I wasn’t sure what to expect with this movie, but Breach promised spies, espionage and life-and-death situations, which it delivered. The way it did so, however, was what took me by surprise. Basically, the movie is a retelling of the 2001 discovery and capture of FBI mole Robert Hanssen, who after 25 years of spying on the Russians was found to be doing a little spying for them as well.
People either love or hate Troma team’s movies, and it’s pretty easy to make a case for both sides. Since 1974, the label run by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz has essentially defined the low-budget, cult-oriented exploitation film. On the one hand, it’s hard not to admire the good old American stick-to-it-ness of the prolific B-movie production and distribution company, and their independence from the film mainstream is unquestionable.
Piano Tuner of Earthquakes is the second full-length live-action film from the Quay brothers, a pair of identical twins better known for their weird, stop-motion animated shorts like The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb. And, judging by the outcome of this cumbersomely titled film, it might have been better if they had stuck to those.
I’d like to start by assuring you that Catch and Release is not the worst movie I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, that’s about all it has going for it. The film is the directorial debut of Susannah Grant, the screenwriter of Erin Brockovitch fame. It’s exactly the sort of weepy, overwrought romantic comedy-drama that one would expect from a movie titled Catch and Release.
David Lynch’s newest film, Inland Empire, concludes its weeklong run at Cinema 21 this Thursday. The three-hour-long epic may stand as his most cerebrally challenging work to date, as viewers scramble to make sense of the panoply of hallucinations, movies within movies, and hallucinations within movies that make up this latest opus.