My Man Godfrey

Surprisingly, U-Turn by Oliver Stone is actually a rather enjoyable evening in the cinema, or it would be if it weren’t marred by the patented Stone phantasmagoric style. Dealing with a whimsical script like this one (by John Ridley, adapted from his book “Stray Dogs”) is something Stone should never allow himself to do, because…

Le Mépris, or Contempt, based on a novel by Alberto Moravia, was directed by Jean-Luc Godard in 1963, but has just been re-released in a newly refurbished print. Michel Piccoli stars as Paul, a Communist playwright being wooed by a dumb American millionaire called Jerry Prokosch (Jack Palance) to re-write a script for a film…

The arrogance of the evil Disney empire as it colonizes the world, both in space and in time, on behalf of spoiled American pre-teens continues. Characteristically, it has chosen for its next property to be conquered and laid waste a peculiarly inappropriate vehicle in Tarzan. The story of Tarzan, that is, absolutely depends on the…

It is fascinating how, although Hollywood has implicitly believed in every crackpot conspiracy theory for decades and has been willing to attribute to the democratically elected government of the United States any and all perfidies, it retains a sentimental attachment to the idea of the presidency. The image of the good king dies hard in…

An enjoyable comedy like the earlier films of Nicole Holofcener but one which ultimately denies its own pretensions to seriousness

What? You didn’t think Macbeth was a comedy? Where have you been? This movie does for Shakespeare what Clueless did for Jane Austen, and it is at least as funny.