Nicky Katt
Occupation
Actor
Behind the Candelabra Trailer
Liberace was an American pianist and entertainer well-known for his flamboyant lifestyle and the sense of grandiose he carried about with him. His personal life was embroiled in scandal with rumours of homosexuality which he vehemently denied. While everyone saw him as a figure of extravagance and individuality, behind closed doors was a turbulent relationship with a young chauffeur 39 years his junior. Scott Thorson became an important figure in Liberace's life; not only as a driver, but also like a son, a brother and a best friend. They embarked on a 5 year affair that saw Liberace persuade Scott into facial surgery to resemble himself, something which led to a desperate struggle with drugs on Scott's part and many a fiery argument between them. Just what was life for Liberace like behind the glitz and glamour of his luxurious existence?
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Grindhouse Review
Excellent
Longtime buddies Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have worked together before (Four Rooms, Sin City), but this takes it to the next level. Grindhouse is their shared B-movie fantasy: a three-hour, bare-knuckled double feature epic, an unapologetic celebration of '70s-era hardcore schlock that's authentic, witty beyond expectation, and unerringly crowd-pleasing.
In a recent TV interview, Tarantino said he and Rodriguez had always wished those low-budget flicks were as good as their posters -- and they set out to achieve that, decades after the movies' heyday. With an obvious passion for the genre, the pair has recreated the experience of being at some cheap Texas drive-in with two features, fake coming attractions, missing reels, local ads, and announcements from theater management. Even if you don't catch on to everything, just watching the package is a complete thrill.
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The Limey Review
Good
Part of me feels like I didn't really get The Limey. Though it's a spare 85 minutes, director Steven Soderbergh always has a trick or two up his sleeve, and I was sure some twists were in store for me.
Witness Out of Sight, with criminal and cop falling into an unlikely romance. Witness Sex, Lies, and Videotape, which broke the indie film scene wide open. Witness Schizopolis - you know, all of it.
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Secondhand Lions Review
OK
Like a similar creature that patrols a certain Yellow Brick Road, Tim McCanlies' Secondhand Lions is in dire need of a shot of courage. It's scary to think of how much better this king of the jungle could've been had it possessed the sharp teeth of its animal namesake and took a serious bite out of the plump themes of family greed, lost love and misspent youth. What we're left with are recycled kitten swipes taken by a family-friendly charmer that's content to coast by on the casting coup of landing Michael Caine and Robert Duvall under one cinematic roof.
Shy, bookish, and firmly implanted in his social shell, young Walter (Haley Joel Osment) receives a wake-up call when he's unceremoniously dumped off with his two great uncles Garth (Caine) and Hub (Duvall). It could be for a few days but might be for a few months, his mother (Kyra Sedgwick) tells him. Oh, and the two eccentric curmudgeons reportedly are millionaires, so if Walter can figure out where they're stashing their money before mom returns, all the better.
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Waking Life Review
By Max Messier
Essential
Today, most films are bloated, uninteresting, narrative-driven drivel, filled with beautiful people, a hit soundtrack, and closely following the storyline of some bestseller close enough so that it doesn't offend a legion of Oprah's Book Club readers. Waking Life is something altogether different, a work of abstract art that recalls Buñuel, Lynch, and Cocteau.
Most people will not understand Waking Life. Some will find it to be one of the most brilliant pieces of film ever produced. I found it to be beyond words; a combination of film, groundbreaking computer animation, and a difficult and profane script that produces a sublime interpretation of existence.
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Speakeasy Review
OK
Here's something I didn't know: Those Project Greenlight people not only made the awful Stolen Summer during that first season. They also made the runner up, a movie called Speakeasy. This one Miramax couldn't be coaxed into releasing in theaters: It arrives on DVD three years later.Now that the Greenlight formula is well established, it comes as no surprise to find Speakeasy falling right in line with the films we've seen before. It's basically a family drama, it has elements of a period piece scattered throughout, it's got a disabled person or two, and its screenplay eventually wraps around to where things began. Simple, small, and manipulative, this is what Project Greenlight has become all about: It's the Lifetime Network of the indie cinema movement.
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Full Frontal Review
Excellent
For the uninitiated who know Steven Soderbergh only as the auteur behind such delights as Traffic and the Ocean's Eleven remake, know that Soderbergh was once far better known as a god of the indie film scene, the man behind movies like sex, lies & videotape, King of the Hill, and Schizopolis.
Like King of the Hill and the groundbreaking videotape, some of this work is genius.
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Boiler Room Review
OK
A Generation X cautionary tale about greed and impatience, "Boiler Room" is a sharp-edged, adrenaline-driven movie that takes place in the eat-or-be-eaten world of crooked stock trading.
Populated by 25-year-old, overnight millionaires who wear their testosterone on the sleeves of their tailored Armani suits, this is an imposing, vigorous and pulsating picture that could have been mighty and portentous if writer-director Ben Younger hadn't cribbed half the script from "Wall Street" and "Glengarry Glen Ross."
Giovanni Ribisi ("The Mod Squad") plays an unscrupulous college dropout looking to make a quick buck with an underground casino he runs from his rented row house. But he starts seeing much bigger dollar signs when a newly-rich (and Ferrari-driving) acquaintance recruits him to cold-call moneyed suckers and pitch them investments for his suspicious brokerage startup.
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Waking Life Review
Very Good
Watching "Waking Life" is like eavesdropping on a theoretical discourse between Kierkegaard and Kerouac, while standing in a modern art museum as the paintings come to life and melt into your visual cortex.
An eye-popping, mind-blowing, groundbreaking piece of stream-of-consciousness pop-art philosophy, director Richard Linklater has created a film that turns the notions of dreaming and reality inside out, both visually and conceptually, while telling an absorbing tale of a off-beat teenage boy (Wiley Wiggins) trying to wrap his head around a ponderous waking dream from which he can't seem to escape.
Linklater ("Slacker," "SubUrbia") shot the film on digital video with dozens of actors (some of note, some unknown) playing nameless denizens of the real world and of the kid's subconscious. They're characters from whom he soaks up random abstract ideas on everything from transcendence and reincarnation to collective memory to the existence of free will.
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