There is a large man in a small strip mall who knows a little something about eggs. Fat Nat’s is the kind of place that you pray will open in your neighborhood: There’s counter seating, glory be! When’s the last time you saw that in a strip mall? Posted signs will point out to you … Read more
I’ll confess, I have never been a huge fan of Bob Dylan’s music; I don’t own a single record. But I am a huge fan of Bob Dylan. As historical music figures go, he’s someone who has always fascinated me and scared the crap out of me at the same time. One theory I have … Read more
With Sideways, Alexander Payne and his writing partner Jim Taylor more than fulfill the promise of their brilliantly offbeat earlier films, Election and About Schmidt. In fact, we’re actually more partial to this one because it’s still very quirky yet at the same time eminently accessible. The refreshingly schlubby Paul Giamatti (fresh off American Splendor) … Read more
All right, all right, she may be America’s reigning movie queen, but whom can we petition for a moratorium on magazine covers featuring Ms. Kidman? Still, she and her child co-stars scared the bejesus out of us in The Others, and so we’re looking forward to this film, in which Kidman’s widowed character develops an … Read more
One of the things we love about Italy is that its aristocrats see no problem in being communists. Take Luchino Visconti, probably the only filmmaker capable of adapting one of his country’s most cherished novels. The Leopard recounts the efforts of a Sicilian prince to preserve his family’s fortunes during the revolutions that would eventually … Read more
Frankly, if it’s well made we could watch a feature-length documentary on the invention of the toilet brush. Not to take anything away from Jonathan Caouette’s spellbinding debut, Tarnation, a Sundance honey that reimagines what a documentary can be. Using his Macintosh, Caouette wove snapshots, Super-8 home movies, and answering-machine messages into a portrait of … Read more
Director Marc Forster’s follow-up to Monsters Ball is a tale of magic and fantasy set in turn-of-the-century London, and based on the life of James Barrie, author of Peter Pan. Johnny Depp stars as J.M. Barrie, a kind of Toys ‘R’ Us man-child who befriends Kate Winslet’s four fatherless boys and relives his lost youth, … Read more
Yarr, mateys. Here be a movie far more clever and entertaining than you’d expect from something based on a Disneyland theme park ride, produced by Armageddon’s Jerry Bruckheimer, and written by the guys who scripted Godzilla. A lot of the credit goes to Johnny Depp, who runs wild with his role as Captain Jack Sparrow, … Read more
Mike Hodges, who made one of the best British crime films of the seventies in Get Carter, reteams with his Croupier star Clive Owen for another dip in the same dark, icy pond. Like Carter, Sleep involves a hard-as-nails gangster antihero who returns to his old haunts to exact vengeance on those who killed his … Read more
American Music Club, a name chosen for its deliberately nondescript qualities, turned out to be perfect for a band that tied together so many strands of the American musical fabric—rock, folk, punk, country, even crappy lounge—into a remarkably distinctive sound that wove darkness into the shimmering light of pop choruses. The San Francisco band was … Read more