Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Occasionally I go to see a film by a young independent director in the hopes of seeing some signs of life beyond the stuffed and mounted product of Hollywood—and hence in the hope of an escape from the moral smugness of the Hollywood ethos. But, judging by Crossing Fields, written and directed by a young…

Not that I approve of it myself, but the metaphor of “culture war” would seem to imply two more or less evenly matched forces struggling with might and main to master and destroy or disperse each other. Yet much of what goes under that name is more like culture murder. Even that expression would be…

[See discussion under “My diary” entry for June 28, 2012]  Discover more from James Bowman Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email. Type your email… Subscribe

Thieves by André Téchiné, is one of those films where the artistic means completely overpower the narrative ends. Here we have multiple narrators, shifts backward and forward in time, several brooding, complex, mysterious characters and a tangle of unexplained plot details trailing off into philosophical conversations full of gnomic utterance. And all for what? To…

A surprisingly affectionate portrayal of American “success”-worship and its discontents which is also a barrel of laughs

[See discussion under “My Diary” for June 20, 2013] Discover more from James Bowman Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email. Type your email… Subscribe