When Harry Met Sally

[See discussion under “My Diary” for July 25, 2013] Discover more from James Bowman Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email. Type your email… Subscribe

Pity the poor celebrity! Harried, persecuted and plotted against by paparazzi scum, is it any wonder if he takes the law into his own hands?

The Designated Mourner, written by Wallace Shawn and directed by David Hare, is chiefly remarkable for the fact that it shows Mike Nichols can act. Or at least overact. It’s hard to tell if it is Mr Shawn’s overheated writing, Mr Hare’s spare, intense directing or Mr Nichols’s own natural hamminess, but the overall effect…

Dark City by Alex Proyas is another example of the triumph of image over drama which has made postmodern movies what they are and, I believe, will someday be seen to have devastated the capacity of Hollywood to produce quality films. For drama, that is, there must be rules. Some things can happen and some…

Kenneth Branagh’s new film of Love’s Labour’s Lost has very little to do with the play of the same name by William Shakespeare. Branagh’s marketability (such as it is) has always been pretty closely tied to that of the 16th century playwright, but here he is shamelessly using the Shakespeare brand name simply in order…

Does the old hippie dream of making a revolution by self-indulgence still survive? Apparently so — at least in the movies