Reviews
People I Know (2002)
Bring your brains to the movie
It's an uneven film, to be sure, but many of the reviewers here pan it for not being "wrapped up". And some...what a laugh.... pan it for having "too much dialogue". Well, life is full of too much dialogue.
And life is nasty, brutish and short... it's been a little long, maybe, for Eli (Al Pacino), but it has been brutish (just seeing his face in the first scene makes me tired), and certainly not fun. But he dogs on.
The conclusion.... and its spotted early on, I must admit.... is not pretty, or uplifting, or... and here it tracks real life to the n-th degree... the least degree interesting or meaningful. That bothers a lot of people. But that's life.
Pacino is lovely in this film; Leoni shows some depth we haven't seen often. Basinger's character is relatively minor, but she fills it nicely.
I'm giving this a 7... it's not a great film, but it's a good, solid story.
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
Not their best, but it IS Coen Brothers
Unlike the "Unemployed Critic", I am willing to give this a 7, instead of a 5. But I agree with many of his views.
Personally, I have come to expect so much of the Coen Brothers that I am disappointed when they don't rise to previous heights... as I was after seeing Intolerable Cruelty. But, on reflection, I realized that it was a better film than 95% of what Hollywood panders, and better than most of the Indies I have seen recently.
I laughed or chuckled throughout the film, mainly for the sight gags and the weird C-B tics (Clooney's obsession with his teeth, compared to his obsession with his hair in "O Brother"), and the delight of seeing C-B favorite actors back on deck.
But later... days later... I am chuckling over the send up of materialism, cynical marriages, divorce, lawyers, cheap adultery, gold-diggers, tacky weddings, Vegas, bad mob stories, Rottweiler owners... was there anyone they didn't put a pin in?
If you take this movie seriously, you aren't a Coen Brothers fan... and you will be disappointed.
If you approach it in the spirit intended... you will get a good laugh and, I suspect, enjoy the film days later.
If you are an incarnate Coen Brothers fan... yeah, ok. It's not their greatest work... But it beats Oliver Stone any day of the week.
Stealing Beauty (1996)
Elegant, sweet, pleasant
This is not a "great" film, but it's elegant, well-shot, and staffed with superb actors & actresses that know their work & do it well.
You have all read the plot line, so I won't dwell on that. I will say, though, that viewers searching for a typical "story-conflict-wrapup" will be disappointed. This film is about life...several lives... and we are shown a brief window into those lives.
Lucy's story (Lucy = Liv Tyler) is, I believe, the least interesting -- we always observe her, and never get into her head, and yet know what she's about. But...she's 19... she knows very little... and Bertolucci knows that.
The real stories are how the others, older, react to her and to each other... lust, memory, envy, nostalgia for lost youth, jealousy, pride, recognition, understanding of the motion of life...
All of these evoke other stories that, unfortunately for all of you that want a nicely wrapped-up movie, you are going to have to make up in your own heads. But that's the beauty of this film.
While I hate to generalize, teens will dislike this movie, as will adults who think that suburban life is pretty good. It's never explained what any of these people actually DO, and I know that's an important problem for many movie goers.
But the rest of you... give it a try.
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Bad history, bad film making
The American public probably wants "feel good" films about American military prowess.... so it's essential that our stars take off and engage the enemy.
But the truth is that the US received a humiliating defeat on 7/12/41 and none of their fighters left the ground to any effect.
The tragedy about this film is that it was such a hit with teens... kids who cannot even remember the Gulf War.... their enthusiastic love of this film shows that they cannot separate fact from fiction.. which bodes ill for us all.