cowboy-27 Reviews

Illuminata (1998)

Inside the "theater", but not too inside.

[15 August 1999]

Wonderful characters, glib and meaningful dialogue, a portrait of theater and its denizens so complete you believe the film is a biography.

There are no small actors here because there are no small parts. What might have been a cameo becomes a pivotal role.

It has been said that the film was missing direction. Not at all. What was happening there was style. This guys loves women and shape and color, and what he likes best is wit.

The entire cast....and that is everybody, was wonderful, so good you could smell the sweat. Camera and sets were so good you could hear floor boards creak. Music, well and tastefully done.

Recommendation: see it once for the discovery, twice for the appreciation, three times for the education. You will not be bored.

After Life (1998)

What are you watchin'?

[18 July 1999]

This picture is a snore, and were it not for some darn nice reviews, I wouldn't have spent the half price for a matinee ticket to see this exercise in banality. Somebody could have made this picture three minutes long, and we would have gotten the idea.

Why reviewers take obscure and declare it deep is beyond me. What movie did they see? This film has a hot three minutes of something, the rest is four Tylenol PM's chased by a Vodka up.

Open Your Eyes (1997)

Avant-garde deja vu and cinema

[26 May 1999]

This picture has some of the same qualities of "Petulia" by Richard Lester. It slaps you around enough in the first few frames that you have to watch to see where it will go with some seemingly mundane characters. It captures the essence of the conflict between reality and perception, and its minimalist existentialism keeps you asking yourself what will happen next.

The plot is sometimes as thin as life itself, a charming asset used as sparingly as the symbolism. It is so well shot that one does not mind a few tricks here and there.

If you come away, unamused and un-intrigued by the questions posed, then you like other types of movies. A casual entertainment with some meat, like an excellent dinner with new companions, is diverting and memorable.----LWD