“CARS 2” My rating: C- (Opening wide on June 24)
105 minutes | MPAA rating: G
The animation wizards at Pixar are yet to make a genuinely bad movie.
But with “Cars 2” they’ve made a truly mediocre one.
Posted in Popcorn movies | Tagged "Cars 2, Larry the Cable Guy, michael caine, Owen Wilson, Pixar | Leave a Comment »
“ANOTHER HARVEST MOON” My rating: C (Opening June 24 at the Glenwood Arts)
88 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13
With “Another Harvest Moon” we get about 300 years of acting experience up there on the movie screen.
Too bad that talent is put it to such unremarkable use.
Posted in Art house fare | Tagged alzheimer's, Anne Meara, Doris Roberts, Ernest Borgnine, Piper Laurie, retirement homes | Leave a Comment »
Get your tickets and gird your loins.
GayFest is upon us.
That’s the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival of Kansas City, for the uninitiated, and it gets underway Friday, June 24 at the Tivoli Theatre in Westport.
I’ve been able to pre-screen several of this year’s titles; what follows is one guy’s picks of the best of the fest: Continue Reading »
Posted in Art house fare, KC Film Scene | Tagged " "Leave It On the Floor, " "The Boys in the Band, " Chely Wright, " Ewan McGregor, " Mart Crowley, " neo-burlesque, " voguing, "Beginners, "Fishnet, "Gun Hill Road, "Making the Boys, "Wish Me Away, Carson Kressley, Christian Seriano, Christopher Plummer, Edward Albee, Esai Morales, Harmony Santana, Judy Reyes, Kansas City Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Mike Mills, Rashaad Ernesto Green, Roddy McDowell, William Friedkin | Leave a Comment »
I have met Terrence Malick.
I’ve talked to Terrence Malick.
In a manner of speaking, I interviewed Terrence Malick…to my knowledge, I’m the only journalist ever to have done so.
Flashback to 1979:
Malick, whose “The Tree of Life” is currently in theaters dividing audiences like a hot knife through a stick of butter, was attending Show-A-Rama, a gathering of movie exhibitors and studio reps that for more than 20 years was held in Kansas City. (It subsequently evolved into ShowWest and moved to Las Vegas).
That year the relatively unknown Malick was named Show-A-Rama’s Director of the Year and showed up to claim his plaque. (At this May’s Cannes Film Festival he declined to make an appearance to collect his Palme d’Or for “Tree.”) Continue Reading »
Posted in Art house fare, Deep thoughts...maybe | Tagged " "Days of Heaven, " "The New Woirld", " "The Thin Red Line, "Badlands, "Tree of Life, Show-A-Rama, TerrenceMalick | 5 Comments »
THE VETERAN ACTOR STARS IN “ANOTHER HARVEST MOON,” OPENING JUNE 24
Ernest Borgnine has longevity.
Ernest Borgnine (with Anne Meara) in "Another Harvest Moon"
At the age of 94 he can look back on an acting career that includes a best actor Oscar (for playing the titular lovesick butcher in 1955‘s “Marty”) and roles in landmark movies like:
“The Wild Bunch,” “Bad Day at Black Rock,” “From Here to Eternity,” “Johnny Guitar,” “The Vikings,” “The Flight of the Phoenix,” “Escape from New York,” “The Dirty Dozen,” “Ice Station Zebra” and “The Poseidon Adventure.”
And those are just a few of the more than 100 films in which he has appeared.
So when he gets recognized on the street (and it happens all the time), what movie do strangers always mention?
“It’s not a movie,” Borgnine said in a recent telephone interview.
“It’s the TV series. ‘McHale’s Navy.’ Everybody knows that show.
Posted in Art house fare | Tagged Anne Meara, Another Harvest Moon, Doris Roberts, Ernest Borgnine, old age, Piper Laurie, retirement community | 2 Comments »
“THE TREE OF LIFE” My rating: A-
138 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-134
“The Tree of Life” is a sublime, transcendent movie experience.
“The Tree of Life” is like watching your car rust.
That both of the above statements are true only goes to show the uniqueness of the latest effort from the reclusive Terrence Malick.
Posted in Art house fare, Deep thoughts...maybe | Tagged ", " "The Tree of Life, " mysticism, "2001: A Space Odyssey, "Tree of Life, Brad Pitt, creation, Jessica Chastain, Sean Penn, Stanley Kubrick, Terrence Malick | 3 Comments »
“THE WOODMANS” My rating: B (Opening June 17 at the Screenland Crossroads)
84 minutes | No MPAA rating
How do you compete with a ghost?
That’s the conundrum facing a family of artists in the wake of the suicide of their hugely talented and deeply disturbed daughter.
George and Betty Woodman struggled much of their lives to make it as artists. He was an abstract expressionist painter. She was a ceramicist whose credo was to make useful objects.
But they were easily eclipsed by their daughter Francesca, who picked up a camera in high school and by the time she was enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design was already on the way to being one of the 20th century’s great photographers.
Her classmates recall a girl who didn’t come to learn so much as to refine her already established style. Francesca specialized in self-portraits, often nudes, taken in aging rooms with peeling wallpaper and worn floors.
Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries | Tagged Betty Woodman, Francesca Woodman, George Woodman, nudes, photography, Rhode Island School of Design, Scott Willis | 4 Comments »
“MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS” My rating: C (Opens wide on June 17)
95 minutes | MPAA rating: PG
Jim Carrey used to be dangerous.
You wouldn’t know that from “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” a soft-hearted comedy that has “cute” scrawled all over it.
Posted in Popcorn movies | Tagged Angela Lansbury, Carl Gugino, Jim Carrey, mr. popper's penuins, penguins | 1 Comment »
“GREEN LANTERN” My rating: C- (Opening wide on June 17)
105 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13
“Green Lantern” suggests we’ve reached the tipping point on special effects extravaganzas.
Just about every shot in this adaption of the long-running DC Comics series is crammed with CG doodling. There’s stuff here that, had we seen it even ten years ago, would have left us in the geek version of post-coital exhilaration.
But the truth is that we’ve seen so many special effects in recent years that they’re no longer special. They’re ho-hum.
Know what makes a movie special? Great characters. Fantastic dialogue. Interesting stories.
None of which are in evidence here.
Posted in Popcorn movies | 1 Comment »
Butler's Cinema Scene 