Fading Gigolo, John Turturro’s fifth directorial effort, is a wonderful film. It also is what my mother used to call “not everyone’s cup of tea.” About part-time florist Fioravante (Turturro) who becomes a Don Juan-for-hire to solve his financial woes, it is unfashionable in some key ways: wry rather than snarky, tender-hearted rather than glib. It takes place in the multicultural neighborhoods of old-school Brooklyn rather than in the hipster playground now earmarked as the New York City borough, and it features men and women, often in compromisingly graphic positions, who are over 40. Perhaps most unfashionably, it co-stars Woody Allen in his first artistic effort since the controversies about his personal life resurfaced, as well as in one of his first appearances in a film that he did not direct and write. Continue Reading →
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‘Draft Day’ Stumbles but Has Plenty of Heart
April 12, 2014 in Film Matters, Reviews
Ivan Reitman has made a football movie starring Kevin Costner, and the result is not bad. On the other hand, it, uh, fumbles the ball plenty. An excerpt from my Vulture review:
By now it’s old hat to bemoan the ever-increasing age gap between male stars and their romantic leads, but Costner and Garner interact less like lovers and more like a father and his favorite daughter. With her ramrod posture and unwavering, rapt gaze, Garner always seems like the perfect daddy’s girl, anyway. Costner comes more alive in his scenes with Ellen Burstyn, who, though nearly as close to his age, plays his mother. She at least ratchets up his pulse whenever she stalks into a room.
Of ‘Under the Skin’ and Mother Lodes
April 11, 2014 in Book Matters, Film Matters, Reviews