Creature Comforts, Vol. 2.2
March 7, 2006
In 2005, Aardman Animations lost a lot of their 30 year history when a storage unit went up in flames destroying irreplaceable storyboards, awards, props and pieces of film memorabilia. Also damaged was material for some of Aardman’s popular projects...
Repo Man: Collector’s Edition
March 4, 2006
“Not many people got a code to live by anymore,” says Bud (Stanton), the veteran repo man to his protege, Otto (Estevez) near the beginning of Alex Cox’s Repo Man (1984). This film is all about personal codes and philosophies. It seems...
In Her Shoes
March 4, 2006
Curtis Hanson is a chameleon-like filmmaker. From L.A. Confidential (1997) to Wonder Boys (2000) to 8 Mile (2002), he refuses to be pigeon-holed by any one genre. His latest effort, In Her Shoes (2005), adapted from Jennifer Weiner’s novel by Erin Brockovich...
Good Morning Vietnam: Special Edition
February 27, 2006
Good Morning Vietnam (1987) is one of Robin Williams’ earliest forays into drama. While The World According to Garp (1982) is arguably his first attempt to be taken seriously and blend his comedic sensibilities with drama, Good Morning maintains a much...
Broken Flowers
February 27, 2006
Ever since Night on Earth (1991), filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has worked with recognizable movie stars in what could be interpreted as a bid for mainstream acceptance or, more probably, a way to get his films financed and distributed in a progressively difficult...
Must Love Dogs
February 24, 2006
Diane Lane is an adept actress who has dabbled in many genres: action (Streets of Fire), art house (Rumble Fish) and thriller (Unfaithful) to name a few. With Must Love Dogs (2005) she takes another crack at the romantic comedy that she last pulled off...
The Baxter
February 23, 2006
The Baxter (2005) is about a nice guy named Elliot Sherman (Showalter). He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t get the girl in the movies. He reads the Dictionary for fun and is an accountant by trade (working for the second best firm in New York City no...
Shoot the Piano Player
February 23, 2006
Filmmaker Francois Truffaut admired the hardboiled romanticism of David Goodis’ 1956 crime novel Down There so much that he decided to adapt it into a film called Shoot the Piano Player (1960), the follow-up to his extremely successful debut, The 400...
Bad News Bears: Special Collector’s Edition
February 21, 2006
If fans of Richard Linklater’s films were nervous when he entered the mainstream with School of Rock (2003), a Jack Black vehicle with kids, then they must’ve freaked out when it was announced that he was remaking The Bad News Bears (1976) with Billy...
Tiny Furniture: Criterion Collection
February 20, 2006
Every so often there comes along an independent filmmaker that is touted as a major new voice and makes a film that causes a big splash, spawning countless substandard copies and wannabes. In the past, it’s been the likes of Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch,...
