Gay-oriented films often take The Boys in the Band (1970) as a model and then construct bitchy dialog between characters that appear to have little in common except for their sexuality. All Over the Guy, directed by Julie Davis, falls into such a rut and never climbs out, though adapted from a stage play, “I Know You Are, […]

If you know that AIDS has your days numbered, what would you do before your seemingly inevitable death? In The Adventures of Felix (Drôle de Félix), the decision of Félix (played by Sami Bouajila) is to see the birthfather who abandoned his birthmother before his birth. When the film begins, Félix, a dark-skinned Arab, has learned

101 Reykjavík, directed by Baltasar Kormákur, is a film about angst among Icelanders in their twenties, based on a novel of the same title by Hallgrimu Helgason. What used to be called the “Danish solution” is very much present in Iceland: a fatherless child grows with up a mother, who gets state support; after completing

In Goya in Bordeaux, filmviewers are treated to an artistic vision of the Spanish genius, democrat, and libertine who was Goya. The film (in Spanish, Goya en Burdeos) begins in the final year of his life, 1828, at the age of eighty-two, when we immediately know that Goya (played by Francisco Rabal) is near death. He

  Women who stand behind men throughout history have not been recognized for their contributions and their sacrifices. Bruce Beresford, a director who has given proper recognition to illustrious but unacknowledged women in many of his films, has now surpassed his Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and Paradise Road (1997) with Bride of the Wind in providing an autobiographical sketch of Alma

Films have been based on novels, stage plays, true stories, operas, and even comic books. Now comes, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, based on a video game, with Simon West as director. The first Hollywood feature film shot in Cambodia since Lord Jim (1965), with a few scenes in England and Iceland, the movie mostly consists of

Once again, a French director has portrayed the difficulties of being a bisexual as well as trying to be the lover of a bisexual. In La Confusion des genres (Confusion of Genders), director Ilan Duran Cohen’s script ups the ante on the 1998 movie The School of Flesh (L’ecole de la chair) by providing a portrait of three

Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, directed by Shutosh Gowariker, is a musical, complete with ragas and choreography, about a mythical event that takes place in the British cantonment of Champaner (actually filmed in Kutch) during 1893. Musicals tend to have cardboard roles, a comicbook story, exaggerated emotions, and sharp contrasts between good and

  The musical Moulin Rouge may tempt older filmviewers to attend in the expectation of seeing a remake of the classic film Moulin Rouge (1952), based on the novel of the same title by Pierre La Mure starring José Ferrer as Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, an artist who drew sketches of risqué dancers, circa 1900. However, such expectations will

In Spy Game, directed by Tony Scott, agents of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) work at cross purposes to undermine one another and thus the effectiveness of the agency. Retiring Special Agent Nathan Muir (played by Robert Redford) hears that his onetime protégée Tom Bishop (played by Brat Pitt) has been captured by authorities in China