TheRetroCritic

Review of the Chevy Chase comedy Modern Problems .

Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film, Phantom Thread , sees Daniel Day-Lewis play a respected fashion designer who meets a waitress and starts a rather awkward relationship with her. This is, as far as we know, probably the actor's final performance in a film. In contrast to the grim and intense There Will Be Blood , this new film seemed like a potentially lighter and less depressing effort. In a way, this is true since we're dealing with a man who makes dresses rather than a scary moustached man who sucks up oil "milkshakes" from the ground but this remains another typically unnerving and dark P. T. Anderson creation. The point of the film not being the dress-making itself as this isn't exactly a biopic, but rather everything else. It's the relationship between the fussy and closed-off yet undeniably talented Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and waitress Alma (Vicky Krieps) that takes centre stage. Woodcock is shown to be a true artist and a perfec

Directed by Steven Spielberg, Always is a 1989 romantic comedy/drama starring Richard Dreyfuss as an aerial firefighter who is killed while trying to save someone else and who then comes back as a spirit to guide another pilot in his life. Loosely based on WWII drama  A Guy Named Joe , Always tends to be one of Spielberg's most forgotten films mostly due to the fact it's arguably his cheesiest effort so those not too keen on sentimental stories or those expecting an action film won't exactly go wild for this one. Having said that, this is still a gorgeous-looking film with a lot going for it. The criminally underrated Richard Dreyfuss is at his most charming and cocky here as reckless pilot Pete who constantly worries his girlfriend Dorinda (played by Holly Hunter) with his careless flying. Pete almost crashes on her birthday and, while this leads to a heartfelt romantic moment, it also leads to Dorinda giving him an ultimatum to get him to stop risking his life at ev

After his sci-fi romantic comedy Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind looked at how memories can affect matters of the heart, Michel Gondry then directed The Science Of Sleep , another bittersweet rom-com, this time focusing on the world of dreams. This feels much more like a French film than Eternal Sunshine with Gael Garcia Bernal being the only non-European cast-member and the likes of Alain Chabat (who steals every scene he's in), Charlotte Gainsbourg, Miou-Miou and Emma de Caunes forming the rest of the cast. This is something which actually works to the film's advantage since Garcia Bernal's Stephane is a bit of a fish-out-water as he moves into his mother's old apartment in Paris despite not knowing anyone or speaking French very well. Hence why Stephane constantly seeks refuge inside his dreams and through his imagination. Unfortunately, that all backfires slowly but surely as he starts to confuse his dreams with reality, which is clearly too cruel for hi

Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah star in this 80's comedy re-imagining of the Little Mermaid fairy-tale which did what Disney is currently trying to do with its live-action adaptations of every animated film they've ever done but without any big special effects. And all before Disney's The   Little Mermaid was even released. Really, on paper Splash should have been awful but in the safe hands of director Ron Howard and with a first class cast which also included John Candy and Eugene Levy, it was a big hit and was even nominated for an Academy Award back in 1984. By handling the movie like a grown-up (and literal) fish-out-of-water story with some romance and jokes thrown in, Howard manages to make Splash more of a modern fairy-tale adults can enjoy rather than corny, kids-only fare. The very good, very funny script keeps a perfect balance between comedy and fantasy and the cast is simply flawless from Hanks' lonely romantic to Daryl Hannah's wide-eyed, innocent

Here's a movie which, on paper, sounds like the worst thing you'll ever see: an Adam Sandler rom-com starring Drew Barrymore as a girl with no short term memory, a girl Sandler has to woo every single day. The Hawaii-set romantic comedy, as expected, is a pretty cheesy affair with more than its share of infuriating moments. For one thing, Rob Schneider cameos as Sandler's slobby pal so expect loads of bad jokes and borderline racist stereotyping, plus awful child actors speaking loudly around him as a bonus. Then there's the plot which is about as believable as whatever happened in The Adventures Of Pluto Nash and the earnest way in which it's handled often clashes with the usual mostly low-brow Happy Madison brand of humour. Walrus vomit jokes, anyone? Then there's Drew Barrymore who really does her utmost to hammer in how adorable she is, often to irritating effect. Though one scene sees her hitting Schneider repeatedly with a baseball bat, something

Spike Jonze doesn't make a feature film very often but when he does, it usually goes right up my list of favourite movies. Being John Malkovitch is, to this day, a film I'm still a big fan of, as is Adaptation and Where The Wild Things Are , still   one of the best films about childhood out there in my opinion. From its trailer, Her looked weirdly soppy but its intriguing premise looked like it might have much more to offer and, seeing as the film is just over two hours long, it was bound to have a little more to it than just a quirky guy-meets-phone love story. The film stars the ever-great Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore, a lonely dude going through an emotionally draining divorce (Rooney Mara plays the ex) and looking to move on. The story is set some time in the near future which is why Theodore works for a company which writes hand-written (but actually dictated) letters on behalf of random people who hire their services. Also, in the future, moustaches and high-waiste

Several years before messing up Tom Cruise's face and going all sci-fi in Vanilla Sky , Cameron Crowe made this romantic comedy about a sports agent turning his life upside down after one night of sobering honesty which sends his career seemingly spiralling down the tubes. It was a huge hit and, back in 1996, no moviegoer didn't yell out "Show me the money!" whenever possible. The film follows sports agent Jerry Maguire (Cruise) as he loses pretty much all his clients in one day after writing a much too honest memo/mission statement. One of his last remaining clients is Cuba Gooding Jr.'s football player whose attitude problem doesn't exactly make him the easiest guy to help get a $10M contract. When Jerry is inevitably fired, he takes some fish with him (they have manners) and is followed into the unknown by a single mother working in his office called Dorothy (played by Renee Zelwegger). Jerry tries everything to make his career work as an independent b

Adapting a play should be pretty straight-forward: you've got pretty much the whole script right there! But sometimes, movies and plays just don't translate well to each other. Surely a talented director like Roman Polanski would know how to side-step such an issue though. Right? Well... yes and no. From very early on, it's pretty clear that after a Haneke-style opening shot we'll pretty much be stuck in this one apartment with all the main characters for the entirety of the film. I can see why Polanski thought that would work: the claustrophobic setting coupled with the stress and awkwardness bouncing off the walls creating an unnerving sense of "get me the hell outta here!". Fine. It's a stagy concept but I can see it working. Unfortunately, not really the case here. Had the story progressed in a different, more chaotic and entertaining way then this could have worked brilliantly (see The Dinner Game ). But the banality of the core premise's

Another year, another extended Chanel advert. Unfortunately, unlike Coco Before Chanel , this doesn't have much to work with. What we get is not so much a Chanel biopic as a vague Stravinski biopic awkwardly stuck inside a sexy Chanel bubble. The main problem is that, really, the film has nothing interesting to say: Chanel and Stravinski had an affair...they had sex...buy our perfume! This is literally it. Having said that, Jan Kounen does a remarkable job making such an empty narrative interesting. The cinematography is stylish and well crafted and the score is beautiful. A terrific scene involving a Stravinski concert going awry is definitely a highlight. There's good performances here. Anna Mouglalis' over-cool but genuinely manipulative and really pretty dislikable Chanel is a lot of fun and Mads Mikkelsen conveys a lot with the shameful 5 lines he was given to work with (!). His performance, although practically silent, is nevertheless the most compelling in the e