Full Frontal

A very strange but surprisingly good movie

This piece of film work is one of the most confusing things you will ever watch. It is a movie within a movie - within a movie - within a movie (probably within a movie). Since you are basically watching a movie anyway, it shouldn't matter to you if it is in the end just a movie but it does because somewhere in between you just lost the line and took it for real life - within a movie.

So here is the story. There is this actor, Nicholas (Blair Underwood), who shoots a movie with Brad Pitt. While he does that he is interviewed by a journalist (Julia Roberts) he falls in love with. But actually that is just a movie, too winding up to the personal life of the rest of the crew and actors around in Hollywood. There are so many movie shootings going on in that movie. It all ends with the death of the producer Gus (David Duchovny), while everyone is waiting for him on his birthday party. (Was it as birthday party at all?) Meanwhile we get a look at the lifes of the rest of the actors and crew. There is casting director Lee who wants to leave her husband but then his day goes so wrong that he doesn't even get the letter she wrote him to do so. Linda (Mary McCormack) meanwhile meets some guy online who says he's a 20 year old actor while in fact he's a mid 40s stageplay director, just releasing his new play on Hitler.

And in the end you get to know that also this personal life of the actors you watched was just a movie.

This is very confusing, and somehow brilliant! It takes a while to really get it but it's worth it. That is one of the most underrated movies of all times, just because it's hard to get. And it comes with a great cast, too. A better cast than you expect because the movie has on the first look the feeling of a B-movie, mostly because of the shooting quality. This is definitly to be recommended and even though it got really bad reviews I really like it!

Full Frontal - Released August 2002

Update: Tag cloud

Hi there,

I got a small update to announce, which I just finished. At the bottom of the right sidebar you now find our own tag cloud. What is that?

Well, tags are placed below every review to make it easier for you to find it. If you are looking for George Clooney movies for example you can type his name into the search bar at the top of the website and it will find every movie on our site tagged with his name.

With this new feature you can also browse through the alphabetical tag cloud and click on his name to make the reviews appear. This also works with genres now. The bigger the word you click on is, the more reviews are tagged with it.

This tool is also great for discovering new actors or genres. Just look through it & tell us if you find it useful or not.

Greetz,
Sina

House of D

David Duchovny's writer's debut

This is Tommy's story. Tommy who ran away to France when he was just thirteen years old. The reason it is told is when his own son turns thirteen and he somehow feels guilty about his family not knowing about his life.

Tommy (Anton Yelchin/David Duchovny) could have a better life when he is twelve years old but he stays optimistic. Working as a meat delivery boy with his forty one year old mentally damaged best friend Pappass (Robin Williams) after school he always comes home to a Mum (Téa Leoni) taking pills all day. He counts them to know if she still is on a healthy dose. He cares for her and reminds her from time to time that his Dad was not a bad man and "just" died from cancer years before. He also reminds Pappass' father that he has a good son who's mother not killer herself because of the kid but ran into a car because of him. Tommy is much to grown up for his age but he needs an advice sometimes.

And one evening infront of the women's jail he gets one from an inmate he talks to - to just go out on a dance with the girl he likes. But from that moment on his life goes down the pan and in the end all that's left is to leave from all that was his life for thirteen years.

"House of D" is David Duchovny's first "self made" movie. He wrote, directed and stared in it - and hell did he good! Understandable that he freaked out about some bad critic by Richard Roeper lately because the movie deserves awards, not boos!

It is, I would call it, an optimistic drama, and those are rare nowadays. I'm impressed about Duchovny's work here and can only really recommend it. It has everything a great movie needs plus a super cast! Thumbs up for that piece of work! *taking a bow*

House of D - Released May 2004

Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead

And don't tell my boss, I'm a cheater!

Mom is going on vacation - and she leaves her five kids at home alone for two months with a stone old babysitter. The babysitter dies - as old as she was - and the kids 'get rid of her' so that Mom wouldn't come back and disturb their holidays but unfortunately the dead babysitter had all the money for the eight weeks. Sue Ellen (Christina Applegate), the oldest of them 5 decides to get herself a job.

Realizing working at a fast food restaurant wouldn't do it for her she applies for a job as a receptionist for a fashion company. But her fake cv and references are to good and so she finds herself in a higher position than wanted. Meanwhile the rest of the kids screw up the house and trash the dishes and Sue Ellen soon discovers: Being a Mom sucks!

This lovely and funny movie was released in 1991 and that's what it looks like. It had a certain naive charm and a good cast. I guess it could go through as a teeny romance but on the other hand if I liked it, it can't be one.

Being an scheming, slimy storage keeper at the company Sue works for was also one of the first roles for David Duchovny, who I portrayed lately. His part is ... very small but remarkably unlikeable.

All in all it is some very entertaining, likeable movie and it goes straight to our highly recommended list!

Don't tell Mom the Babysitter's dead - Released June 1991

David Duchovny

A portrait of strange success

Nowadays everyone knows David Duchovny. Even people who don't really watch movies know him from „Californication“ the TV series around Hank Moody that went to be a total success all around the globe and everyone who grew up in the 90s would never get Agent Mulder from „The X-files“ out of his mind. David Duchovny has a safe place in the hall of fame of TV stars but he also made it through in Hollywood. Who is that charismatic guy that a famous celeb website even called an „uber-sex god“ - for the record, we find that a bit exaggerated.

David Duchovny was born in Manhattan August 7^th 1960 into a Jewish family. He went to Princeton and Yale later, worked on a Master's degree in English literature. Young Duchovny was no fool so to speak but some when the interest in acting took over and he dropped the whole thing to ... have you ever heard of the „Red shoe diaries“ series?

„Red shoe diaries“ was a TV erotic series that started up in 1992. David Duchovny was on board there from the first part released to the 18^th in 2002. Now if that would not be a start to a serious acting career. He had caught a few small roles from 1988 to 1991 already but what really made him famous were the three episodes of „Twin peaks“ he starred in 1991.

From that he headed over directly to his role of a lifetime, our all time favorite, Mr Everybody-loves-him, Agent Fox Mulder. At total of 176 episodes, 4 movies and lots of video games and specials were released basing on „Spooky

Mulder“ and Dana Scully hunting for mysterious phenomenons at „The X-files“. A whole generation growing up with the series agreed later that 9 seasons were really enough for the latest movie from 2008 was kinda … boring.

But as mentioned from the start Duchovny also got famous with movies. For example there was “Evolution”, the sci-fi comedy from 2001 with Duchovny in a lead role. He was in “Zoolander” with Ben Stiller in 2001 and a handful of other movies in the last years.

But David Duchovny also successfully tried himself as a writer. He wrote 8 episodes of The X-Files and in 2004 the wonderful movie “House of D” .

“Californication” in 2007/2008 brought him back as a teeny idol and sex symbol and it seems he always grabs the right roles to make it up to the top again and again. This guy had a strange but kind of straight career and for that David Duchovny is one of our highly recommended actors!

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Stay exited for many reviews on David Duchovny's well- and unknown movies, coming the next days!

David Duchovny movie reviews yet available on JebbyMovies:

-> Don't tell Mom the Babysitter's dead (1991)
-> Californication Season 1 (2007)
-> House of D (2004)
-> Full Frontal (2002)

Election (2005: Hk)

Some movies belong to another culture, and are just what you are not used to, and "Election" is one of these movies, which proves two things, first that cinema is not US cinema, and that Johnnie To is a hell of a director.

Meet the Triads, a secret societies of organized crime in HongKong, with three hundred thousand members, and a history old as the history of china, and you would not be surprised that these secreties appoint a chairman to rule the board, what is surprising matter of fact is that this chairman is democraticaly elected from the "uncles" or the senior Triad memebers, and for the Wo Sing society, it is for a term that expires after two years.

Lok (Simon Yam) and Big D (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) are the two candidates, who are campaigning amongst the uncles to convince them they are the fittest, and this election, as any election in the world, is not clean of bribery and threats, but after the intervening of Uncle Teng(Wong Tin-Lam), who speaks in favor of one of the candidates who is more keen on respecting the old tradition which mind you goes back to the times of the Mandchurians and the Ming empire, the election happens and everybody is more or less happy.

Problem is that some influent people are not happy with the outcome of the election, so they try to get their hands the Dragon head which is the symbol of power of the new Triad leader, while the police is forced to emprison all the uncles, to keep the gang infighting from causing a bloodbath in street, while the both part struggle in continental China to get the dragon head and while the former Triad leader Whistle (Wang Chung), has to make choices that cause him immense sacrifice to show his loyalty to the Triad.

Mind you this is a radical departure from the godfather/godfellas kind of gangsterism, this is another flavour of it, and more in the spirit of the loyalty and family, even the police is aware that it will never be able to eliminate the triads, so their goal is to keep the harmony where they don't overstep territories and cause disturbance, this movie is not for export and it's a good thing, it's a movie made by asians for asians, the level of loyalty and brotherhood is similar to the one in the samurai movies, or the Shaw brothers swordsmen movies, it is really a relief to see something different that doesn't try to be western.

There is a certain amount of violence but it's never gratuitous and it is even righteous from the point of view of the persons who perform them, they do it by loyalty, and this feeling of belonging to a code of honor, something that is bigger then one's self interests, and the controversial end is perhaps also justified because he did what he did to keep harmony.

Tarantino called this movie the best of 05, and frankly it is probably true, the calm force of Lok, the violent outburst of Big D, and the wisdom of Uncle Teng, and Whistle, and Chief Superintendent Hui who is aware of the limits of what he can do, but is not intimidated by the mob bosses, it is far away from the Armani power thirsty model we are used to, these are real people, who have been in the society all their lives, and who got promoted, who obey an ancestral code of honour, and who elect their leader, you sometimes which our corrupt governements were that loyal, and the character that caught my attention was Jimmy (Louis Koo Tin-Lok), who is educated and a post graduate student, and whose influence helps to cure the feuds.

The Election ceremony is exactly th same as it happens in the real world, and Johnnie To, films this movie as an insider, well i don't say that he is a Triad member, but i'm sure that he is friends of many influent "Uncles", and for that authenticity, you need to watch this.

Nick of Time (1995)

Sometimes you don't like a movie particularly, but you like something about it, would it be an on-screen encounter between two actors you wish to see together, or some movie artifact, or the general mood of a movie, or sometimes even the title, and that's what leads me to speak about "Nick of Time"

Gene Spencer (Johnny Depp) is an accountant and father of a small girl, arriving to Los Angeles by train do attend to some business, little did he know that he will get trapped in some major assassination business by a mysterious man (Christopher Walken) and his assistant (Romma Mafia) (i'm serious that's her real name), who hold his little daughter hostage, making him understand that he either carries the dirty business or else....as the plot advances we clearly see into this whole plan, and Gene gets grip with reality, finding as always more ressources then he ever thought he was capable off, getting into the unmerciful world where politics and business merge.

The movie is notable for some reason, although far from being a great one, first of all, it is shot in real time, meaning is that a minute in the movie equals a minute in the plot, Johnny Depp and Christopher get away clean with rather a simple and straightforward story, because good actors know how to struggle with average script, the music is good, and is in the whole Bernard Hermann Vertigo-like tradition, of entrapment and claustrophobia, and the cinematography is a clear hommage to Alfred Hitchcock.

That's maybe the sad thing perhaps, an idea like that would find it's right place if they had somebody as Hitchcock to work on this story, because the promisses were interesting, but this movie has a real small running time 82 minutes including the opening titles, and no it's not boring, and it has a great title, and after all it all happens practically in a luxurious hotel, which means it helps with the entrapment feeling, and well if i don't recommend it, i don't advise against it, all i can say is that i spent a gold hour and half watching it, remember, not all movies are masterpieces, some are just average.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1997)

Ever heard of the American Dream, the Chevrolet, the nice house with the Drive-in, the malls, the blondes, this dream has been promoted by a zillion of movies and series from the early twenties, and that's why the American Immigration will be ever strong, despite Nagasaki, Vietnam, Irak, Guantanamo, and even recession.

Mr Hunter Thompson was a singulary Journalis, inventer of the "gonzo journalism", and a righteous witness to the Sixties in San Fransisco, so in the early seventies in the middle of the Vietnam War and during the Nixon administration, he decides to go to some sort of pilgrimage, a "savage journey to the heart of the American dream", so he takes a convertible, a bag full of all drugs known to man, a typewriter, and a Samoan laywer to a trip that was immortalized in the counter-culture canonic book "fear and loathing in Las Vegas.

Many directors and actors have tried to adapt this book, Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Brando, Nicholson, but we had to wait for the end of the millenium and Terry Gilliam to see it in what became a canonic cult movie on it's own right.

Hunter Thompson handpicked Johnny Depp, to play him, or to be exact his Alter Ego Raoul Duke, and you can't omit the irony in choosing an actor who represented the American dream for two decades to do that, Thomoson even shaving his head personally which is a bold movie concidering the chances of it never growing back, Benicio Del Toro completes the cast as Dr Gonzo, the alter ego to the real life crazy lawyer Oscar Zeta Acosta (who disappeared in mexico in 74) and cameos of "American Dream" stars such as Cameron Diaz, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, and the main character of the movie "the heart of the American Dream" the city of Las Vegas itself, with it's strip, Casions, affordable Luxury suites, and it's blinding lights.

Duke is sent to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race, and later has to cover a serious convention in Vegas on the other end of the American specturm, and between the two, he juggles with the components of counter culture, on a tightrope without a net below it, just the 3AM sound of desolation.

You have the Sinatra and the Rat-Pack component, you have the big circus with the jugglers and the clowns, you have the ingénue puritain teenagers, and the lone diners at 2 AM, and of course the Las Vegas strip with the flashing lights, plus all the parallel universes which are opened under Acid, Mescaline, Cocaine, Marijuana, or all of them at the same time, all that under the red sky of the involvment in Vietnam, and an acid generation of Cindrellas, following false prophets like Timothy Leary into the place where the wave ended up, in the middle of the desert.

You don't watch the movie in a classical facion, because it's a celluloid equivalent of a psychadelic album, like the "Jimmy Hendrix Experience", the soundtrack is aweome with Dylan, Tom Jones, Buffalo Springfield, and others, and Depp is not only playing Hunter Thompson, he IS him.

Thompson being the man who invented Gonzo Journalism, and a legendary Rolling Stone Magazine contributour, Dr Gonzo being the name of the character played by DelToro, the only thing i can promise is that this movie will affect you profoundly, and keep you wondering about it's famous "wave speech", and what if the sixties mouvement had succeeded, because all we see know is a direct result of their failure, and would we be stuck with reality-tv, three decades of Madonna, and the whole teen queen business, they owe a lot to this failure of good versus evil, and that's the impression you get as you leave the heart of the American Dream, on a Chevy Convertible, on the Highway number 15.

Burn After Reading (2008)

What do CIA signal interception, internet dating and the fitness culture have in common, not much you would say, not in the minds in the Coens they do, and the result is comedy called "Burn After Reading".

Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) is a CIA analyst in the Balkans Siging devision, he is married to a cutthroat bitch (Tilda Swinton) and lives in the velvet carpeted boring life of a princeton graduate in Washington DC, but his ejection from his job into a marginal position leaves him frustrated, and to make things worse Mrs Cox is not exactly a model wife, so out of frustration, he decides to write a memoir about his years in service, and to make things worse again, this memoirs fall accidently in the hands of Chad (Brad Pitt), and Lynda (Frances McDormand) fitness coaches at "hardbodies" a successful gym run by (Robert Jenkins), who see in this an oppurtunity to make some money.

Lynda who is into internet dating and "re-inventing herself" ends up meeting Harry Pfaffer (George Clooney), a treasury executive and who is inclined to filandering and buliding weird artifacts, and who is also a friends of the Cox's especially Mrs Cox.

This intricate web of characters relationships is what connects a rather impressive set of subplots, but hey these are the coens, and when it comes to multiplex plot and gourmet dialogue, they never disappoint, but what is essentialy a charcter movie populated with idiots in the big tradition of the much excellent "The Big lebowski" offers opportunitys of acting departure for it's stars, Brad Pitt is such a cartoon of himself in the perfect coenesque tradtion, miles away from the cool clever Rusty Rean from the "Ocean's Trilogy", Clooney continues his hilarious job for the coens, which he started with "O'brother", and continued with "Intolerable cruelty" as a larger then life buffoon.

And Frances McDormand is so touching as a fourtiesh woman trying to re-invent hersrlf, and getting acciedently in the world of espionnage for that, and Tilda Swinton plays her exact opposite, incredibly stuck-up and cold, and in this myriad of characters, the award goes to super John Malkovich, in the "Being John Malkovich" tradition, overworked, and over the edge, reminding everyone that when it goes wrong, it goes wrong all the way, all this set on a rythm of a beautiful paraniod soundtrack by Carter Burwell.

The Washinton DC politics , the fitness culture, the jogging buffs, the CIA bigshots mergey in this unlikely but very tasty stock, it is the Coens laughing at themselves and at everybody, who take themselves and their little stories too seriously, because if the DC people are like that, who can blame Canada.

The movie's weakness is perhaps the ending, which comes at a surprising moment, in a surprising way, it makes you wonder why, but i guess this whole movie is a "feel good movie" after the much darker "No Country For Old Men", and a near miss is also a near hit, but you will laugh your guts off when you see the artifact harry builds, it's a pure coen-clooney moment you can't affoard to miss, in the days of "40 years old virgin" type of gross comedy.

Citizen Kane (1941)

No better way to celebrate our hundredth post then to speak about the AFI 100, best movie ever made, it is also the best movie ever by Rogert Ebert Criterias, by the Village Voice Sight and sound poll, by french, russian, romanian polls, everybody loves this movie, and when you watch it you will know why the picked it probably.

Charles Foster kane (Orson Welles) press mogul, and billionaire dies alone in his own version of a Mogul's mega palace, his last words being a mysterious word, and some journalists making a documentary about him realize it is really important to find out more about him, so they interview his friends, assistants, colleagues, wives, butlers in order to get to know him more, from the early days of the idealisitc young newspaper owner he was, to the days of his inflated ego, thirst of power, and estranged freiends, through the great depression of 1929, and successes and failures in politics, love and being true to oneself.

VH1 has this kind of shows of discutable quality called the "rise and fall of ....." in the majority of time it's about a celebrity who has nothing to say, and another version of this is "the life and times of ......", biographies sell millions because of this whole fascination we have about the rich and famous, the successful and the powerful, the charismatic and the self-destructive, and this movie is about another fascination we have, the moguls and the filthy rich, especially media moguls like Spielberg, or Rupert Murdoch, or even Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, because this concentration of opinion shaping power in the hands (and mind) of one man who has probably as many successes as failures and who can suffer from something as basic as a tooth ache.

This movie is ground breaking visually too, because of it's wonderful use of lights and shadows, especially on the face of CFK, and also casts some wonderful camera angles and matte paintings, the makeup to age the cast is credible even by today's standards, and the cinematographic narrative devices like time compression are amazing, we tend to forget what a brilliant man Orson Welles was, to the point of making a movie as poetic as the scent of honeyscuckle and as real as a punch in the gut.

It is also amazing how frail vanity is depicted in this movie, and how it burns to black smoke, and how simple important non corrupted things are the ones we find out are the most important, beyond the veil of money and looks, the dialogues are efficient and the characters well drawn, and the is even a "movie in the movie" in the form of a documentary, this movie is about power and corruption in the face of ephemerality, I had a serious thrill watching this movie, what i thought was a boring historic elitist movie turned out to be very contemporary, and when Mr Kane uses all his power to promote a talent-less singer, just because he wanted to , you realize that this "pygmalion effect" hasn't changed since and that's why telentless artists last for decades torturing the ones of us with taste more and more ( remember that Mariah Carrey married Sony Music CEO, and if that's not Citizen-Kane-ish !)

I don't know if it's the best film ever made, but it sure is a serious contender, and i couldn't help but notice that Orson Welles style in film making and acting was a huge influence on Coppolla and Brando thirty years later when they made "The Godfather", makes you realize that nothing is ever original, but if you steal, steal from the best, and what if i told you that Orson Welles was 25 when he wrote, directed, produced and starred in It, and that it was his first movie as a director, I always hesitate to use the word "genius" but it fits in here probably !

Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden?

And why is Morgan Spurlock looking for him?

You surely do remember Morgan Spurlock, the guy from "Super size me", which was the entertainment documentary that nowadays keeps you from eating McDonald's burgers? Yes you do, we all do remember it! Now this time Spurlock asked himself a question many may have asked before him: Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden? Not that it would matter because nobody seems to look for him anymore, anyway. But the director still would like to find out and so he starts his journey around the world.

Okay, it's not really "around the world". It's "just" Morroco, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Egypt but still, it's far. He meets people, he collects opinions about terror, war and Bin Laden himself and he comes to realize that the majority of people doesn't see only that one person behind terror and that everyone would like to catch him, not only the Americans.

I got my very own thought on entertainment documentaries because there is still a slight difference between cinema docus and ... well normal ones. But on this one I must say I am quite impressed that he really went into all the dark corners, coming out with a smile. But what do we really learn at the end of the movie? Except for that we don't have to look for Bin Laden at some shopping mall?
Okay some watchers who really thought so may learn that not every Afghani, Morrocan and Pakistani is a terrorist but well, whoever thought so yet is a bit paranoid anyway.

Well, it's a good watchable docu (and I appreciate that Spurlock had the guts to actually take that journey) but as I see it it would have been necessary about ... well let's say 7 years ago because the nowadays generation of kids doesn't even know about 9/11 ... at least around here. But you gotta give the movie credit for it is very entertaining and well made. Still recommended!

Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden? - Released April 2008

Double Indemnity (1944)

Some movies have a constant greatness, due to their deep insight into human nature, and their neutral view on the human weakness towards temptation, "Double Indemnity" is one of these, a movie about how the wheel of fate can turn like a russian roulette into the firing position.

Walter Neff (Fred McMurray) is a successful Los Angeles insurances salesman, who works for Pacific All risk, a routine visit to the house of one of his clients Mr Dietrichson to renew the insurance on his cars leads him to dire consequences.

The flirty coy trophy wife Mrs Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces him, and convinces him to join her into a devilish plan to take advantage of some insurance her husband has recently took, the reluctant Mr Neff is betrayed by his human weakness, and since he knows the tricks of his trades, proposes an even more devilish plan, which will let them use the "double indemnity" clause in the contract.

As it is often the case, the nearly perfect plan, has a gran of sand in it, and the suspcting claims adjuster Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) starts to dig into this story, because his intuition tells him that this story is too perfect to be true, while Mr Neff gets deeper and deeper into the trap of Mr Dietrichson, and finds out about her past, and her true nature.

This film is a classic Film Noir, by the famous director Billy Wilder, and based on a novel by Raymond Chandler, the story is great, but so is the cinematography (by John F. Seitz) dark and caulostrophobic, adding to the entrapment feeling by the players in a story which is bigger then them.

Barbara Stanwyck is so femme fatale in this movie, you just can't escape her, like a succubus in some legend, and the poor Mr Neff, doesn't even have the slightest chance to put some order into this mess surrounding him, but the acting award goes to Edward Robinson, this short very smart fast speaker, who is really the pattern of all the Joe Pesci's an Danny DeVito's that came after him.

The camera is non judgemental and even the whole story, because Mr Neff is a plain nice guy, who could be your brother, or your brother in law, it is just about a giant magnetic blackhole kind temptation from which he cannot escape, and which will lead him to push his personal limits, and find out about his well hidden anti-heroic potential.

This movie has a good rank on the AFI's best movies, and Mrs Dietrichson is ranked as one of the top ten vilains of all time, because as sweet as she can be, you can't escape her, I know i wouldn't be able to, so i will chew my words twice before judging Mr Neff.

You need to watch this one !

Any Given Sunday (1999)

American Football is another planet as far as I am concerned, first of all, because to me "football" is what they call "soccer", and this whole crazy enthusiasm beyond the superbowl is something beyond my understanding, but with this movie, i definitly could understand it better, as just an extension of the notion of gladiators and ancient battlefields.

Coach Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino) is a legendary coach of the fictional Miami Sharks, four years ago he won the Panthon Cup with the help of an All Star cast of players, "Cap" Rooney (Dennis Quaid), J-man Washington (LL Cool J), and "Shark" Lavey (Lawrence Taylor) the captain of the Sharks Defense Taylor being a real legandary football player with the New York Giants, who changed defense forever.

Life is not that easy for coach D'Amato lately, because his team is not doing so well, they lost their last four games, "Cap" health is a concern, and he has many management conflicts with the team owner Christina Pagnacci (Cameron Diaz), who took over after her dad, and D'Amato close friend died, and has trouble to prove herself in a man dominated world of men owners.

During a particulary difficult games D'Amato loses both his quarterbacks, forcing him to give a chance to the third Wille Beamen (Jamie Foxx) a talented player who never got an actual chance to prove himself do to a series of misfortunate events , Beamen doesnt only allow the team to win the games but turns into a true sport's world superstar, causing D'Amato's anger for his tenedancy to change the playing tactics on the fly as he pleases, and getting away with it.

Beamen's growing stardom gets to his head, while he starts to openly criticize his team and their way of living, and showing disrespect for the whole Coaching team, and earning him Cap's rivalry who works his butt off to get back to his initial place as the team's star quarterback

D'Amato deals with this new problem, plus his own alcoholism problems, plus his estranged family, and plus his addiction to hookers, while managing a conflictual relatonship with the media, and it's powerful talkshow hosts, this review could very well be about Al Pacino's performance as D'Amato because he gives a masterful one, but he played a somewhat similar role in "Heat" and we spoke about that, so while d'Amato is dealing with all these issues, the team continues to win thanks to "steamin" Beamen successful plays, and as the team heads to their biggest game, what will D'Amato do to manage the chaos around him, and to revive his legend, or is it just that he is past his primie, caught up in a world he no longer understands.

This movie is about the crazy and fascinating world of football and the people who revolve around it, it's partly written and directed by Oliver Stone, who made such small movies as "Platoon" or "JFK", and being a football fan himself, he manages to transcend it into an epical world, where the players are gladiators and the owners and coaches a royal court, with undless power battles, and where the lives of the players themselves are not much diffrent from their real lives, and it also shows the ruthless world of owners and politicians around it, and how one could get eaten alive if he doesn't pay much attention.

The confrontations of coach D'Amato and Christina are epical, she tries her best to hold up to him although it's hard with a man with such a status and an authority, who nevers allows anybody to tell him what to do, the evolution of the character of Beamen is also worth watching and even the sweet decline of the once Legend Cap Rooney played beautifully by Dennis Quaid is a subplot strenghtening the whole movie.

So this movie basically covers the world of football from all it's sides, and without being long or boring, this movie has the same rythm as a superbowl, with the game itself, the side entertainment, the ads, the party athmosphere, but don't let it unfocus you, because as we learn through Coach D'Amato's wisdom, this game is about more then winning, making money, or being the star, it's about the passion and the trust between ten men who will throw themselves into the harm's way, because they believe you'd do the same for them, and that's a beatiful lesson, from a beautiful movie.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)

Actors turned directors, are in general spoiled kids of a system, who are rewarded for making so much money, by being allowed to play with a camera and a crew for three months, and make a movie people will watch anyways, because they usually star in it too, i can name so many of them but not the one i'm talking about tonight.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind came as a knockout punch in the early 00's, George Clooney making a movie, with a Charile Kaufman script, and everybody thinking that a handsome face can't be a director anyways that he is going to ruin the script, and to the general surprise the movie was good, some even say very good.

So you have Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell), for those of you who don't know him (and i didn't know him before the movie neither) is the creator of such TV shows as "the dating game", or "the gong show", which means he is responsible for this downward spiral whitch the Television took resulting with such atrocities as "the obbournes" or "Laguna Beach", but it is not his total responsability, because he claims that he was giving people what they want, and you almost can't argue with that, because if nobody watches a show it will get canceled, and this egg-chicken argument can entertain you one afternoon when there is no DVD to watch.

So this movie is about his life, as depicted in his unauthorized biography, where he claims he was hired as an assassin for the CIA, killing thirty people for them, but this is not even the theme of the movie although being a good part of it, the whole theme of the movie, is alienation and schizophrenia, because it's either that Chuck Barris did invent this fictional life because he was going crazy with all these accusations of him running the whole Television, or just representing everything decadent, or it is that these stories are true, and then it makes perfect sense too, because as Jim Byrd (George Clooney), the CIA recruiter says to him "you fit the profile", and god knows that he does.

This is a brilliant first movie, and shows that clooney has been a good students of his great director friends such as the Coens, or Soderbergh, some even accused Soderbergh of ghost-directing it at the time, as rediculous as it might be as an accusation, the cast also is fitting, with Drew Barrimore as Chuck's love interest, and Julia Roberts as a Cold War Femme Fatale, while the ever great Rutger Hauer, plays a ruthless fellow assassin, all this while projecting the audience into the heart of the Cold War and it's world of double identities, and spies, and it's Berlin wall, and all the stories around the wall, and the dirty work the CIA did in South America.

It is arguable what's more disgusting, killing people for the CIA, or making shows that show how decadent everybody is, or even shows like "the gong show" made in purpouse to make fun of people, for the sake of making fun of them, but then again, people kept coming to these shows to participate, and they were aware of what it was about.

The Dating game shows that dating and relationships are just another form of gambling, because at the end of the day you can't know much about a person unless you spend months in their company, and Chuck Barris knew that, he is at the same time, the victim of this culture and also it's catalyser, because he holds deep scars going back to childhood and early teenage.

So this movie is about failure, like much of Charlie Kaufman works, and one of the most common facets failure, is failure to be accepted, especially by the other sex, this failure can trigger creativity, and it can trigger nonesense, but it can project one into this sweet illusion of an imaginary life, for better of for worse.

And that's where the movie gets away with it, because it has true persons statments about chuck berry, it has his point of view on life, and his obvious alienation shown using clever color schemes, and it deals with self despise, self worth issues, and it deals about the consequences of being a misfit.

The movie starts with Chuck Barris standing in a dirty hotel room naked, facing a TV, watching Ronald Reagen inauguration in 81 (something everybody should do more often), and this scene is revealing because when we absently watch television we are naked, because it shows us the way we are, consumers, gossipers, and cruel, at least Chuck Barris, was not afraid to face his own flaws, and failures, I wish many other people, intoxicating the TV, movie, or the music world, has the same courage to watch themselves in the mirror of reality , or of TV

This movie is a buried treasures, it deserves to be watched, as scary as it be in it's revealing what we became.

Elephant (2003)

It is really rare that a movie has the same feel of reading a poem, not any wannabe writer poem, but something like an Edgar Allen Poe poem, "2001 a space odyssey had that feeling" and "Elephant", the Palm d'Or winner in 2003 has that feeling, etheral, beautiful, and invasive.

Then again i will be the first to admit that winning the palm d'or is not synonymous of greatness, since many boring movies got that distinction, it all depends on the identity of the jury, and some juries are so elitist, and prone to heavy intellectualism.

The Movie starts with John McFarland (John Robinson) taking the control of the car from his drunk father, a heavy symbol of power handed to teenagers and which they will never get back, John enters the Fictional Watt HighSchool which could be anywhere in America, The Camera follows John in long tracking shots with minmalist music, but then departs from him to follow several of his friends and fellow stuents, doing whatever they do during a normal highschool day, including creative photography, discussing serious matters, being boulimic, speaking about boyfriends and girlfriends, having weight issues, or being bullied by their classmates.

The problem is that this is not a typical day and that the school is about to witness a terrible happening, as two students Alex (Alex Frost) and Eric (Eric Deulen) preparing a mass murder and John trying to prevent them from doing so, then the story shifts into the preparing of this murders by Alex and Eric, and how easy it was for them to get the necessary supplies, and the severe alienation they were facing, while their surrounding people were totally unaware.

This movie shows terrible things in a very quiet fashion, teenagers left to do whatever they want, or can, and to face whatever they face without an assistance, or with a totally misguided assistance which does more harm then good, it's about the total failure of all the systems which are supposed to supervise them, parents educaters or even friends, what remains is the bubble everyone creates to live in, and when this bubble explodes, it will touch everybody else, in a terrible way.

But the writer/director Gus Van Sant, is too smart to be judgemental, he doesn't blame anyone, because this movie is supposed to expose the problem from the point of view of the people living it, and because the adults, and politicians and the media tend to ignore it like "an elephant in the room" hence the title.

The Cast are amateurs and that's a brilliant decision, because what was needed were teenagers being teenagers, and who would need a Misha Barton, or a Lindsay Lohan in such a movie, they are fit for the whole "cheerleader, everything is arright, drinving a new beetle" teenage movies, Mr Van Sant going as far as casting one of his movies on Myspace.

It is easy to draw the parallel with events such as the Columbine highschool massacre, but this film is intended for a broader view, and a more general approach to the theme, but then again since i live in Algeria, it's really shocking to see these priviliged kids living in a beautiful suburb being that depressed, or suicidal, i guess that at the end, happiness is like a ball, we run after it until we reach it, and then we kick it further, the problem being, that these kids didn't have anyone to show them the right ball to kick, and that some explosives look strangely like toys.

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

The first impression i got out this movie, was that the Poster was misleading, you see Josey Wales screaming on the poster, while the movie is a meditational revisionist western, the second impression is that this movie is every bit as good as "Dances with Wolves" in it's respect and admiration of the native American culture and suffering.

Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood) is a peaceful Missouri farmer during the times of the American Civil War, he sees his family murdred and his farm burnt to the ground by some Pro Union Militia, the "RedLegs" lead by a man named Terill, Josey seeks revenge, and being a good marksman, he joins a band of Pro-Condfederate Militia, where he learns the trades of gunmanship, but at the end of the war, his side obviously being the loser, they are offred a total amnesty by the Union army, and a power thirsty senator.

Josey is the only one who refuses, thus making him the witness of the betrayal and the mass murder of his past partners, by the hands or the RedLegs who became officers in the union army Terill becoming "Captain Terril", Josey immidiatly avenges them, thus becoming "the outlaw" in the title of the movie.

Being a fugitive now, he has to move constantly and during this journey he meets Lone Watie (Chief Dan George), a wise indian chief who tells him how the US government betrayed his people with false promises, leading to the lose of his family, this common factor being the one leading to the two men's frindship, an indian woman he saves from raping, and a Yankee woman and her daughter, while they travel towards a new frontier and a new life surrounded by Comancheros (mexican bandisos), Apaches, and the Union army itself.

This movie has it's required amount of gun battles, and has a revenge spaghetti western like plot, but it's more then that, it's a meditation of a fragile and ephemeral time in the US where the country was changing, leading to immense tragedies, a time where any outlaw was home in the wild west, and where the gun was the law (wait a minute, it hasn't changed much in America, they even exported it)

Josey Wales is a quiet observer, who intervenes on the right time, he doesn't speak much, but when he does, he usually says the right thing, and his dialogue with the Apache leader, and with Chief Watie is full of understanding and wisdom, his motives are pure, he seeks revenge, justice, and then he just minds his own business, he is a typical anti-hero.

This movie was a success, both critically and commercially, it ran for the Golden Palm and was presented in Cannes, Eastwood proves that he has been a very good student of Sergio Leone, but with a personal touch you can't miss, and when you see this, you can guess that a masterpiece is not far away in his career, and it happned a decade and a half later with his Western Swan song, the marvelous "unforgiven".

So even for those who dont like Clint much, this movie is really worth watching, it's not glorifying the Union army, and even it's final showdown, ends in a very unsusual fashion, a japanese one rather then an American, that says also that "Yojimbo" and the Kurusawa influence was not far neither, but let's all remember that Mr Kurusawa is the one who inspired both Sergio Leone Dollar Trilogy, and "Star Wars", frankly nothing is original, but if you steal, steal from the best, and add a personal touch.

The Terminator (1984)

It's a thrill for me to speak about The Terminator, one of "the films" of the eighties, this movie was so influencial and has a clear influence on the whole science fiction genre, with a clear inflence on suc a movies as The Matrix franchise.

To put you in the setting the time is the beginning of the eighties, and the robotics are advancing the first personal computers are sold, the Walkman is very popular, and it lead to rise of many issues, and what if the robots could build their own consciousness and start to exterminate humans, well if that is to happen it surely easier for the computers with the big well of human knowledge and experience called the internet.

So much for that, the year is 1984 (George Orwell obvious Reference) andSarah Connor is a waitress in a diner, who loves to party guys who own a porsche, but somehow she is the target of a mysterious killer (Swharzenegger) who came to life naked in a thunderstorm, who has this tendency to kill everybody in the phone book whose name is Sarah Connor, and there is another naked guy (Micheal Biehen) who talks and acts paranoid but he pretneds to want to protect her, this story seems pretty basic, but add to that cocktail the fact that both guys come from the future, one of them is not a hundred percent human, and doesn't speak much, and is pretty direct when it comes to killing people, he is "The Terminator" and he does... terminate.

It turns out that the young sweet Sarah is very important to the future of humanity, and that big Artificial Intellingce from the future want her dead, so the movie is basically the Terminator trying to kill her, and her becoming more and more aware of her influence on the future, leading to some paradoxal consequences, this movie is still enjoyable to watch especially for the people who were born after the eighties ended, and have no frame of reference to this weird and optimistic era.

Shwarzenneger acts wonderful in here, probably because he has no facial expressions to perform, Lynda Hamilton as the sweet Sarah, is really a wonderful mirroring to her more serious Sarah in the no-less-valubale sequel, and the action sequences are beautiful, especially the robotic stop motions used in here, because it was before CG, which makes them even more impressive.

It is really hard to forget the assault on the precinct on the police, or the whole robotic paranoia running throughout the film, and the huge presence of Swharzenegger, he was never that much of an actor, but he has tremendous presence in here, James Cameron was a great director back then and the screenplay is so solid though, although the story is influenced by master science fiction works.

This is really a prequel to the Matrix in terms of ideas, because it deals with the robots having a consciousness, the matrix is about virtual reality, a concept which was still in development back then, but it's really a double winning bill, watching a great move, while rising important questions, i did not watch the movie for fifteen years, and today it's still relevant, still thrilling, and still powerful, as Mr Ebert would say "Two Thumbs Up", and I'll be back !.

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Quite an honor for me to speak about "The Maltese Falcon" probably one of the greatest American movies of all times, with one legendary detective Figure Mr Sam Spade, and is considered the first film noir to establish the codes and the visual aspects of the genre.

Sam Spade is a new york private eye, in an agency he shares with his partner Miles Archer, one day a Mysterious and beautiful women (femme fatale) enters the office, asking the pair to investigate the disappearing of her sister of whome she had no news, while asking them to follow a man she thinks has the information, Archer is immediatly attracted to the woman with serious consequences to him and his family, and Sam Spade has to deal with her, as he finds out that her story was false, and the she is one of the players in an international quest for a mysterious and powerful falcon which has a history linked to the Templar knights of Malte, and Charles V of Spain.

Sam Spade played beautifully by Humphrey Bogart, is the center of this story, he is both corageous and ruthless with a fearless attitude and an obvious despise and a fearless attitude towards the underworld people and the guns they carry sometimes in both pockets of their trenchcoats.

So many famous detective artifacts originate in here, the whole trenchcoat, hat, pretending to read a newspaper thing come from her, it's much more amazing knowing that it was John Huston's first movie, but the word is that he worked and planned his movie extensivly, and frankly the work shows, because the movie advances like a clockwork.

The characters are the true force of the film, from the sinister kingpin Kasper "Fatman"Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet) or the effiminate Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre), or the fatman's bodyguard Wilmer, not forgetting the Femme Fatale (Mary Astor) and of course the attractive secretary, their distinctive stories and their fatal attraction towards the Falcon, which leads to a distinctive end scene which could possible be an early ancestor to the famous Mexican standoff.

The Cinematography is so inventive either, with the use of unusual Camera Angles, and the tradmarked Low Key look of the Noir Genre, especially one scene where Spade Follows Gutman while he explains the story of the Falcon, this scene is a must see for all the movie lovers, it's so fluid that you might even be attracted into it, and not even notice it.

As Jay-Z said "what more can i say", this movie is a must see for the Noir lovers, the cinema lovers, the litterature lovers, and everybody who loves brilliant art, and you will probably know why this movie was so influencial that they named a nuclear bomb after one of it's characters !