Search for 1996

If this is what it's really like to spend a couple days in the San Fernando Valley during the hottest time of the year, then, like W.C. Fields, I'd rather be in Philadelphia. Actually, for a movie that's so precise about time (one of the char...

It opens with images of a late-night poker game: cards, chips, sweaty palms, concerned faces, and a woman's fingernails. Then, as night turns to day, the camera moves into the streets of New York, and, with the first bit of dialogue, we know we'v...

The biggest alien invasion picture of the summer of 1996 is Independence Day. But it's not the first. The Arrival, with a significantly lower budget than Fox's July 3 release, has that distinction, and, while this particular film doesn't boast an...

Barb Wire has the cleavage of a Russ Meyer film without the jiggle. If someone was going to make a campy version of Casablanca, you'd think they'd at least have the decency to make it fun. Unfortunately, other than a couple of very obvious, ab...

Basquiat, the fictionalized biography of graffiti artist-turned-international sensation, Jean Michael Basquiat, is the latest in a long line of "suffering artist" motion pictures, following closely on the heels of last year's controversial Tota...

While Bed of Roses lacks the freshness of When Harry Met Sally and the smart sensuality of Before Sunrise, it nevertheless possesses enough intelligence and energy to lift it into the upper echelon of "traditional" modern romances. And, with so ma...

In addition to having real emotional resonance and dramatic sweep, Beyond Silence (Jenseits der Stille) is one of the best-acted motion pictures of the '90s. Inexplicably, despite being nominated, Beyond Silence did not win the Best Foreign Langua...

From time immemorial, the experience of eating a good meal has been regarded as one of life's most hedonistic pleasures. In a recent survey, more than 50% of Americans indicated they would rather eat a memorable dinner than experience a night of u...

Mike Nichols, the director of such well-received films as The Graduate and Working Girl, has taken the outrageous 1978 French farce, La Cage aux Folles, and, by tweaking, updating, and Americanizing it, come up with a huge winner. The Birdcage, as...

Bottle Rocket starts and finishes strong, but, somewhere in the middle, it loses its focus and its way. Concentrating on a trio of incredibly inept criminals, there are times when this film seems like Reservoir Dogs as directed by Kevin Smith (Cle...