"Fished" out of the archives in memory of Bill Henderson (1926-2016).-Ed.
by Bill Chambers The movie is called Goat on Fire and Smiling Fish. I have it on my list of what to see during the Festival–near the bottom. Its premise sounds congenial enough, but that title has obviously been conceived to inspire double-takes.
by Bill Chambers Pete and I exit off the highway and discover that parking at the Colossus will require turning the corner in the opposite direction, driving to the end of that street, making a U-turn, and keeping our eyes peeled for access to the giant lot. The name is fitting: the cinema is huge. One can see it from hundreds of metres away. From space, maybe. It's an eyesore, really. The building itself is the size of a shopping mall, capped by an old-fashioned, Day the Earth Stood Still-style spaceship with two antennas (antennae?) jutting out of it. No wonder they premiered My Favorite Martian here.
Editor's Note, December 24, 2012: I didn't make a list in 1999. And Life is Beautiful? Sheesh. The prose here is also a particularly embarrassing shade of purple.
The following Ten Best list reflects only the opinions of Bill Chambers–Film Freak Central's webmaster–and not necessarily those of this site's other contributors.
10. Henry Fool
Hal Hartley movies never make Top 10 lists; they're considered pompous and pretentious by people who are just those things. Simon's metamorphosis from garbage man to renowned author under the tutelage of worldly Henry Fool was one of this year's most thoughtful character studies; Hartley, ever the pop intellectual, mines issues of classism and censorship in a grunge landscape like some poet of the street.
Editor's Note, December 24, 2012: Again, this material is pretty stale. Mostly reposting it for posterity, something I can't always bring myself to do when it comes to the early reviews.
The following Ten Best list reflects only the opinions of Bill Chambers–FILM FREAK CENTRAL's webmaster–and not necessarily those of this site's other contributors.
1. The Ice Storm– Suburbia in most films is portrayed as a white picket fence surrounding a dozen Addams families. The Ice Storm is less eager to impress us with quirky kinfolk–it places two neighbouring, dysfunctional families under a microscope. Witty without being jokey, sad without being blatantly tearjerking, this is that sort of film so unforgiving that audiences stayed away in droves.
by Bill Chambers