Category Archives: Film

I’m probably biased, but I’ve always considered Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise to be a film which is loved by those who have seen it, and hated by those who haven’t. Linklater is one of the most interesting American directors working … Continue reading →

OK, it hasn’t been the best year for movies. But it’s still worth noting that the two best films of the year thus far have been PG-13 romps aimed at children and their parents. After the box-office phenomenon that is … Continue reading →

Lost in Translation is a film about loneliness, featuring two individuals drawn to each other partly by the pull of genuine attraction but mainly by the push of having no other respite from their loneliness. Sofia Coppola, who wrote and … Continue reading →

I’m not entirely sure what the "dog days of summer" are, but if they exist, then surely these are they. The papers are already running summer-movie post-mortems, but the big, serious autumn films have yet to be released: in the … Continue reading →

Felix’s First Rule of Movies states that "films are always better on their opening weekend". Well, if that’s true, then maybe there’s a case for adding Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle to the Ten Worst Films of All Time list. Because … Continue reading →

I usually feel a strong affinity for films which are set in my home cities – Mona Lisa, say, or anything by Woody Allen. New York has way, way more than its fair share of indy filmmakers, so a lot … Continue reading →

It is the eve of war, and the mood of the world is sombre. Some developments have been heartening. In the UK, the resignation of Robin Cook and today’s debate on going to war have shown the world British parliamentary … Continue reading →

I haven’t seen much in the blogosphere over recent days on the subject of the Oscar nominations. I’m a little surprised, since the big news is the way in which New York has triumphed over Los Angeles. Every Best Picture … Continue reading →

At the beginning of City of God, the critically-acclaimed new movie about the slums of Rio de Janeiro, a young thug in the eponymous neighborhood is showing off his footwork to some younger kids. As he kicks a football from … Continue reading →

I’ve been to a lot of films recently, and I don’t have the time, I’m afraid, to write about them all. But I would like to try to correct what seems to be a general misconception that the cool new … Continue reading →

I saw Steven Spielberg’s new movie, Catch Me If You Can, last night. Today, I went back and watched it again. I never do that. It’s a fantastic film, I urge you to see it, and I urge you to … Continue reading →

Did you know that Krzysztof Kieslowski has a posthumous movie out? It’s called Heaven, and it was slated to be the first in a new trilogy, called Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. It has the allegorical strength that we have come … Continue reading →

The great British film director Mike Leigh has come out with a new film – not that you’d be likely to have noticed if you live in the US. Despite critical and commercial success with his last three releases, Secrets … Continue reading →

As ever in a Bond film, the Americans get it wrong, and it’s left to the Queen’s loyal subjects to make things right. And in Die Another Day, the latest installment in the greatest moviemaking franchise of all time, the … Continue reading →

Femme Fatale, the new film from Brian De Palma, opens with the heist of a bra. This bra is not particularly good at doing the sort of things bras are normally expected to do – support the breasts, shield one’s … Continue reading →

Old celluloid decays in a spectacular manner. Ricky Jay and Rosamond Purcell have just published a fine book on what happens to old dice (they start cracking up, quite literally, and quite beautifully), and Bill Morrison has made a film, … Continue reading →

We open on a conversation taking place between fellow workers in a restaurant, all seated around a table. One of them is on a riff, going into impressive amounts of detail with regard to a thesis he has regarding sex. … Continue reading →

If there’s one thing that Paul Thomas Anderson loves, it’s virtuouso camerawork. In his first film, Boogie Nights, it was generally considered to be a nod of the head to Martin Scorcese. But the impossibly long tracking shots have remained … Continue reading →

At the end of Frida, the new film by Julie Taymor, the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina) says of his wife, the painter Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek), that "never before has a woman committed such agonised poetry to … Continue reading →

Left-wing documentaries are popular in New York City these days. I’ve been to two this week: The Trials of Henry Kissinger on Thursday afternoon, and Bowling for Columbine on Sunday night. Both showings were almost sold out, and the latter … Continue reading →

Secretary is, at heart, a by-the-numbers love story. Troubled girl meets troubled boy, they fall in love, but their troubles drive them apart before they are eventually overcome and our loving couple lives happily ever after. If the problem with … Continue reading →

A bit later than I originally intended, I finally got around to seeing Barbershop tonight. If you haven’t done so as well, I highly recommend you follow suit: it’s an excellent film, which pulls off the almost-impossible feat of being … Continue reading →

No review of Barbershop here, I’m afraid, despite the fact that it remained at the top of the box-office chart for the second week running last weekend. It was my girlfriend’s birthday, so she got to choose, and she chose … Continue reading →

The numbers are in for the weekend, and the news is good! At the top of the list is Barbershop, a $12 million-budgeted film which took in $20.6 million over the three days. Next is the unstoppable My Big Fat … Continue reading →

The first thing we’re told at the beginning of Miramax’s much-hyped new film, Tadpole, is that it’s "a film by" Gary Winick. (He also, of course, gives himself a "directed by" credit a couple of minutes further on.) Later in … Continue reading →