dvr this Turner Classic Movies, Tuesday, August 13, 1:15am TCM has The Hunger listed as a “horror” film, but it’s not. The movie is somewhat suspenseful, but it’s certainly not scary. It just happens to be about vampires. Really, really, really sexy vampires. Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie are a centuries-old vampire couple until Deneuve…
When I was reading comics as a teenager, I was one of the few readers who did not claim that Wolverine was his favorite member of the X-Men. I found him a somewhat shallow construction, gruff and violent, with a mostly golden heart. The adamantium-clawed, cigar-chomping Canadian seemed obvious to me, the kind of character…
As I sat down to write my review of Fruitvale Station, hundreds of people were marching past my building, drumming, cheering and chanting, among other things, “Justice for Trayvon.” They could have just as easily been chanting, “Justice for Oscar.” Fruitvale Station is the story of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old black man from Hayward who…
dvd of the week If you forget that you hate Tom Cruise, you may like him in Oblivion, which is a serious, artful science fiction film hidden behind the veneer of a shoot-‘em-up blockbuster. Cruise plays Jack Harper, who along with his girlfriend Victoria (a most excellent Andrea Riseborough), is tasked with managing and repairing…
Sister Act the Musical hits town at Broadway San Diego Civic Theatre July 30-Aug. 4, and is based on the wildly popular 1992 film of the same name. Academy Award Winner Whoopie Goldberg, who starred in the film, wears the hat of producer this time around. The show got its out of town tryout right…
Last year, when Nat Faxon and Jim Rash accepted the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay with Alexander Payner for The Descendants, a bunch of people watching the show said, “Wait, those guys?” Faxon is a dopey-faced blond who has appeared in countless TV sitcoms and B-movies, and bald and awkward; Rash plays the hapless…
dvd of the week San Diego was never given the opportunity to see this road trip film about two aging lesbians, Dot and Stella (Oscar winners Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker), on the run from a nursing home. The only way they can prevent Dot from being forced into elder care by her granddaughter is…
dvr this Turner Classic Movies, Saturday, July 20, 5 p.m. Among the worst holes in my film watching history is Gaslight, the movie that gave us the term “gaslighting,” which means creating an elaborate lie to fool someone, ultimately driving them mad. The film is considered one of the greatest ever made, with (gay)…
For the last few weeks, I have been passing movie theaters advertising Before Midnight, the third in the series of talky romances starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. I’ve heard that it’s fantastic, the best of the three; and the other two are considered minor classics. But I didn’t go. I am so sick of…
I have been travelling with my partner, and at one point, we ran out of clean socks and underwear and the only place open and nearby with such items was Urban Outfitters. Normally, I don’t shop there because the store is mostly owned by a man who donated $13,000 to Rick Santorum; also their clothes…
