A movie has to be pretty bad to make Diane Lane look bad.
Alas, “Paris Can Wait” is that movie.
Lane plays Anne, a chicly dressed accessory (read, wife) to power-player filmmaker, Michael (Alec Baldwin). He’s not a monster (well, not by Hollywood standards). Sure, he plays around and generally treats her more like a personal assistant than a wife (Where are my socks? Where are my pills?)). But at least he’s semi-conscious of the inequity and, in his way, values her.
“Wonder Woman” isn’t wonderful.
Okay, there, I said.
While the entire future of women in Hollywood is apparently riding on this femme-centric action flick (Variety-speak) and while the critics have raved and audiences have rallied, I just can’t join the celebration.
“Wonder Woman” is sturdy. It’s expensive. Its star, Gal Gadot (a former Miss Israel; who knew Wonder Woman was a nice Jewish girl?), is winning and hard-working.
Years ago, there was a documentary called “Searching for Debra Winger.”
Well, she’s been found. You just wish she’d been found in a better movie.
“The Lovers” is a comedy of eros. And errors. Mary (Winger) and Michael (Tracy Letts) have been together for eons. The spark hasn’t just gone out of their marriage; there’s not even any kindling left.
So both, on the sly, have taken lovers. He’s with a well-toned but unstable ballet teacher (Melora Walters); she’s with a charming but lightweight writer (Aidan Gillen from “Game of Thrones”). The joke, kinda, is that the two cheat-ees are similar, both being what you might call B minus/C plus level artistes (but pretty).
How could anyone ever hope to top the scene from “Alien” in which a slimy, gory, nasty thingie bursts out of John Hurt’s chest?
Well, you can’t. But Ridley Scott, who made the 1979 original, comes pretty damn close in “Alien Covenant,” his newest entry into the world of slimy, gory, nasty thingies.
Forget the old saying, “The Future is Now.” In “The Circle,” The Future is Yesterday.
A cautionary tale with a better set-up than pay-off, the movie makes merry fun of millennial Happy-Face careerism — but with a sinister subtext that becomes less of a laughing matter as the picture progresses. The problem is “The Circle” is never quite as ominous as it could be and the final scenes just sort of dribble away.
The last scenes of “The Lost City of Z” may haunt you for days. Weeks. Maybe months. They are as chilling, eerie and, yes, spiritual as anything at the movies in recent memory.
But no spoilers here. You’ll have to see for yourself. And you really should.
As I write this column, on the day before the presidential election, it is without knowing who will be leading our country for the next four years.
A comment I often heard during this election season, often with humor was: “If (fill in the blank) is elected president, I’m leaving the country.”
It just so happens that I’m trying to become a Spanish citizen – a move that speaks more to my heritage than my political beliefs.
