published by Barry Paris on February 4, 2011 - 12:00am
"To make God laugh, tell him your plans." -- Mexican proverb
Everything about "Biutiful" -- starting with its title -- is unnerving and idiosyncratic, as are all of virtuoso director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's tragic visions. His vision here concerns nothing less than a doomed man's struggle to reconcile fatherhood, love, crime, guilt, death and the afterlife.
published by Barry Paris on January 28, 2011 - 12:00am
The weird new sci-fi movie "Zenith" contains more implicit and explicit consumer warnings than a Viagra commercial.
The first is in the opening credits, where Vladan Nikolic is billed as "Experiment Supervisor," rather than director. Next comes a prefatory disclaimer: "The filmmakers shall not be liable under any legal theory for any direct, indirect or consequential damages that may be suffered by any viewers of this film in connection with, or as a result of, the information or sound or visuals herein."
published by Barry Paris on January 21, 2011 - 12:00am
"It is not our guns, our dogs or our wire that form your prison," the commandant informs his new arrivals, "it is Siberia" -- all 5 million ferocious square miles of it.
Escape? Total fantasy. If nature and minus-70-degree temperatures don't get you, the natives will. The bounty on their heads is a year's income for Siberian villagers or nomads, and the only "proof" needed to claim the reward is one hand or foot.
published by Barry Paris on January 13, 2011 - 12:00am
In 1968, Ford Motor Co.'s Dagenham factories outside London comprised seven square miles and churned out an astonishing 3,000 vehicles a day. We -- and "Made in Dagenham" -- are focused on a machinists division in which the seat covers and door-panel upholstery are hand-cut on individual sewing machines by 187 women, many stripped to their underwear due to stifling work conditions.
published by Barry Paris on November 24, 2010 - 12:00am
Me, I'd have given up after 127 minutes. But not Aron Ralston. It took him 127 desperate hours to extricate himself from being caught, literally and figuratively, between the ultimate rock and hard place.
Director Danny Boyle has turned that extraordinary predicament into an extraordinary film which, among other things, expands the definition of "happy ending."
published by Barry Paris on February 4, 2010 - 12:00am
Nothing about Frederick Wiseman is more astonishing than his prolificacy. Since his terrifying debut film "Titicut Follies" (1967), about a Massachusetts prison hospital for the criminally insane, Mr. Wiseman has directed 35 subsequent documentaries about the agony and ecstasy of human experience in institutional settings common to all societies.
published by Anonymous on March 26, 2009 - 12:00am
By Barry Paris Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Noodle" opened the 2008 Pittsburgh Jewish Israeli Film Festival and retuns for a single showing this weekend. Here's a reprint of what PG film critic Barry Paris wrote last year.
Remember "The Man Who Came to Dinner" -- that guest who fell and ended up staying more or less permanently? This is "The Boy Who Came to Help Clean."
published by Barry Paris on February 23, 2007 - 12:00am
Jim Carrey plays an Animal Control Department specialist -- which is to say dogcatcher. But he's not Ace Ventura, and this isn't a comedy. He is Walter Sparrow, and when the dog bites or the bee stings, one of Walter's favorite things turns out to be the number 23.
