Adaptation. (2002) ****

I don’t understand why director Spike Jonze doesn’t make more feature length films. Shorts, videos, and documentaries are all he has really produced since making the brilliant Adaptation. (2002) and almost brilliant Being John Malkovich (1999).  Why won’t Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother Donald write truly original screenplays for Jonze anymore?  It boggles the mind… Anyway, I guess it’s obvious that I adore both Jonze and...

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The Great White Silence (1924) **

In the sake of full disclosure, I must admit that I cheated when it comes to watching director Herbert G. Ponting’s, The Great White Silence (1924).  I actually watched the 1933 reissued version of the film, which was called Ninety Degrees South and had sound. Documentaries can sometimes be difficult enough to watch with sound, so the idea of watching a silent one about an expedition to Antarctica and the South Pole just wasn’t all that attractive...

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The Goddess (1934) **

While not well-known to modern audiences, China’s Ruan Ling-yu was considered one of the greatest actresses of the Silent Film Era. Her nickname was the “Chinese Greta Garbo”, as she had an innate ability to convey her every thought with facial expressions and body language. And, like Garbo, she did not rely on overly-theatrical movements. Instead, she had a natural film presence that lured her audience into viewing her as they would their next...

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A Throw of Dice (1929) **

  Director Franz Osten’s A Throw of Dice (1929) is rather unique, in that it was filmed entirely in India and used Indian actors but it is still considered a German production. If I were judging the film strictly by its production scale, it would be a homerun.  With a cast of thousands, set amongst the vast Indian countryside and housed in beautiful palaces along the Ganges River, A Throw of Dice is on the same scale as D.W. Griffith’s...

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Lone Star (1996) **

Once I got over the fact that hunky Matthew McConaughey was in director John Sayles’ Lone Star (1996) for less than ten minutes, I came to the conclusion that the interconnected plot and characters are the best thing about the film. Without giving the ending away, which falls somewhere between ICK ICK ICK and is it really ICK?, I have to say I admired how Sayles wrapped the intersecting stories together to create an ambiguous conclusion. That said,...

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Slacker (1991) :(((

I graduated from high school the year director Richard Linklater’s Slacker (1991) came out.  I unequivocally knew no one who resembled the complete losers who comprise Linklater’s cast.  It makes me sad to think that there were (and are) people in the world who think and behave like this cast of idiots.  Austin, Texas, where the story was filmed and takes place, should have sued Linklater for making anyone who watched his film think...

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Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) **

For me, the best thing about writer/director Steven’s Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) is that Francois Truffaut is in it.  Yes, the film is full of (for the time) wonderful special effects and the miniature aliens are inspired, but I’m just not a big fan of science fiction.  When I scan my cinematic memory I can only think of two films from the genre that I really liked: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and District...

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