With the possible exception of the romantic comedy, no film genre is more strictly governed by conventions — or enslaved by clichés, if you prefer — than the boxing picture. Something similar might be said about reviews of boxing pictures, so here goes: More
“The Company Men” puts us down on the ground after having been up in the air. The movie powerfully revisits a theme touched on last year in the bitter comic drama “Up in the Air”: the devastating impact of sudden downsizing on corporate executives who have lived by the treacherous adage “You are what you do.” Instead of regarding these unfortunate men from the lofty perspective of a charming, cynical hatchet man logging frequent-flier miles — George Clooney’s character in “Up in the Air” — “The Company Men” looks them straight in the eye from inside the trenches. More
As far as movie meet-cutes go it’s hard to beat the one in “Vengeance,” when the mystery man played by the French chanteur Johnny Hallyday runs into three Hong Kong assassins in a Macau hotel. The three have just finished a job and slipped into the hall when they’re surprised by Costello (Mr. Hallyday), who’s headed toward his room. He gives them and their weapons the once over and strolls away, just another visiting Frenchman taking in the existential view. One beat later and they’re the best of friends. More
Messing around with Shakespeare is the bedeviling vice of directors. Saving him from their excesses is the great and noble duty of actors. More
Here is a description of some of the most innovative and important American theater of the last quarter of the 20th century. A man sits at a table and starts talking. If he has props, they are minimal — a spiral notebook, a record player, a box of pictures — and his costume is correspondingly modest, consisting usually of a flannel shirt, blue jeans or chinos, and sneakers. He speaks mostly about himself, digressing from anecdotes about his childhood and professional life into more serious confessional territory, though always with reserve and good humor. More
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