In a March 2008 interview with David Brancaccio of PBS, documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson”) makes an obvious point we almost never hear: “The stated goal of Osama bin Laden and the goal of most terrorists is not to capture territory. It’s to use violence to provoke an overreaction by liberal democratic societies, to force us to undermine our own principles. In this case, you would have to say in the words of George Bush, mission accomplished.” In similar fashion, Gibney’s Oscar-winning documentary takes…
Author: Bob Westal
Bob Westal
Writer guy Bob Westal was literally born in Hollywood and has commented on the worlds of movies, popular culture, politics, and food ever since. His interest in cocktails is more recent, but he made up for lost time with hundreds of “Drink of the Week” blog posts for Bullz-Eye. In addition to writing and editing, Bob also talks a lot.
About five decades ago, a young, real-life MI6 spook named David Cornwell became irritated by the popularity of a certain pulp fictional assassin for Her Majesty’s Secret Service. He took the pen name John le Carré, and commenced writing about a world of hard-working, habitually depressed British spies without a license to do much of anything they weren’t specifically ordered to do. Though his first two novels were relatively conventional mysteries, his style quickly evolved into tales that were immensely closer to reality but, in their way, no less brutal than the violent escapades of James Bond. His tendency to…
“This place will make Abu Ghraib look like the Four Seasons. We’ll need a car battery, some wires, and someone who can REALLY point at genitalia.” – Montgomery Burns, “The Simpsons” What a difference a few digital photos can make. Mass kidnapping, physical and psychological torture of mostly innocent men, and a few odd murders by U.S. forces came to light during the spring of 2004 – all because of some pictures of prisoners and army personnel engaged in a grotesque form of psychosexual roleplaying. There was an investigation, and punishment was meted out to the very unsuccessful and amateurish…
The freewheeling heroine of this award-winning entry from Mike Leigh, England’s master of controlled cinematic improvisation, is intent on ensuring that her life will always be a comedy, but never a farce. We first meet Poppy (Sally Hawkins) drinking, dishing, and having silly fun with her friends. We soon learn, however, that while our 30-year-old protagonist is determined to have as much fun as possible, she’s anything but the irresponsible party girl she might seem. In fact, she’s a highly creative, exceptionally dedicated elementary schoolteacher – the kind we all wish we had. She’s also committed to learning, growing, and…
Of the millions of people who saw last year’s featherweight Shia LaBeouf suspense hit “Disturbia,” only a small number will ever realize that what they were viewing was essentially a remake — a fact which producer Steven Spielberg may eventually end up hearing about in court. Still, film fans should go straight to the source. Director D.J. Caruso’s teen trifle was a Big Mac – and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” is an adult-style full course steak dinner from the best restaurant you’ve ever been to. Simultaneously a devilish entertainment and a big-hearted work of art, my personal all-time favorite film…
“Psycho” and “The Birds” launched the modern horror film; “The 39 Steps” helped set the pattern for espionage thrillers; and “North by Northwest” created a template for action movies that lasts to this day. Nevertheless, shot for shot, no Alfred Hitchcock production has been copied as much as the stylistically visionary and deeply emotional “Vertigo.” This romantic-psychological thriller with gothic overtones is easily the most haunting and disturbing picture in the entire Alfred Hitchcock catalog. Traces of it can be seen in everything from “Basic Instinct” to David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive,” and countless other thrillers. The last of four films…
It might be a cinephile touchstone from Orson Welles, the most hallowed of all Hollywood mavericks. And, sure, it comes complete with a complex, novel-length making-of story that stretches over four decades. Still, it’s likely that the real reason this odd little thriller refuses to go away is that it was the first important film to combine grimly sensational (borderline-grindhouse) subject matter with A-list movie stars and Class A aesthetics. Even 50 years after studio heads lost patience and dumped it onto the bottom half of double bills, the final Hollywood film from Orson Welles is the opposite of ordinary.…
Without a doubt, the strangest thing about this lavish, six-year-old international cult hit (an eccentric blend of Hammer-style period horror and chop socky à la Française) is that it’s — yes — “inspired by true events.” Really. As “Brotherhood” gets under way, it’s the late 1760s and Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan), an emotionally scarred ex-soldier and macho-man action-guy naturalist, and his faithful Iroquois companion, Mani (Mark Dacascos), a cross between John Redcorn of “King of the Hill” and Bruce Lee, arrive from the court of King Louis in the redneck mountain province of Gevaudan to track down a…
The dramatic action of “Frozen River” opens with a close-up of Melissa Leo as trailer park mom Ray Eddy having her first cigarette of the day. The lines on her face are visible, some blood vessels too – maybe a hint of a pimple or two. Even though lots of people look worse than this first thing in the morning, and not only in trailer parks, seeing a woman look this unglamorous in a movie, even a modestly budgeted Sundance fave, is kind of shocking. It’s crucial, because this very unusual moment sets up everything that follows in this surprising…
In line with the conceit that it’s something like an opera, the original cut of “Moonstruck” opened with music from “La Boheme.” The result was, we are told, deadly. Test screening audiences thought they were watching a heavy-duty drama and refused to laugh. After Puccini was replaced with Dean Martin’s cheerful 1953 hit, “That’s Amore,” says director Norman Jewison, the audience realized they were seeing a comedy and the result was an Oscar-winning hit. Even so, some were never really in on the joke. The characters in “Moonstruck” think they’re living a grand tragedy, but they’re stuck in a light…