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Reviews
Harvard Man (2001)
silly and pretentious
This movie rings false from beginning to end. There is not one character in the film who resembles a human being. As such, it's impossible to care about what happens. Many of the scenes simply do not make any sense. (A scene in which Ray Allan pulls a gun is both idiotic and offensive.) The classroom scenes are unintentional parodies of philosophy; the idea of a philosophy professor walking around campus arm-in-arm with one her undergraduates is absurd. The acting is bad; and not even bad in a unified way. Each actor is allowed to flounder in his or her own way. After the screening I saw, Toback answered questions. He said that he's bored at most movies, and always wants things to speed up. Perhaps his problem is that he lacks an ear for subtlety. The scenes are (mercifully) short; but they achieve this by taking the most direct (and least interesting) route to conveying information or message.
Cremaster 5 (1997)
for suckers only
The profound tedium of the movie is mitigated only by its pretentiousness. I spent most of the movie cringing. I am deeply embarrassed for those who claim to find some value in it. Unless you think Peter Greenaway movies suffer only from having too gripping plots, I urge you to avoid Barney's films at all costs.