Reviews

Adrien Brody, will you marry me?

Proposals aside, once again, Brody proves why he deserved his Oscar (and that kiss from Halle Berry). He gives a beautiful, touching performance here as a charming, rakish, snakeskin-jacket-wearing con artist who falls in love with a girl from the right side of the tracks. Jack Grace is no ordinary sleazeball, though. He keeps a secret storage unit seperate from the apartment he shares with his partner-in-crime Charlie (Jon Seda), where he keeps first editions of classic novels (he has a penchant for Melville) and works on his own novel. In other words, he's exactly the kind of bad boy that would attract intellectual Claire (Charlotte Ayanna), a beautiful, unstable biology major at Columbia. Claire tells him she likes movies best that make her cry, and he does his best to oblige her, ultimately sending her on a self-destructive bender that makes him look like a good boy.

Brody carries this film, and the lovely Charlotte Ayanna is unfortunately not given nearly as much to work with. She spends most of her time alternating between trying to change him (we all know how well that works), and having hysterics, and then finally goes on to attempt to prove that she can exist in his world and take the kinds of risks that he gets off on. The romance between the two is not well-developed at the beginning, either, so though we see plenty in him that makes us believe she loves him, we don't see what has gone on between them. Brody, however, makes up the slack in the script with every shot of his wonderfully expressive eyes. He is the walking, talking answer to the question, "Why do good girls like bad boys?"

Unfortunately, this film only had a limited engagement at the Starz Film Center, and as far as I know, does not have any wider distribution. This is a shame, particularly after Brody's Oscar win this year, and I hope that this will change and that more people will get to see this movie and see one of the most talented actors of his generation in action.

Adrien Brody, will you marry me??

Ok, proposals aside, I think I'll be thinking about this movie for a while. Adrien Brody is fabulous, and I can't understand why this film hasn't been picked up for wider distribution post-Oscar. As a slick New York con artist who falls for a college girl, he is the answer to the question, "Why do all girls like bad boys?" I think I've lived this story--not quite to the depths that Claire sinks to, but certainly felt like that before. The weak points of the film are that the beginning of their romance is glossed over...we see them meet twice, and suddenly she's in love and won't leave him alone? Also, Brody is fabulous, wonderful, and his character is developed to the point where we understand why she'd be in love with him, but she is rather one-dimensional. Still, I wish I'd caught this movie before the end of its far-too-short run at my local theater, and I encourage anyone who has the chance to go see it to see it.

This movie blew me away. Literally. I staggered out of the theater. It has everything I think a war movie should have, and nothing that it shouldn't. No love story. Very little background. No apologies. Most of all, I didn't feel like I was being yanked in one direction or the other. I didn't feel like it was horribly anti-war, or pro-war. Rather, it simply showed you what war is like. Not a lot of character development, but that's how it is. You realize quickly that what matters is not whether that guy over there has a mom, cat, and girlfriend back at home who are going to miss him, but simply that he is a human being, and he is putting his life on the line for something that he doesn't really understand. I would say more than anything, this movie is pro-solder, pro-human. These guys are shipped to a country they know nothing about, to fight in a war they didn't choose to start, with people they don't know very well, and they get killed for it, and the only thing that matters is right there, right then, living through that moment, and saving the guy next to you, even if you just met him. These things, this movie did a very good job of illustrating.

As a volunteer at the Denver Film Festival, I was given the opportunity to attend a screening of this movie tonight, and I am very happy to have done so. At times I think I was the only person in the theater laughing, but I found this movie hilarious, yet relatable. The ensemble cast has wonderful chemistry, including great performances by Alan Cumming, Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld, Robin Tunney and Neve Campbell. Though the film might seem farfetched, it is actually based on real events, and I especially enjoyed Robin Tunney's performance as a woman with a refreshingly healthy attitude towards sex. Neither a "virgin" nor "whore," she has slept with a few men, knows what she wants and how to get it, and rather than begging the man she goes to bed with to love her and marry her, she simply asks him not to analyze it to anyone, whether it lasts or not. Another special treat is a series of films-within-the-film, shot in black and white and made (apparently through a very complicated process) to look as they would have looked in the 1920's. A lovely character-driven film that is quite different from most things you will see these days. Go see this if you get the chance.

Everyone should see this movie. I don't understand why they didn't throw every award in the book at it. I think I've told everyone I know to see this movie. I watched it in a horrible mood, and it brought me to tears, but turned my attitude around that day. I love this film.

This is a classic, I think all children should be brought up on it. When I find out someone hasn't seen this movie, I hound them unmercifully until they do see it. It's a fairy tale with a cynical wit that only gets better as you grow older, and the more you watch it.

First of all, watch the director's cut of this film. Although I think it might actually be hard to find the original release these days, make sure you see the real version. It's a beautiful film. Ridley Scott is a genius, and this movie is everything sci-fi should be, as well as everything film noir should be. It is dark and menacing, philosophically challenging, and endlessly interesting. Every time I watch it, I find something new to be amazed by. The attention to detail I think is unsurpassed. And I don't even really like Harrison Ford.