Dennis D. McDonald’s MOVIE REVIEWS
This section contains links to my occasional movie & DVD reviews. A complete index is here.
What a refreshing film this is! It's unlike any kids' movie I've ever seen.
Friday, September 30, 2005 at 07:34AM in Quirky This 1989 movie tells three stories about people in Memphis whose lives almost intersect based on their staying one night in the same seedy hotel. The first story is about a young Japanese couple, visiting Memphis by train, who are paying homage to the roots of rock and roll. The young woman reveres Elvis while the young man reveres Carl Perkins.
Monday, August 8, 2005 at 10:36AM in Quirky At the end of Steamboy the credits roll over a series of detailed pictures that project the main characters of the movie into the future. We see Ray Steam’s inventions unfold even further, and they include flight and airplanes. And we see Scarlett defiantly staring into the camera as well as she shares Ray’s future.
So don't just expect blood and guts with this movie. There's serious well-made weirdness going on here.
Monday, April 25, 2005 at 08:12PM in Quirky This movie is like a breath of fresh air. The story is original, the acting is uniformly engaging, the dialog is witty, and it looks cheap in all the right places. It’s an in-your-face-reminder that you don’t need a bezillion dollars to create something fresh, entertaining, and original.
Monday, March 14, 2005 at 09:53PM in Comedy, Quirky, Science Fiction I'm a big fan of "quirky" movies, but this one didn't tickle my funnybone. Nor did it make me pause and think. By all rights it should have, given the wonderful cast. I mean, Isabelle Huppert and Tippi Hedren in the same film -- what could be more sublime?
Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at 11:13PM in Quirky This is my first Maddin film. What first came to mind as I was watching it, trying to figure out what to compare it to, was "This looks like what the residents of Nightmare Before Christmas's Halloween Town would have dreamed up had someone asked them to create a sensitive comedy about human sadness."
Wednesday, February 9, 2005 at 01:36PM in Quirky I saw this on the Sundance channel, so I didn’t get a chance to see any DVD extras. Still, that’s quite enough. As a great fan of animation I love Plympton’s quirky, jiggly style, and his lewd, schoolboy humor sometimes transcends its frequently sophomoric origins. (Really, how many visual representations of an erection can you think of?)