polfilms

Patch Adams begins in a mental institution, where the protagonist (played by Robin Williams) realizes that much sickness is rooted in one’s lack of perspective on life, and  humor can thus provide curative healing powers. He then enrolls in medical school to bring his newly found wisdom into practice. However, the medical establishment favors keeping […]

Historically-based films generally have a solid character, as the scriptwriters and actors try to be authentic. Just before World War I, a 13-year-old schoolboy was expelled from a British military school after being accused of theft and forgery, but when he insisted on his innocence, his banker father sacrificed all to gain an acquittal, thereby

Clint Eastwood has not given up acting as an eccentric do-gooder who gets the job done even if nobody respects him. In True Crime, in the role of aging Oakland newspaper reporter Steve Everett, he saves Frank Beachum, a black man (played by Isaiah Washington) from the gas chamber by discovering clues ignored by the police

Gay-oriented films tend to present problems, sometimes very profound, mixed with tension-release comedy. In Trick, directed by Jim Fall, the problem seems quite simple—that Gabriel (played by Christian Campbell) meets Mark (played by John Paul Pitoc), the two want to have sex, but they are unable to have sex all night, and therein lies the effort

In Trash, which had a premier screening in Hollywood on June 24, youthful director/writer Mark Anthony Galluzzo, has attempted to bring assorted true events of the area near Ocala, Florida, to the screen in order to show the difficulties that poor Whites face in a part of the South where economic opportunities are limited. The tagline

It is 1941. If the Nazis are coming to a small village somewhere in Czechoslovakia, should the Jews calmly await their fate? In Train of Life, a French film (“Train de Vie”) directed by Radu Mihaileanu, the village idiot Shlomo (played by Lionel Abelanski) has an idea: The townspeople should buy a train and ride to

A rich man may not get away with murder in The Thomas Crown Affair, but he gets away with a prank and a paramour. A remake of Norman Jewison’s 1968 classic film, this version has more of a James Bond signature than Steve McQueen provided. A rich financier, Thomas Crown (played this time by Pierce Brosnan)

The Thirteenth Floor Belief in reincarnation satisfies a longing for immortality, or at least a feel that we can do better in the next life. Similarly, older people often look back upon their life as a time of missed opportunities; if only we could relive the past and make different choices, we might have found