Tom Hanks’ directorial debut, That Thing You Do! (B+) is a light, fizzy film about the meteoric rise of a one-hit wonder band to the height of fame and fortune. Hanks as manager and the bright young cast he has assembled are a delight to watch as their characters sort out relationships once the band gets big. Filled with great music and period detail, this is a rich sleeper comedy.
Rush Performance Buoys “Shine”
Great music, superior performances and an engaging true life story of a pianist who suffers a mental breakdown culminate in a touching experience in Scott Hicks’ Shine (B+). Most of the film’s moments are genuinely mobbing, and Geoffrey Rush is a revelation.
“Mother” (1996) is Comedy Bliss
The auteur of anxiety Albert Brooks stars in and directs Mother (A-), a film about a twice-divorced writer who must move back in with his mom. She is magnificently played by the legendary Debbie Reynolds. This generation gap comedy presents an odd couple worth watching.
“People vs. Larry Flynt” is Fascinating Free Speech Movie
Milos Forman’s The People vs. Larry Flynt (A+) challenges viewers to re-think views on free speech as its antihero protagonist played by Woody Harrelson is a notorious peddler of pornography. His stripped bride played by Courtney Love helps him mount an unexpected defense in an unorthodox look at the limits of decency and how people in America can express themselves. Harrelson and Love are magnificent in their roles. Forman makes films very infrequently, but when he does, he generally contributes mightily to America’s film canon.
“Evita” is a Respectable Movie Musical Revolution
Pop goes the nation as Madonna assumes the role of Eva Peron in director Alan Parker’s faithful adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera Evita (A-). This sung-through political biography tells the rags-to-riches tale of Argentina’s most celebrated first lady with lush period detail, smashing musical numbers and surprisingly good sing-acting. Madonna was born for the role and acquits herself nicely with a pop-rock take on the typically Broadway belter role. Antonio Banderas is charismatic as Che, the omnipresent narrator. A meditation on stardom and how close we get to our political leaders before we realize they too are human, it’s a powerful musical epic.
“From Dusk Till Dawn” Gets Grisly
Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn (D+) pairs George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino in a poorly-conceived vampire slasher film. Although some suspense and stunts are funny and sustained, most of it is unsavory and unsatisfying.
“The Birdcage” is Hilarious Comedy of Manners
Robin Williams and Nathan Lane are birds of a feather in Mike Nichols’ lightweight comedy The Birdcage (B), based on the French classic La Cage Aux Folles. Their tale of an alternative American family is filled with larger-than-life gags. But for all the preening queens run amuck, there are actually some nice domestic moments between the central couple and the son they reared together that blaze some trails on acceptance. It’s super-funny and proof that it takes all types to make a family.
“Fargo” a Comic Noir Triumph
They say that God is in the details. If this is the case, filmmaking brothers Joel and Ethan Coen find a multitude of moviemaking miracles in the strange terrain of Fargo (A-), a curious murder mystery full of sardonic humor, offbeat characters and unconventional wisdom. This is a great case of bleak chic, from the super-serious pregnant protagonist superbly played by Frances McDormand to ransoms, outlaws, a triple homicide and a wood chipper. In both their verbal and film language, the Coen Brothers’ Dakota pop is sure to take you where you’ve never been before.
“Flirting With Disaster” Uproariously Funny
Ben Stiller headlines an all-star cast in the hilarious domestic comedy of errors, David O. Russell’s Flirting with Disaster (A-). His adopted character’s cross-country search for his biological parents leads him hilariously into the arms of drug-dealers, FBI agents and a merry band of fellow travelers played by comic legends ranging from Lily Tomlin to George Segal and Mary Tyler Moore. Moore is outrageously tart playing against type. The story has a way of getting more and more perilous from what seemed like a pretty simple premise, and Russell’s dark searches within Pandora’s Box lead to some awfully funny findings about love and relationships in the modern age.
“Twister” an Average Supernatural Thriller
Jan de Bont’s Twister (C-) is perpetually stuck in the suck zone. Cardboard characters played by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt seem stationed in their roles to be ready when the big tornado effects come in to do their magic. It’s all a downward spiral.
Original 1996 “Mission: Impossible” Enjoyable
Brian de Palma’s cross-continental action film Mission: Impossible (B+) is a bit heavy on the high-tech mumbo jumbo and doesn’t really give its wooden lead (Tom Cruise) much character development. But as a sturdy summer blockbuster based on a classic TV show, it holds its own. There are some dazzling set pieces and stunts, the best including Cruise’s hero-turned-marionette moment when he hovers by wires into a sound-sensitive computer chamber to pull off a vital hack. The film counts on the art of the double cross to up the ante of its complex subplots. Much of this thriller is inventive and commercial.
“The Rock” (1996) is Fun Alcatraz Action Film
Director Michael Bay’s Alcatraz redemption takes place as Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage achieve breakout success in the action-filled confines of a notorious prison in The Rock (B+). This is an action lover’s wild ride that doesn’t give up for a single frame of Bay’s chronicle of escape artists in full-throttle momentum. The film compensates for implausibility with sheer action sensation.
Related link: One of my jobs in the 1990’s was developing the in-store magazine and Website for a video rental chain called MOOVIES. Here’s one of the few remaining sidebars: A run-down of Sean Connery’s movies: Link here.