By Dale King Evita, the rock opera conceived by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice at the height of their musical collaboration, has been packaged, repackaged and committed to celluloid since it was released as a concept record album 40 years ago and hit the stage in London two years later. Director Michael Leeds and choreographer Kevin Black return to the … [Read more...]
‘Great Beauty’ looks it, but has little heart
The first 15 minutes or so of Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty is one of year’s most daring expressions of cinema’s intoxicating possibilities. The opening shot starts inside a cannon, with the camera tracking out of it and up and away, like a cannonball, and we get through an entire reel before it settles down. Restless but elegant, it drifts in and around Rome’s ancient … [Read more...]
The Oscar nods: Affleck, Bigelow snubs baffling
To paraphrase Sally Field, “They don’t like him. They really don’t like him.” That is the only possible conclusion to be drawn from the snub of Ben Affleck from the Best Director nominations, announced early this morning in Hollywood. Affleck was assumed to have a lock on one of the five slots in the category for his audience-friendly, fact-based thriller Argo, but it simply … [Read more...]
Only thing to be afraid of here is story, direction, acting
One of the great things about Wes Craven’s Scream was its pop-culture savvy. Its characters couldn’t make very easy marks if they’d seen every important horror movie ever made and, conversely, the psycho killer was an even more cunning villain because he’d seen all of those movies. It was a smart film because Craven, his characters and his audience were on an even keel: They … [Read more...]