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Reviews
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| Revolutionary Road | Joseph Belanger
December 2009
Movie Entertainment
It’s beginning to look a lot like that massive holiday that falls near the end of December and drives ordinarily sane people to the brink of madness as they scurry about from store to store buying last-minute gifts to make sure that everything is merry and bright. I get stressed just thinking about it. So why not just kick back with a healthy mug of eggnog and enjoy these instead?
ANGELS IN AMERICA
Mike Nichols, the Oscar-winning director of THE GRADUATE, made this mini-series for HBO in 2005 and blew everyone away with it. Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize winning play about A.I.D.S. and America’s attitudes towards it is masterfully adapted for the screen by its original author and boasts an unbelievable cast. Seasoned veterans like Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson and Al Pacino continue to reinvent themselves while fresh faces like Mary-Louise Parker, Patrick Wilson and Jeffrey Wright announce their great potential.
(HBO, December 21-26)
EDWARD SCISSORHAND
I recently watched this Tim Burton classic for the first time in a decade and it’s still great nearly twenty years later. A young Johnny Depp plays Edward, a human experiment whose inventor (Vincent Price, in one of his last roles before his death) dies before he can finish him. As a result, Edward lives with scissors for hands. A moving fable about being different and being accepted while also a touching love story that makes me cry every time I see it. (MPix, December 8, 24)
I’M NOT THERE
Todd Haynes’s Bob Dylan biopic is not everyone’s cup of cider. In it, Dylan is portrayed by a number of actors, ranging from the late Heath Ledger to the great Cate Blanchett (who scored an Oscar nod for her performance). His life story is broken down into personas and time periods and subsequently told in a mostly absurdist fashion. Haynes redefines the biopic genre and if you like trying new things, this one is as fresh as they come. (TMN, December 3, 7, 11, 16, 23, 27)
NORTH BY NORTHWEST
Although it is not considered to be one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best, North By Northwest is a great film and a product of Hitchcock’s greatest period, released just after VERTIGO and just before PSYCHO, in 1959. In this classic mistaken identity thriller, Cary Grant travels across the country to clear his name. Along the way, he meets Eva Marie Saint, gets attacked in a cornfield by a plane and finds himself hanging on for his life at the unforgettable Mount Rushmore climax. Recently restored, do not miss this brilliant caper. (MPix, December 10, 19, 31)
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
This Sam Mendes project wasn’t a big hit with critics or audiences when it was released last winter, but it should definitely not be discounted. TITANIC stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are reunited in this adaptation of the Richard Yates novel. On the surface, it might seem like another suburban melodrama, but underneath, it breathes with such fierce passion that its performances and the tension created cannot be forgotten. (TMN, December 29)
When I look back at what I’ve recommended you escape the holidays with, I can see that I’ve chosen some pretty dysfunctional options. But what are the holidays without some drama? At least this drama is not your own!
Joseph Belanger is a Toronto-based film critic who blogs at www.blacksheepreviews.com. He wishes you all a very happy and safe holiday.
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