As maybe the only men’s magazine reviewer who is also an outspoken fan of film musicals, I’m still not sure what to make of the genre’s apparent resurgence. Actually, I’m not sure if it’s an actual resurgence or a series of mutations, a Darwinian attempt to adapt the musical for survival in a rapidly changing environment. “Romance & Cigarettes” is one of those mutations. It’s not quite stillborn, but don’t expect it to produce viable offspring. Written and directed by actor John Turturro (with an “executive produced” assist from Joel and Ethan Coen), “Romance & Cigarettes” brings us James Gandolfini…
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.
The cinema bad-boy whose half-demented narratives tortured Emily Watson, Bjork and Nicole Kidman, in the controversial melodramas, “Breaking the Waves,” “Dancer in the Dark” and “Dogville,” does something really strange in “The Boss of It All” – screwball comedy. Even stranger, writer-director Lars von Trier’s set-up is almost high-concept – “The Office” meets “Tootsie,” sans drag and with subtitles. The emotionally needy lawyer-owner (Peter Gantzler) of a Danish IT company is too softhearted to take on the less pleasant tasks involved with being the big boss. To get around this, he invents a fictional absentee “boss of it all” to send…
A remarkable and stylish blend of sentiment, wit, brutal social commentary, and bone-crunching violence, “A Dirty Carnival” might appear to be fable about the dangers of the gangster lifestyle. Actually, it’s about the soul-killing potential of careerism. If ever there was a person whose career and emotional life don’t quite mesh, its 29-year-old Byeong-du (Zo In-Song). Unafraid to use a baseball bat or a steel bar on rival gang members or frightening intimidation tactics on debtors to his gang’s loan-sharking service, off the job he’s the kind of dependable, gentle soul you’d probably trust to watch over a three-year-old –…
At one point or another, just about everyone imagines committing suicide; after all, it’s the most obvious way to completely escape from life’s problems. Well, that just won’t work if you happen to end up in the afterlife posited in Goran Dukic’s darkly good-natured black comedy. Based on a story by Israeli author Etgar Karet, “Wristcutters” brings us Patrick Fugit (“Almost Famous”) as Zia, a New Jersey slacker who, after being dumped by his girlfriend (Leslie Bibb), slashes his wrists…only to find himself in an alternate universe populated by fellow suicides. Not so much hell, or limbo, but a reasonable…