April 4, 1996
The Hapless Child (1996) **
A mean little girl would like to be an only child, so she disposes of her siblings one by one. That's the family values for you.
Marylou (1996) **
Seduced by a mysterious femme fatale, our hero travels through different realms. A parody of "The Wizard Of Oz", full of perverse innuendos. Directed by Todd Kurtzman and Danny Shorago.
Garden Of Ecos (1996) **
Plants and animals living in a peaceful garden find themselves under assault from evil predators. A puppet-animation film that uses figures made out of cotton fibre, coloured with vegetable dyes.
Die Hard In Under Two Minutes (1996) **
This cartoons is quite violent, but it manages to temper its gory excesses with some humor and intelligence.
Wat's Pig (1996) **
A claymation cartoon set in the Middle Ages. The twin brother of a prince is raised as a peasant. An Aardman production from United Kingdom, directed by Peter Lord. An Academy Award nominee.
West Of Eden (1996) *
Yves Laferriere composes music for films. Daniel Langlois is a computer graphics designer. Together, they created this impressionistic film full of symbolic imagery.
March 3, 1996
Une Fille de la campagne (1996) ***
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Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Postmoderna i pokropek (1996) ***
"Malkontent" ("I po balu") **
"Cyniczna uczta etnografow TZG" *
"Gdzie slusznosc" ("Ku pokrzepieniu serc") **
"L'Amour malade" *
"Na naszej parafii" **
"Nie wystarczy" **
Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Zmiana na lepsze (1996) ***
"Wiosna" ("Ryba brzana kielbik") ***
"Nie ubrana" **
"Piaskownica" ("Skumbrie w tomacie") **
"Tele mele ideolo" **
"Za stolem" **
"Ach bum cyk cyk" *
February 2, 1996
Primal Fear (1996) **
Edward Norton gives an excellent, Oscar-nominated performance as a young man accused of savagely murdering an archbishop.
One Fine Day (1996) **
Charming little romantic comedy starring Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney. Dialogues are weak, but the cast is very strong.
Mother Night (1996) **
An American spy pretends to be a Nazi sympatizer. Or is that the other way around ?
Mother (1996) **
Debbie Reynolds is surprisingly sexy and sympathetic playing Albert Brooks' mother.
Kansas City (1996) **
Superb jazz music greatly enchances this otherwise cliched Robert Altman's film about a kidnapping in Kansas City during mid-term elections in 1934.
Across The Sea Of Time (1996) **
An IMAX 3-D film about the history of New York City. A visually marvelous film.
Abusers: A Film About Incest (1996) **
Testimonies of real-life pedophiles, who had intimate sexual relations with their daughters. Unusual documentary film, very shocking.
Dragonheart (1996) **
A valiant knight (Dennis Quaid) forms an alliance with a brave dragon (voiced by Sean Connery) to defeat an evil king (David Thewlis). It's an uneven film. The dragon is fantastic and there are some amusing situations, but the story leaves much to be desired.
The Craft (1996) **
Four high-school girls learn about witchcraft and get even with their mean schoolmates.
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) **
There is an intriguing premise (inspired by Luc Besson's "Nikita"), but action scenes are unremarkable. Boring villains.
Lone Star (1996) **
Sheriff of a small Texas border town investigates a murder that occured almost forty years earlier.
Jingle All The Way (1996) **
Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking for an elusive Turbo Man in this amusing, fast-paced film about Christmas, toy merchandizing and hero worshipping.
Jerry Maguire (1996) **
A sport agent (Tom Cruise) is fired from his job and falls in love with his secretary (Renee Zellweger).
I'M Not Rappaport (1996) **
Herb Gardner's ode to an old Communist (Walter Matthau), still faithful to the cause, still causing trouble, still fighting against oppression. A wry comedy set in the Central Park.
Ghosts Of Mississippi (1996) **
Yet another film about a white lawyer bravely fighting against racism. But since it's based on a true story, it's arguably less objectionable than, say, "A Time To Kill". James Woods gives an excellent performance as a racist murderer finally convicted after more than three decades.
Get On The Bus (1996) **
Didactic, often unnecessarily melodramatic film about a group of black men travelling by bus from Los Angeles to Washington for the Million Men March in 1995. Director Spike Lee's approach lacks subtlety - too much is spelled out, rather than being suggested or implied.
Manny and Lo (1996) **
Funny film about two young girls who kidnap an older woman. One of Scarlett Johansson's first films.
Looking For Richard (1996) **
Half an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Richard III", half a documentary about Al Pacino adapting that play. Self-reflexive, but not as good as Richard Loncraine's 1995 version.
Unhook The Stars (1996) **
Nice film about a widow (Gena Rowlands), her two grown-up children and her friends.
2 Days In The Valley (1996) **
A clear rip-off of "Pulp Fiction". Similar violence, similar plot twists, similar sense of humor. All it's lacking is a talented director.
The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996) **
Michael Lehmann's most conventional film. It's a romantic comedy about two friends, one smart, but plain, the other gorgeous and dumb Janeane Garofalo and Uma Thurman) who fall in love with the same man. Garofalo gives a great performance, but it's absurd to consider her as a plain girl (she's as gorgeous as Thurman).
Trees Lounge (1996) **
Steve Buscemi stars in and directs this bittersweet comedy about a sympathetic looser.
Star Trek: First Contact (1996) **
The first "Star Trek" feature without the original cast. The magic is gone.
The Spitfire Grill (1996) **
Until the last half an hour, it's a deeply moving, beautiful film about a young girl trying to find her place in the world. Unfortunately, an overly dramatic ending betrays the spirit of the film.
Sleepers (1996) **
"The Boys Of St Vincent On Mean Streets". Sexually abused in a reform school, four friends plot revenge.
Rowing Through (1996) **
Aspiring to be another "Personal Best", the film combines sports with sex. A sado-masochistic angle is mentioned, but never followed through. In any case, rowing is hardly a cinematic sport. Still, the film is far better than it has any right to be. Quite watchable.
Ransom (1996) **
Mel Gibson plays a millionaire whose son is kidnapped, but who refuses to pay the ransom. Instead, he puts a bounty on the kidnappers' heads. Suspenseful thriller, severly undermined by many plot inconsistencies. Why, for example - SPOILER ALERT - Gibson's son doesn't recognize the kidnapper's voice during the rescue, but does recognize it a few days later at the penthouse ?
Beautiful Girls (1996) **
Natalie Portman steals the movie with her touching portrayal of a precocious 13-year old girl who flirts with 29-year old Timothy Hutton. This charming little film also features Rosie O'Donnell, Michael Rapaport, Mira Sorvino, Lauren Holly, Martha Plimpton and Uma Thurman.
At Sundance (1996) **
A series of interviews with filmmakers at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Tom DiCillo's broadsides against Quentin Tarantino are among the highlights.
January 1, 1996
Caught (1996) *
Virtually a remake of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" with a large dose of "Oedipus Rex" thrown in for good measure.
The Evening Star (1996) *
A pointless sequel to "Terms Of Endearment" (1983). Miranda Richardson steals the movie from Shirley MacLaine.
The Funeral (1996) *
Gangster film about three brothers (Christopher Walken, Chris Penn and Vincent Gallo).
The First Wives Club (1996) *
Three scorned women (Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn) get even with their ex-husbands. This film manages to be both pro-feminist and misogynist at the same time.
Daylight (1996) *
Pirotechnically impressive, but otherwise extremely mediocre film with Sylvester Stallone rescuing people from a collapsed Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey.
Centerfold (1996) *
Directed by Kelly Cauthen. With Gabriella Hall and Cheryl Bartel. Young women agree to pose nude for men's magazines in order to further their acting careers. Soft-core film with a well developped...script.
The Cable Guy (1996) *
Boring, unpleasant and badly made film starring Jim Carrey as a crazy cable guy who stalks Matthew Broderick.
The Bloody Child (1996) *
Experimental film about a US Marine killing his wife. Horribly boring, very pretentious and completely pointless.
Screwed (1996) *
Documentary film about Al Goldstein, publisher of a porno mag and host of a raunchy TV show.
A Time To Kill (1996) *
Vigilante justice is condoned in this rather irresponsible (though well directed) film.
Walking And Talking (1996) *
Anne Heche and Catherine Keener stars in this slow-moving slice-of-life drama about friendship and love.
The Whole Wide World (1996) *
Renee Zellweger stars as a girlfriend of a comic book author from Texas.
The Portrait Of A Lady (1996) *
An adaptation of Henry James' novel about a rich American woman (Nicole Kidman) who marries an evil European man (John Malkovich).
101 Dalmatians (1996) *
A pointless live-action remake of the 1961 Disney animated classic, directed by Stephen Herek. The story is virtually identical - Cruella DeVil wants a fur coat so badly, she kidnaps a bunch of adorable dalmatian puppies from Anita and Roger. The only interesting aspect is a changed nature of the relationship between Anita and Cruella. As wrote Anthony Lake in "New Yorker", "the new film promotes Cruella from Anita's school friend to her employer: DeVil is now a fashion house, and for a while, as Close smirked at Richardson, crooned admiration for her sketches, and urged her never to forsake the thrills of a career for the sake of a mere man, I caught a definite aroma of sexual power play. Richardson's lowered eyelashes are so redolent of the demure, pre-paranoid Princess of Wales, Close's lipstick is of such an alarming and predatory scarlet, and Roger is so indisputably a wimp that Herek might as well have ditched the whole mutt motif and concentrated on Cruella's master plan to lure Anita into a fur-lined boudoir and put her on a tight leash. Sadly, it was not to be; from here on, sex never raises its muzzle ...". Too bad, lesbian sadomasochistic hanky-panky would have greatly enliven the proceedings.
No Sex Last Night (1996) *
Experimental film about an American man and a French woman who travel across America and get married in Las Vegas.
Mars Attacks ! (1996) *
This film is so incredibly bad, it makes "Independence Day" look like a great masterpiece. It even makes "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look like a classic comedy by comparaison. A terrible waste of great talent, both in front and behind the camera. Boring, stupid and totally forgettable.
Girl 6 (1996) *
Spike Lee is capable of the best ("Do The Right Thing", "Jungle Fever") and the worst ("School Daze", "Clockers"), but "Girl 6" is actually worst than the worst.
The Ghost And The Darkness (1996) *
Two ferocious lions are hunted by two Great White Hunters (Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer).
Big Night (1996) *
After a celebration of the French cuisine in Denmark (1987's "Babette's Feast"), Japanese noodle soups (1988's "Tampopo"), Mexican love potions (1992's "Like Water For Chocolate") and Chinese banquets in Taiwan (1994's "Eat Drink Man Woman"), here we have an Italian feast in United States. But unlike its brilliant predecessors, this film is not very appetizing.
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