Bulle Ogier and Eddie Constantine join Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s stock company in a dark 1979 comedy predicated on the odd conceit that the West German state secretly supports a terrorist group to mask and offset its own repressions. Episodic, aurally and visually cluttered, and calculated to irritate, but like most Fassbinder films, worth a second look. In German with subtitled. 105 min. (JR) Read more
Misogynistic claptrap about a divorced husband (Dustin Hoffman) fighting for the custody of and learning to cope with his little boy (Justin Henry)a movie whose classy trimmings (including Nestor Almendros’s cinematography) persuaded audiences to regard writer-director Robert Benton as a subtle art-house director. In this adaptation of a novel by Avery Corman, Benton does manage to get some effective performances from Hoffman and Henry as well as Meryl Streep (the wife who walks out on husband and son) and Jane Alexander, but let’s hope that the slew of Oscars won by this picture (best picture, actor, screenplay, director, and supporting actress) gives the thoughtful some reason for pause (1979). (JR) Read more
High allegory in the icy north from Robert Altman; I haven’t seen this 1979 drama, but practically everyone except Altman’s diehard fans seems to find it a grueling slog. Set in a frozen city of the future, it takes its title from a board game using dice that Paul Newman, seeking to avenge some family deaths, winds up playing. With Bibi Andersson, Fernando Rey, Brigitte Fossey, and Vittorio Gassman. 110 min. (JR) Read more