Se7en (1995) ***

  For some reason, cultured serial killers are always the worst. When they base their heinous acts on biblical and classical literature they seem to creep me out more than their illiterate chainsaw wielding counterparts.  Perhaps it’s because I work and live in a world based on knowing and disseminating knowledge. Of course, it doesn’t help that this type of character usually looks harmless, as does Kevin Spacey’s John Doe in Se7en (1995). ...

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The Ear (Ucho) 1970 **

Imagine making a film in 1970 and then having to wait 29-years before anyone could watch it. That’s what happened to director Karel Kachyňa when he wrote, directed, and produced a film that audaciously questioned the methods of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party. Suppressed by the same left-wing leaders that Kachyňa was shining a very bright light on, Ucho (The Ear) is a grim look at what it is like to live in a totalitarian state.  The story...

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Withnail and I (1987) **

Strange British humor is the best way I can describe Withnail and I (1987).  At times it is irreverently funny, and then there are moments when it just seems inane.  I’m usually a big fan of black comedy, so I was a bit disappointed by this effort by writer/director Bruce Robinson.  The film was semi-autobiographical for Robinson, as it was based on his life during the late-1960s in London, so perhaps more distance from the subject...

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