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Reviews
Johnny Berlin (2005)
Riding the rails with a Beat for our generation
Johnny Berlin is one of the most heartfelt character portraits ever made. The main character, a Beat-like train porter, has a bad case of wanderlust, and he's constantly moving all right, but shackled to his job on board a luxury train. His stream of consciousness monologue ranks with the best of them. His stories about trying to pay into his father's life insurance so he can get a bigger payout, trying to sell his liver for cash, and writing a novel about a man trying to roll across the United States are hilariously dark material, yet the film as a whole retains a lightheartedness akin to the documentaries of Les Blank and the early work of Errol Morris.
The Last Winter (2006)
Great until...
"The Last Winter" is a very moody film with a lot going for it in terms of having a great theme, interesting camera work, good acting and a strong cast. The director did a good job of setting up the story and following through the major plot points of horror movie structure, ala "The Thing," or "The Shining." I was pretty much with it all the way until... ahem... suddenly, Bullwinkle appeared. Come on guys, this CGI stuff just doesn't cut it on this scale. This movie would have been that much better and more mysterious had the "monsters" never appeared. I am trying to give credit where credit is due here, but didn't anyone say no to the glowing green moose-monster in a preview?