Like moths to a flame, great actors gravitate to the singular genius of playwright-screenwriter David Mamet, who updated his Pulitzer Prize-winning play for this all-star screen adaptation. The material is not inherently cinematic, so the Glengarry Glen Ross's greatest asset is Mamet's peerless dialogue and the assembly of the once-in-a-lifetime cast led by Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, and Alec ...
Changing Lanes finds director Roger Michell (Notting Hill) going American but not Hollywood, working from a script written by Michael Tolkin (The Player) and newcomer Chip Taylor. The result is something like Falling Down squared. It all starts with a car collision in New York. An alcoholic insurance salesman Doyle Gipson (Samuel L Jackson), hurrying for a vital ...
Richard Gere is pretty convincing as a severe manic-depressive whose episodes of euphoria sometimes find him dancing on a two-by-four far above the street or climbing onstage during a symphony performance to "conduct" the orchestra. When the pendulum swings the other way, he is practically catatonic. As a character study, this film by Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) has its truly compelling ...