THE STORY OF MY WIFE (Histoire de ma femme) ***1/2 A dashing sea captain, a mysterious beauty, a strange story about daring to “marry the first woman who walks in that door”, magnificently filmed by an award-winning Hungarian director – what more would you want from a turbulent, romantic drama set in 1920s Europe? The […]
FILM: NOBODY HAS TO KNOW – 4 stars
25 March 2022. By Neptune NOBODY HAS TO KNOW (L’Ombre d’un mensonge) **** On the Isle of Lewis and Harris, a windswept island somewhere off Scotland, we find a Belgian man who has come there to work on a farm owned by a taciturn old man and his two sons. It’s not quite clear why […]
FILM: NOTRE DAME BURNS – 4 stars
18 March 2022. By Neptune NOTRE DAME BRULE **** (vo French) As deviously slow-burning and finally ferociously-flaming as the fire that almost destroyed the Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris in April 2019 – before the eyes of a horrified world, this reconstructed documentary by veteran director Jean-Jacques Annaud glows with a mixture of reality, […]
FILM: GOLIATH – honest lawyer fights conglomerate
11 March 2022. By Neptune GOLIATH *** (vo French) This French film is a more austere version of “Erin Brockovich” and other such films about the little man, or woman, fighting conglomerate giants in the courts, too often in vain, sometimes in victory. There are three sides to this story – one, an honest […]
FILM: BELFAST – deep, heartwarming and nostalgic
4 March 2022. By Neptune BELFAST **** How did director/actor Kenneth Branagh go from the showy, pop entertainment that was the latest “Death on the Nile” to something as deep, heartwarming and nostalgic as this black and white account of his own childhood in an Ireland torn apart by religious differences in the late 1960s? […]
FILM: THE GODFATHER – the film’s 50th anniversary
25 February 2022. By Neptune THE GODFATHER **** Speaking of classics, for the film’s 50th anniversary the Empire cinema is showing a remastered version of this finest of Mafia films (1972) directed by Francis Ford Coppola and written by Mario Puzo. With Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan and Diane Keaton among a strong cast, […]
FILM: RIFKIN’S FESTIVAL – for Woody Allen fans
18 February 2022. By Neptune RIFKIN’S FESTIVAL **1/2 Anyone who has been following my column would know that I am an unconditional fan of Woody Allen’s. I believe I have seen all his films, which have come out almost annually in the past fifty plus years. He’s quite a phenomenon, as most of them are […]
FILM: MOONFALL – Can’t win ‘em all…
11 February 2022. By Neptune MOONFALL * German/American director Roland Emmerich is a master of hyperbolic action films like “Independence Day”, “The Day After Tomorrow” and “Midway”. They were intelligent blockbusters – exciting, popular, a mixture of incredible thrills and basic human emotions. And mega-moneymakers. Where has he gone wrong with this one? The script […]
FILM: SPENCER – reminiscent of the paparazzi that hounded her to death
28 January 2022. By Neptune This week we have a troubling trio of films that you may either love or hate. Here’s my take on them. And as usual, I may stray from the majority of opinions. SPENCER *1/2 Director Pablo Larrain of Chile likes to take public figures, usually deceased (including Pablo Neruda […]
FILM: NIGHTMARE ALLEY – a stylish film with dark, violent undertones
21 January 2022. By Neptune NIGHTMARE ALLEY *** This is a film noir in the hypnotic, colorful decor of Guillermo del Toro’s rich imagination. Del Toro is one of three Mexican directors (the famous triumvirate of Alfonso Cuaron for GRAVITY and ROMA; Alejandro Inarritu for BABEL and BIRDMAN; and del Toro for PAN’s LABYRINTH and […]
