Film Reviews by MCG

This is a truly terrible film and a stain on the glittering career of a great director. De Niro acts as if he is made entirely of plywood and Pinter's script is one of the worst ever committed to celluloid. It is as if a great Hollywood director was suddenly unsure of his talents, had seen all the fuss they were making of Bergman and hired a man who wrote more pauses than words to craft a non-story out of the unfinished Fitzgerald novel. One of those puzzling instances where so many great talents combine to make something truly abysmal. 

One of the greatest of all Hollywood film noirs and a searing commentary on America.  Masterful direction by Lang, not a frame or a word of dialogue wasted. This is how to make a film. Highly Recommended.

This is an extraordinary film, probably Sirk's best film, and that is saying something. A wonderfully simple love story set among the ruins of Germany late in the war. Superbly directed, and the photography and cinemascope composition are exceptionally accomplished. Highly recommended.

Billy Wilder is my favourite director, and I have seen nearly all of his films and this is one of his last efforts. Avanti is charming and boasts fine performances from the ever-excellent Wilder regular Jack Lemmon and newcomer Juliet Mills. It is overlong as many critics have noted, and it is trying a bit too hard to be relevant to the liberated 70's with really rather gratuitious nudity and language. However it is a rather charming romantic comedy with a trademark Wilder "meet-cute" and lovely location photography in Italy. The dialogue is rather less snappy than peak-Wilder scripts and it does tend to drag a bit in places. I enjoyed it but would suggest it is a must only for Wilder completists like myself.

Time out of Mind is a rather fascinating cinematic experiment which lingers with you long afterwards. Richard Gere is superb as George a homeless man whose life is crumbling to dust in front of his eyes. I say "experiment" as this American film conforms to none of the classical rules of American cinema. It is like a fly-on-the-wall documentary on the homeless and certainly opens your eyes to the reality of life on the street. Check your dramatic expectations at the door and you will enjoy this compelling look at the American underclass.

This is a fascinating film which will live with long after it finishes. An interesting portrait of Turkey caught between the 21st and the 17th centuries. Amazingly shot, but not for those who like their movies crash bang wallop, this is a very slow character study of a group of middle-aged men and their relationships to other men and to (largely) unseen women.

This film is a joy. Extremely eccentric and offbeat, it is a wonderful character study of a young couple living in small town America. Highly recommended.

If you are a fan of Preminger's early noir films you will like this. Not quite as good as Where The Sidewalk Ends, but far superior to Fallen Angel and Whirlpool. Great performances from Mitchum and Simmons, great script and solid direction from Preminger. I think this film might have been cooked up as a sort of "homage" to the masterpiece that is Sunset Boulevard which was released a year earlier. It is not in that league, but it is a very solid and enjoyable film and Mitchum fans will enjoy seeing him in very similar territory to that seen in Out of the Past.

Another compelling Alex Gibney Doc. Einstein said he didn't know what weapons the Third World War would be fought with, but he said he knew the Fourth World War would be fought with sticks and stones. Now we know what weapons will be used to fight the next big wars: computers and internet connections. A must see expose on the kind of covert cyber-operations that will inform and infect all political conflict in the future.