Starting with a quotation from Thomas Wolfe that loneliness is the “inevitable fact of human existence,” the film God’s Lonely Man traces in a very tedious manner the life of Ernest Rackman (played by Michael Wyle), whose character resembles Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976). Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when blue laws once closed the town to the […]
The Girl, directed by Sande Zeig, is a film noir narrated by Laura (played by Agathe de la Boulaye), with more cinematography, music, lovemaking, and voiceovers than dialog. Laura is taking art lessons in Paris in the mornings. In the afternoons, she walks quietly along the Seine. In the evenings, she goes to a nightclub,
The premise for Evolution, directed by Ivan Reitman, is not new. An asteroid lands on earth, as witnessed by firefighter candidate Wayne Green (played by Seann William Scott). Two groovy scientists, biologist Ira Kane (played by David Duchovny) and geologist Harry Block (played by Orlando Jones), put a specimen in their lab at Glen Canyon Community
Driven, a story about competition car racing, is directed by Renny Harlin. Beau Brandenberg (played by Til Schweiger), the reigning champ, is challenged by a rookie, Jimmy Bly (played by Kip Pardue). The rivalry is both on and off the track, involving Lucretia Clan (played by Stacy Edwards). Carl Henry (played by Burt Reynolds) hires
The sexual age of consent in most states of the United States is eighteen. Sex with someone below the age of consent is considered statutory rape. What happens when a fifteen-year-old boy truly loves a man nearly twice his age? In Eban and Charley, writer-director James Bolton sensitively focuses on both sides of such a relationship.
In Romancing the Stone (1984), Michael Douglas plays the part of someone seeking a valuable gem while making love to a beautiful woman in a tropical setting. In Don’t Say a Word, Dr. Nathan Conrad (played by Michael Douglas) searches for a gem in New York City as the ransom to save the life of his daughter Jessie
The Deep End is a retake of the classic film The Reckless Moment (1949), starring James Mason and Joan Bennett; both are based on the novel The Blank Wall (1949) by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. But in The Deep End the mother is trying to protect her son, not her daughter. The title for the film The Deep End, directed by Scott McGehee and
Domestic Disturbance, directed by Harold Becker, is yet another variation on the theme of a stranger who comes into a small town, impresses the townspeople, but has a notorious past that ultimately catches up with him and thereby brings havoc to some of the best citizens in the community. The mythical town in Domestic Disturbance
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The Central Intelligence Agency has a reputation of failure in the eyes of many observers. The abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 is notable in that regard. Who would imagine that such a sorry episode would be the subject of comedy? In Company Man, directors Peter Askin and Douglas McGrath try mightily to find a
Teenagers encountering their first gay experiences are destined to be frustrated, or so we discover in Come Undone (Presque Rien), directed by Sébastien Lifshitz, a film with many flashforwards to a time when the lead male actor tries to commit suicide (presumably the basis for the French title, which literally translates “almost nothing”). Chronologically, the