Tag Archives: movies

Notes on “Cry Danger”

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes: “Cry Danger,” the first film directed by Robert Parrish, may come closer to the wry, frugal tone of Dashiell Hammett than even Huston’s adaptation of “The Maltese Falcon,” which leans rather heavily — and quite successfully … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Performers | Tagged Bunker Hill, Cry Danger, Dick Powell, Film, Film Noir, Los Angeles, movies, Richard Erdman, Robert Parrish | Leave a comment

“Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell”

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes: A brightly-colored, super-polished confection starring Gina Lollobrigida that crosses two genres of its era: the marriage-is-impossible farce and the Americans-touring-Europe-by-bus comedy. (I watched in on this disc.) My wife hated it, and we both wondered if it might not … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Tagged farce, Gina Lollabrigida, Greatest Generation, Melvin Frank, movies, Romantic Comedy | 5 Comments

“The Birth of Saké”

Posted on April 23, 2016 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes: This film (which recently appeared on Netflix Instant) isn’t an informative, clear, traditional documentary. It isn’t an expressive cine-essay, like “Sans Soleil” or “Be Here to Love Me,” either. Instead, it’s an impressionistic, reverential, dark thing — almost … Continue reading →

Posted in Food and health, Movies, The Good Life | Tagged documentaries, food and drink, movies, sake | 4 Comments

No Man Needs Nothing

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes: David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia” is unusual in that it attempts to build a character-based epic around an enigma. I am not among those who find this strategy unproblematic. In fact, I think the movie loses … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Performers, Uncategorized | Tagged Alec Guinness, David Lean, Film, Lawrence of Arabia, movies, Peter O'Toole | Leave a comment

“Woman on the Run”

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes: This 1950 noir, directed by Norman Foster, and written by Foster and Alan Campbell, from a story by Sylvia Tate, is intriguing for the way in which it uses its thriller premise to mine the complexities … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Performers, Uncategorized | Tagged Ann Sheridan, Dennis O'Keefe, Film, Film Noir, movies, Norman Foster, Ross Elliott, San Francisco, Woman on the Run | Leave a comment

Notes on “Snow Trail”

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes: This 1947 suspense melodrama was written by the young Akira Kurosawa, and it stars two of Kurosawa’s screen alter egos, Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune. They’re playing bank robbers (Japan has bank robbers?) on the run … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Uncategorized | Tagged Akira Kurosawa, Film, Japan, movies, Senkichi Taniguchi, Snow Trail, Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune | Leave a comment

“Sicario”

Posted on February 13, 2016 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes: Director Denis Villeneuve’s previous movies, “Incendies” and “Enemy” (I haven’t seen the 2013 “Prisoners”), were unabashed art films, as structurally showy as they were meticulous in their aural and visual detailing. In “Sicario,” written by Taylor … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Tagged Benecio Del Toro, Denis Villeneuve, Emily Blunt, Film, Josh Brolin, Mexico, movies, Sicario | 9 Comments

R.I.P. Jacques Rivette

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes: I think we live in a world that happens to be incomprehensible. And you have to try to see that the questions this incomprehensible world poses are [unanswerable]. We know in advance that there are no … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Philosophy and Religion | Tagged Film, Jacques Rivette, movies | 4 Comments

Notes on “Beasts of No Nation”

Posted on January 27, 2016 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes: Writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga’s “Beasts of No Nation” is the most viscerally affecting war movie in recent memory. Based on a novel by Uzodinma Iweala, which I haven’t read, it focuses on guerrilla warfare in an … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Performers, Uncategorized | Tagged Abraham Attah, Africa, Beasts of No Nation, Cary Fukunaga, Film, Idris Elba, movies, war, war movies | Leave a comment

“Puffball: The Devil’s Eyeball”

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes: “Rosemary’s Baby” meets “Don’t Look Now” in backcountry Ireland: creepiness, shocks, sex and hints of the supernatural in a very sophisticated, very boho package. Kelly Reilly is a yuppie architect renovating a dilapidated stone house; Miranda Richardson … Continue reading →