Jonathan Rosenbaum's Blog: jonathanrosenbaum.com, page 57

Stupidity as Redemption [FORREST GUMP]

From the Chicago Reader (July 8, 1994). Also reprinted in  my collection Movies as Politics. — J.R.

** FORREST GUMP (Worth seeing)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Written by Eric Roth
With Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, Sally Field, Michael Humphreys, and Hanna Hall.
In the opening shot of Forrest Gump – a movie that might be described [...]

Jacqueline Susann’s Once is Not Enough

From Monthly Film Bulletin, August 1975, Vol. 42, No. 499. — J.R.

Jacqueline Susann’s Once is Not Enough



U. S.A., 1974 Director: Guy Green





Cert--AA. dist–CIC. p.c–Paramount Pictures. In association with

Sujac Productions and Aries Films. exec. p–Irving Mansfield. p–Howard

W. Koch. p. manager–Howard W. Koch Jnr. asst. d–Howard W. Koch

Jnr., Lee Rafner. sc–Julius J. Epstein. Based on the [...]

Beyond Bush-Bashing [BOB ROBERTS]

From the Chicago Reader (September 25, 1992). — J.R.

BOB ROBERTS
*** (A must-see)
Directed and written by Tim Robbins
With Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, Ray Wise, Gore Vidal, Alan Rickman, Bob Balaban, John Cusack, Susan Sarandon, Peter Gallagher, James Spader, and Fred Ward.

With Unforgiven unexpectedly topping the box office charts and Bush bashing so popular now that even [...]

The Way We Were

From American Film (April 1982). — J.R.







The Film in History: Restaging the Past by Pierre Sorlin. Barnes & Noble, $21.50.
Feature Films as History edited by K.R.M. Short. University of Tennessee Press,
$ 16.50.
Vietnam on Film: From “The Green Berets” to “Apocalypse Now” by Gilbert Adair. Proteus, $13.95.





What is a historical film? Sociologist and cultural historian Pierre [...]

The Human Touch [MEN IN BLACK & CONTACT]

From the Chicago Reader (July 11, 1997). I haven’t yet seen the second Men in Black sequel, assuming that will, but what the hell — there’s a long summer ahead. — J.R.


Men in Black
Rating *** A must see
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
Written by Ed Solomon
With Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Linda Fiorentino, Vincent D’Onofrio, Rip Torn, [...]

Bene’s Salome and Chabrol’s Nada

From Oui (June 1974). –- J.R.






Salome. Meet Carmelo Bene, a vital figure in the Italian avant-garde whose
introduction to American moviegoers is long overdue. Salome, freely adapted
from the Oscar Wilde play, is the latest and perhaps the most ravishing of his
lavish camp spectacles. (Earlier efforts include Our Lady of the Turcs, Don
Giovanni, and One Hamlet [...]

Sex Drive [on CRASH]

From the Chicago Reader (March 21, 1997). — J.R.

CRASH
Rating *** A must see
Directed and written by David Cronenberg
With James Spader, Deborah Kara Unger, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Rosanna Arquette, Peter MacNeill, Yolanda Julian, and Cheryl Swarts.

“Throughout Crash I have used the car not only as a sexual image, but as a total metaphor for man’s [...]

Glissements Progressifs du Plaisir & Don’t Touch the White Woman

I suspect that the easiest money I’ve ever made in my
entire life as a writer was the year I mainly supported
myself, 1974-75, during my fifth and final year of living
in Paris, by writing capsule film reviews for a monthly
magazine in English called Oui — a joint publishing
effort of Hugh Hefner [...]

Hook and Crook [HOOK & BUGSY]

From the Chicago Reader (December 20, 1991). — J.R.


HOOK
** (Worth seeing)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Written by Jim V. Hart, Malia Scotch Marmo, and Nick Castle
With Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, Maggie Smith, Caroline Goodall, and Charlie Korsmo.
BUGSY
*** (A must-see)
Directed by Barry Levinson
Written by James Toback
With Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel, [...]

On Alain Resnais

Written to introduce a dossier in Farsi on Alain Resnais prepared by Ehsan Khoshbakht in March 2012. — J.R.







Alain Resnais is clearly one of our greatest living filmmakers. But he’s also one of the most elusive, for a number of reasons. He started out as the most international of all the French New Wave artists, [...]