Ash Wednesday (2002)
DIRECTOR: Edward Burns
CAST: Edward Burns, Elijah Wood, Rosario Dawson, Oliver Platt, James Handy, Michael Mulhern
REVIEW:
Actor Edward Burns’ latest film as writer/director, like his 1998 drama Looking Back, is clearly an attempt to switch gears from romantic comedies into something more serious, but while Ash Wednesday clearly wants to be one of those Catholic guilt-suffused Irish-American mob melodramas, a moody gritty tale of guilt and redemption with fundamentally decent but damned characters seeking redemption but getting drawn back into the criminal lifestyle they tried to leave behind, it ends up being a lesser entry that has a feeling of being made by some film school students—-ambitious, not entirely untalented, but inexperienced and in over their heads—-trying to cosplay Scorsese-lite.
Continue readingThe Client (1994)
DIRECTOR: Joel Schumacher
CAST:
Brad Renfro, Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, Mary-Louise Parker, Anthony LaPaglia, Ossie Davis, J.T. Walsh, Bradley Whitford, Anthony Heald, William Sanderson, Kim Coates, Will Patton, Anthony Edwards, Micole Mercurio, William H. Macy, Ron Dean, Walter Olkewicz, David Speck
REVIEW:
The Client is a slickly-crafted thriller that is almost- but not quite- saved from its own accelerating plot unlikelihoods by a competent production and capable performances. Continue reading
The Godfather Part II (1974)
DIRECTOR: Francis Ford Coppola
CAST: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall, John Cazale, Talia Shire, Lee Strasberg
REVIEW:
A companion piece in the true sense of the word and regarded as arguably the best sequel ever made, The Godfather Part II (which was greenlit before the first movie was even released) only further deepens and enrichens the characters and themes from its predecessor while Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo weave an even more ambitious web. Like The Lord of the Rings, The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are less a film series than one combined continuous story rightfully taken as a whole.
Continue readingThe Godfather (1972)
DIRECTOR: Francis Ford Coppola
CAST: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, John Cazale
REVIEW:
Has any other motion picture defined a genre the way The Godfather did for the gangster film? Since its release in 1972 (receiving ten Oscar nominations and winning Best Picture), it has represented the gold standard to which all other mob movies are held. Yet The Godfather, adapted by Francis Ford Coppola from the novel by Mario Puzo (who also wrote the screenplay), is no mere gangland shoot-em-up (in fact, violence comes in short, jarring bursts, few and far between). What really grants the film its distinction is the core themes of family, an underlying character arc that ultimately resembles a Shakespearean tragedy, the careful technical accomplishment of the entire production, and the richness of Puzo’s script carefully weaving myriad subplots into a cohesive whole. Non-fans of the gangster movie genre might not be enthralled, and the nearly three hour runtime and slow burn pace represents a sizable commitment of time and attention, but for mob movie aficionados, this is as good as it gets, and skillful cinematic craftsmanship by any objective standard.
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