Publications

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

James Bowman

Over the opening credits of the Coen brothers’ new movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? we hear Harry McLintock singing…

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Pledge, The

James Bowman

In The Pledge Sean Penn (director) and Jack Nicholson (star) have teamed up to give us a portrait of the…

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Pollock

James Bowman

What I liked about Pollock, directed by and starring Ed Harris, is that it really does convey an impression of…

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Shadow of the Vampire

James Bowman

Shadow of the Vampire, directed by E. Elias Merhige, is very slight but frequently entertaining, mainly because of the performance…

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Snatch

James Bowman

Here I make my declaration of faith: the single most important element in film is plot. This is because film…

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Traffic

James Bowman

Here are the good things about Traffic, Steven Soderbergh’s new and ambitious — and, indeed, epic-scale movie treatment of what is still here…

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Wedding Planner, The

James Bowman

One tries to be fair, of course. I admit up front that I don’t much like either Matthew McConaughey or…

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Cast Away

James Bowman

There are just enough good things about Cast Away by Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Contact, What Lies Beneath) to make…

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Finding Forrester

James Bowman

You know you’re in trouble with a movie that begins as the camera pans over the spines of a pile…

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Proof of Life

James Bowman

At one point in Proof of Life, directed by Taylor Hackford, Alice Bowman (Meg Ryan) — who, by the way,…

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Quills

James Bowman

Philip Kaufman’s Quills, based on a play by Doug Wright, who wrote the screenplay, is a perfect illustration of the…

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Gekko No Sasayaki (Moonlight Whispers)

James Bowman

Gekko No Sasayaki or “Moonlight Whispers” is a brilliant little Japanese film, written and directed by Akihiko Shiota, about young…

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