Email Author Melissa Levine

2004 Stories by Melissa Levine

• Bomb-alie

  published December 22, 2004

  A Very Long Engagement, the new film by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (most famously of Amélie), will have its... More >>

• Brave and Crazy

  published December 1, 2004

  Whatever else can be said about Tarnation -- and there is plenty to say -- there is no denying this: It is a very brave movie.... More >>

• Sour Grapes

  published November 17, 2004

  When was the last time you saw Paul Giamatti? And when the film ended, did you realize how much you would miss him? It was just last year that... More >>

• The Anton Newcombe Massacre

  published October 27, 2004

  "I'm not for sale. I'm fucking love. I give it away." So says Anton Newcombe, the raging megalomaniac who heads the Brian Jonestown... More >>

• Secrets and Lies

  published October 27, 2004

  How does Mike Leigh do it? The years pass; film fashions come and go; Hollywood churns its commercial pap. Careers sparkle; others fizz; whom the... More >>

• The Power of Yes

  published October 20, 2004

  Imagine it's a weekday morning, and you're at a trade conference in Finland. You're sleepy, maybe a little jet-lagged, as you prepare for the next... More >>

• Imperfect Unions

  published October 13, 2004

  In 1991 two Florida police officers were married in a loving ceremony captured on video. Their names were Mickie Mashburn and Lois Marrero, and... More >>

• Empty Sex

  published September 22, 2004

  The very best thing about A Dirty Shame, a giddy sex farce from John Waters, is the credits. What's not to love about a list of... More >>

• Reese's Piece

  published September 1, 2004

  n Victorian England, 40,000 novels were published every year. Of the few that have endured, perhaps none is more worthy of a film adaptation than... More >>

• Kill Bill

  published September 1, 2004

  Whatever is worthwhile about The Hunting of the President -- a new documentary on the right-wing attack dogs who conspired to bring... More >>

• Party Train

  published August 25, 2004

  Oh, Janis. Oh, gorgeous, outrageous, soul-ripping, rockin' bluesy momma Janis Joplin. She's a volcano. She's a tsunami. She's a fearless,... More >>

• A Royal Shame

  published August 11, 2004

  Garry Marshall is at it again. The director of Pretty Woman, Beaches and the original Princess Diaries has returned to peddle... More >>

• Lost in Translation

  published August 4, 2004

  Those of us who have grown up in the United States may be weary of our country's claims of freedom and opportunity. Faced with a wobbly quote from... More >>

• The Company Line

  published July 21, 2004

  Near the beginning of The Corporation, a damning documentary designed to expose everything that is irresponsible, immoral, inhumane... More >>

• Suh-weet!

  published July 14, 2004

  It's charming. It's hilarious. It is perhaps the most beautifully crafted, lovingly rendered portrait of extreme geekitude ever to grace the... More >>

• A Gift to Grief

  published July 14, 2004

  The opening moments of The Door in the Floor are not promising. A little girl stands on a chair in a hallway of photos, pointing at... More >>

• The Passion for Christ

  published June 9, 2004

  Beware the exclamation point. When found at the end of a title, it almost inevitably signals a level of self-hype rarely justified by the content... More >>

• Strife Is Beautiful

  published June 2, 2004

  Samurai have never been strangers to film; in fact, an entire genre has sprung from their legend, with plenty of attendant offshoots,... More >>

• Weirdest Movie in the World

  published May 26, 2004

  Ah, the peculiar genius that is Guy Maddin. Who else but the morose Canadian director, born and raised in one of the coldest cities in the world,... More >>

• Sizzle? Fizzle.

  published February 25, 2004

  This is not a good movie. Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights is, in fact, a bad movie. The script bleeds one cliché after another,... More >>

• Rationality Will Not Save Us

  published February 11, 2004

  At the opening of The Fog of War, the brilliant new documentary from director Errol Morris, we see a composed, sharply groomed and... More >>

• Dance, Dance, Dance

  published January 28, 2004

  Feel like an evening at the ballet? Robert Altman's The Company, a lovely and superficial montage of performance, is less a movie... More >>