In 1988, the Chilean military dictatorship headed by General Augusto Pinochet was forced by diplomatic pressure to finally permit a democratic election, in order to prove its claim that the country’s people supported his presidency.  The plebiscite was simple:  voters would vote either “Yes” or “No” to authorize an additional 8-year term for the […]

  The opening 15 minutes of the 38th season premiere of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (fun fact:  Barack Obama was 14 years old when the show first went on the air) set a blazing pace that the rest of the show, alas, couldn’t sustain.  This is a season of transitions for the series–Kristen Wiig and Andy […]

  David Ayer’s END OF WATCH brings a new wrinkle to the “found-footage” genre by using it in a cop movie.  LAPD Officer Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) wires a camera to his uniform, and constantly photographs what’s going on while he’s on the beat, supposedly to generate footage for a documentary he wants to put […]

Francois Ozon’s IN THE HOUSE is a delicious examination of the pleasures and dangers of addictive narrative.  Storytelling (and corresponding tricks of cinematic structure) has been an interest of Ozon’s throughout his career, in films like Sitcom, Swimming Pool, 5×2 and Angel, and here he approaches the subject from a new angle. The setting is […]

  After 5 seasons, 2 of them exclusively on DirecTV, DAMAGES and its saga of dueling attorneys Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) and Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) came to its close this week, mostly with a whimper.  There were no last minute shockeroos (Ellen wasn’t Patty’s long-lost daughter), just a final renunciation of Patty and all […]

  Few movies are as wholeheartedly dedicated to meta-ness as Martin McDonagh’s SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS.  The title of the movie is also the title of the script its main character Marty (Colin Farrell)–which, I believe, is short for “Martin”–is trying to write.  It’s also a tally that the movie keeps track of as the story moves […]

  THE MASTER:  Worth A Ticket – The Title Describes the Filmmaker Our shorthand for describing movie directors, even great ones, is to compare them to other filmmakers.  So Quentin Tarantino is Sergio Leone plus half a dozen (at least) obscure exploitation and art-house directors, Soderbergh is Godardian, Scorsese recreates the aesthetic of Michael Powell, […]

  PARENTHOOD:  Tuesday 10PM on NBC   WHERE WE WERE:  The wedding of Crosby (Dax Shepard) and Jasmine (Joy Bryant), an event long in coming, considering that they’ve been raising Jabbar (Tyree Brown) together and were initially engaged two seasons earlier.  The joyous event was made more joyous when Mark (Jason Ritter) asked Sarah (Lauren […]