Movie Review: Pleasantville (1998)

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Brian Wright

Battling the guardians of the forbidden fruit (9/10)

A fascinating exploration of moral choices: the comforts of social conformity vs. the wild ride of personal liberation. Pleasantville is a movie I hadn’t seen in a while, then loading it into the DVD player I realize it’s been almost 10 years (1998) since it came to the screen. Seems like yesterday. For some reason—perhaps seven years of a full-frontal, faith-based political regime—the film deeply moves me now.

The theme is as timeless as the central issue posed by those hysterical autocrats who pontificate(d) the Old Testament: do I accept or defy God? And if I decide to leave my warm family home on Superstition Mountain, am I prepared to accept the consequences? Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Answer Man (2009)

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Brian Wright

Small movie w/many nice features __ 8/10

Kris Lucas: Why can’t I do the things I want to do? There’s so much I know I’m capable of that I never actually do. Why is that?

Arlen Faber: The trick is to realize that you’re always doing what you want to do… always. Nobody’s making you do anything. Once you get that, you see that you’re free and that life is really just a series of choices. Nothing happens to you. You choose. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Trial and Error (1997)

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Brian Wright

Daniels and Richards primo comic duo ___ 7/10
Review by Brian Wright

Written by Sara Bernstein
Directed by Jonathan Lynn

Richard Rietti: Maybe he’s the person that he conned the most. I mean we all do that, you know. We all keep a little bit of ourselves hidden. Cuz if we didn’t, well, then we’d have to look at who we are. Who we really are. And if we didn’t like it, well, we’d have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Take a break and return to the late 90s for a unique Hollywood offering that few people were aware of at the time, whether from poor marketing or simple inattention. Trial and Error takes the established screen actor at the time, Jeff Daniels (Gettysburg, Fly Away Home), and combines the kinetic TV presence, Kramer (Michael Richards), from Seinfield to accomplish an extremely funny and worthy satire suggesting the Biblical adage, “What shall it profit a man to win the whole world yet lose his own soul?” Continue reading →