad commercial French cinema and delivers a seriously arrogant, annoying and just simply ridiculous film about a tall, skinny, and blonde Angel who comes down to Earth to help a small time crook. The morality lessons are dished out with as little intelligence and subtlety as possible and the supposedly funny repartees will not do anything to help the weak reputation of French humor.
Avoid at all costs.

Watching a Frank Capra film is a bit like drinking a light beer. It is not an unpleasant experience and it can be rather refreshing but it clearly does not have the finesse, subtlety and richness of the real thing.
So if you feel like sipping on patriotic, feel-good, we-are-all-wonderful-people-if-we-pull-together type messaging, Meet John Doe should about do it. Barbara Stanwyck pulls a fairly entertaining performance and Gary Cooper, who was nominated for an Oscar for this film (????) and ended up winning the Oscar that same year for Sergeant York, does what Gary Cooper usually does: be his stoic self and let his good looks and imposing stature do the rest.
Not for the cynics.

What was all that fuss about? Little Miss Sunshine being nominated for Best Picture? Winning for best original screenplay? I am confused. Not that LMS is a bad film. It’s cute, entertaining, and a bit funny. But it also feels so much like recycled material, developed at the American ‘indie’ (indie as in the indie divisions of the big studios) film school for moderately gifted youngsters. If we believe Peter Biskind, the death of the American independent film, if there really ever was such a thing as an independent film outside of the work of a few directors from the 50s to the 80s, happened already several years ago. Little Miss Sunshine certainly would seem to corroborate this view. Me, you and Everyone we know, Napoleon Dynamite, The Squid and the Whale, The Station Agent, Little Children, You Can’t Take it with You, The Family Stone, American Beauty…the more of these films come out, the more they resemble each other. We are quite far from the days of Cassavetes, Jarmush, Haines, Solondz and even of Payne and the early work of O. Russell. Whatever freshness and originality some of the ‘indie’ films of the 90s promised have been swallowed by a new mainstream…

It all makes sense now. Thank you to the people behind this film for clarifying to me how life unfolds in your typical liberal American family. Thank you for showing that clichés are stronger than reality and that continuing to believe in the power of stereotypes will help us reach happiness. Thank you for showing us the way.

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Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey revolutionized American sexual morals and values with the publication of Sexual Behavior In The Human Male in 1948 and did it again a few years later with a similar book on the sexual behavior of women. Up until that time, much of the ‘normal’ sexual acts that we today take for granted were seen as deviant, abnormal and, in some cases, evil.

But Kinsey made America and the world realize that masturbation, homosexuality and other sexual practices or preferences were in fact very widespread, and thus, could now fall under the label ‘normal’.

Bill Condon, who directed the fabulous Gods and Monsters, offers a thrilling, informative and extremely entertaining look at the man who became the friend and enemy of so many in a few short years.

Liam Neeson delivers an absolutely brilliant performance as Kinsey and the rest of the cast is a delight to watch.

A very good film.

The big Hollywood machine at its worse…Films as pure products, with only one and simple objective: generate as much revenue as possible.

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Robert Altman meet Charlie Chaplin meet Douglas Sirk. Rarely has a film been so meticulously choreographed and so beautifully shot. Tati creates a magical and sometimes mystifying ballet for our senses where most elements in the frame seem to come alive and to play a role in a visual dance rendered all the more powerful and believable through a remarkable use of sound. The beautiful cinematography makes it at times difficult to dislike this ‘modern’ city, but the absurdity of modern habits and values is appropriately conveyed through the series of comic events that befall Mr. Hulot, who epitomizes the kindness and innocence associated with more traditional, suburban values.

This is what happens when you mix British social realism with Hollywood style feel good comedy. The result is entertaining, sweet, emotional at times and much less gritty than one would expect when dealing with the condition of coal miners.

High on social criticism and realism, Alan Clarke’s influential film has been praised for its matter of fact depiction of working class life in Yorkshire, providing an honest look at behaviours and attitudes in an increasingly socially segregated society. In spite of this, i found the film tedious and cold…

This is one sorry film. Thank god i didn’t pay to watch it and that someone else made that mistake. I gave it a shot thinking that True Lies (94), another husband-wife type spy action flick had been quite entertaining, and that Swingers (96), Liman’s breakthrough film, made me start to drink Martinis when i was living in LA. Still, this is one sorry film with some sorry performances….

A fantastic film from the director of Sideways and Election. Nicholson is funny, touching and deeply moving as a newly retired and widowed man who goes on a journey, both physically and emotionally, to find some kind of meaning to his life. An honest and terribly real portrayal of a man and the loneliness he faces.

Eager to refresh and refine my knowledge of one of Europe’s most acclaimed directors, I made my way down to South Bank last night, where the NFT is currently running a special on Almodovar.

Playing in NFT1 was Almodovar’s 1988 sweet and funny farce about Pepa, a 40 something actress who, dumped by her boyfriend, tries to understand why and in the process, manages to rediscover her dignity and pride.

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In the tradition of The Happiness of the Katakuris, this film is a concoction of gore, suspense, comedy, action (but no singing)…Surreal, bizarre, engaging, quirky, it is not for everyone’s taste but should please all those craving for something different and exotic (and well put together).

Sorry but i don’t get it. I am not going to make many friends in the film connoisseurs community by saying this, but the usual dose of exaggerations and over-the-top and unrealistic situations that come with many Powell/Pressburger films leave me cold, and, often, with a migraine as well.

Based on the play by George Bernard Shaw (who also wrote the screenplay), Pygmalion is a well-crafted film with outstanding dialogues and solid acting. Funny, emotional and highly entertaining.

A wonderfully crafted love story between an ex-porn actress and the man who kidnaps her, this is a beautiful and solid comedy with engaging quirky characters, witty dialogs and a perfect mise-en-scene. Another Almodovar masterpiece.

One for the Road closed the recent Raindance East film festival. I had no idea what to expect and I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised. Shot on a low budget, Chris Cooke succeeds in making a very slippery and risky subject (drunk driving), intense, funny and entertaining.

This film gets a 3 because i still think that Wes Anderson is an extremely gifted and talented director. And i shall continue to proudly display Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums in my DVD collection. However, i was very tempted to give it a 2 to reflect my disappointment after seeing the film. It has been a week since i have seen it and i have nothing left of it to hang on to. It is as if the film had been programmed to self-destruct and to disappear from my memory. The experience of the film ended the minute the film ended and i walked out of the cinema. No wait, i think i remember colours…oh yes, and of course, Bill Murray was in it…such nice colours…and lots of little quirky things too…

Another brilliant film from Alexander Payne. A marvellous story about two friends going on a pre-wedding trip to the California central coast wine country. It is the flawed personalities of the two characters that make them so human, so likeable in spite of their sometimes abusive and neurotic behaviour.

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