Up and Down
An interesting and intelligent take on the social and cultural dislocations caused by the Czech Republic’s assimilation into the globalized economy
Turtles Can Fly
A beautiful, funny, heart-breaking story of Kurdish refugee children in Iraq on the eve of the American invasion
Screening the Iraq War
All of the movies in the forthcoming spate which deal with Iraq are bound to be anti-war — From The New York Sun of February 18, 2005
Entry from February 14, 2005
To me, Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby is just routine Hollywood product but with a much higher-than-usual schmaltz content. It’s not even worth a review. Quite obviously, Hilary Swank’s character never had a chance. She was conceived, born, brought to adulthood and finally killed off for no other purpose than the evocation of pathos in…
Bride and Prejudice
A slight but charming Indian take on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
The Inexhaustible Adaptability of Jane Austen
The movies have long had a special affinity for the novels of Jane Austen, but their adaptation has been uneven — from The New York Sun of February 11, 2005
Entry from February 7, 2005
Richard Cohen had a Voltairean moment the other day. Or rather a pseudo-Voltairean movement, since the well-known saying: “I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” seems not to have been said by the French sage after all. He is one of those people,…
Assisted Living
Set, like Rory O’Shea Was Here, in a nursing home, Elliot Greenbaum’s debut is a young man’s film but still worth seeing.
Rory O’Shea Was Here
A unexpectedly well-made movie about disability with outstanding performances in the principal roles
Honor Enduring
A British sex scandal points us to an understanding of the ways in which we are now encouraged to judge our public servants — From The New Criterion of January, 2004
Entry from January 28, 2005
People are naturally reluctant to stigmatize the use of Marxist language by those who would furiously resist the imputation of Marxism, but surely it is a matter of some significance for our intellectual and political life if those who call themselves — of all things — “liberal” are prepared to assume the Marxist world-view as…
Abrazo Partido, El (Lost Embrace)
Daniel Burman’s Lost Embrace (El Abrazo Partido) is on one level an ethnic drama about Jewish exile (in Argentina) and on another a more universal tale of growing up and coming to terms with one’s parents for the first time as an adult. Both themes come together as the film’s hero, Ariel Makaroff (Daniel Hendler),…