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Yentl
: essential video:Barbra Streisand made her directorial debut with this 1983 adaptation of the Isaac Bashevis Singer story about a young Eastern European woman (Streisand) who disguises herself as a male at the turn of the century in order to get an education. Except for an excessive musical score with too many songs and Streisand's tiresome tendency to play characters who suppress their beauty, the film is crisp and engaging, and the gender-bending love story complications are fun, if gimmicky. ...
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Evening Star
: :Picking up the story thread left by 1983's Terms of Endearment, this overwrought sequel is made palatable by Shirley MacLaine's charismatic performance, which in turn is nearly equaled by Marion Ross's role as her housekeeper. An unexpected surprise, Ross obviously was never allowed to display her range as Mrs. Cunningham on Happy Days. Returning as the vibrant Aurora Greenway, MacLaine far outshines the thin material involving the tangled and unhappy lives of her three grandchildren. The plot picks up 13 ...
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12 Angry Men
: :Picking up the story thread left by 1983's Terms of Endearment, this overwrought sequel is made palatable by Shirley MacLaine's charismatic performance, which in turn is nearly equaled by Marion Ross's role as her housekeeper. An unexpected surprise, Ross obviously was never allowed to display her range as Mrs. Cunningham on Happy Days. Returning as the vibrant Aurora Greenway, MacLaine far outshines the thin material involving the tangled and unhappy lives of her three grandchildren. The plot picks up 13 ...
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To Sir, with Love
: essential video:Novelist James Clavell wrote, produced, and directed this 1967 British film (based on a novel by E.R. Braithwaite) about a rookie teacher who throws out stock lesson plans and really takes command of his unruly, adolescent students in a London school. Poitier is very good as a man struggling with the extent of his commitment to the job, and even more as a teacher whose commitment is to proffering life lessons instead of academics. The spirit of this ...
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Back Street
: essential video:Novelist James Clavell wrote, produced, and directed this 1967 British film (based on a novel by E.R. Braithwaite) about a rookie teacher who throws out stock lesson plans and really takes command of his unruly, adolescent students in a London school. Poitier is very good as a man struggling with the extent of his commitment to the job, and even more as a teacher whose commitment is to proffering life lessons instead of academics. The spirit of this ...
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Barfly
: :The script for this movie was written by outrageous poet-author-alcoholic Charles Bukowski. But director Barbet Schroeder makes it into an oddly amusing story of a pugnacious drunk writer (Mickey Rourke) based on Bukowski himself. Rourke spends almost all of his time at the bar, struggling with sobriety (he's against it) and, occasionally, having fistfights with the bartender (Frank Stallone). He meets another souse, a formerly attractive woman (Faye Dunaway), and gets involved with her, which means they drink copious amounts ...
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South Pacific
: :The dazzling Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, brought to lush life by the director of the original stage version, Joshua Logan. Set on a remote island during the Second World War, South Pacific tracks two parallel romances: one between a Navy nurse (Mitzi Gaynor) 'as corny as Kansas in August' and a wealthy French plantation owner (Rossano Brazzi), the other between a young American officer (John Kerr) and a native girl (France Nuyen). The theme of interracial love was still daring ...
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Ironweed
: :The dazzling Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, brought to lush life by the director of the original stage version, Joshua Logan. Set on a remote island during the Second World War, South Pacific tracks two parallel romances: one between a Navy nurse (Mitzi Gaynor) 'as corny as Kansas in August' and a wealthy French plantation owner (Rossano Brazzi), the other between a young American officer (John Kerr) and a native girl (France Nuyen). The theme of interracial love was still daring ...
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Edison the Man
: :The dazzling Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, brought to lush life by the director of the original stage version, Joshua Logan. Set on a remote island during the Second World War, South Pacific tracks two parallel romances: one between a Navy nurse (Mitzi Gaynor) 'as corny as Kansas in August' and a wealthy French plantation owner (Rossano Brazzi), the other between a young American officer (John Kerr) and a native girl (France Nuyen). The theme of interracial love was still daring ...
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Resurrection
: :Released at a time when psychic auras, near-death experiences, and Kirlian photography were all the rage among early New Age proponents, Resurrection achieves a spiritual depth rarely found in Hollywood movies. In one of her finest performances, Ellen Burstyn stars as Edna McCauley, a transplanted farm girl who develops healing powers following an accident that left her widowed and paralyzed. Returning to her Kansas homeland, she attracts awe and controversy, performing healings while deflecting any pretense of religion. That's a ...
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