If thinking of the dentist makes your teeth hurt then seeing Novocaine is bound to be a double wammy of pain. Not only is there at least one scene bound to leave you hurting, but despite the incredible cast and the title, there’s very little pain relief except for Steve Martin’s occaisonal comic relief as the lead character, Frank Sangster. He even seems a bit flat compared to his usual abilites. But, Martin gets little help from the rest of the cast and Laura Dern as Jean Noble is anything but spectacular.
TIFF 2001
In Mulholland Drive, David Lynch weaves a fantastic spectacle that dazzles with acting, imagery, cinematography and an intricately simple story that is deserving of at least a couple of Academy awards. This is Lynch at his best with one of the most wonderous, mind-warping escapades I can think of in recent years and it’s done as a two-part story that could almost be two seperate stories. Except you would have a hard time excavating the first part from the second. It is also almost impossible to realise, as your sitting there in the theatre, where one part ends and the next begins.
When Harry Met Sally is one of my favorite romantic-comedies, and yet, in ways it drives me nuts because it’s the kind of film where every awful event that you’d never want to live through happens to the main characters and their friends. In The Last Kiss, a similar story ensues where a host of Italian couples try to figure out what kind of romantic life they want to lead, and end up creating all sorts of havoc along the way.
War movies usually aren’t my thing. Even movies like Born On The Fourth of July or Patton didn’t really do anything for me, but when I saw that Buffalo Soldiers had Ed Harris, Anna Paquin, and the very talented Joaquin Phoenix (who always looks strung out to me), I had to see what the movie was all about.