Fenella Woolgar

AKA
$26.99
All he did was give "them" what they wanted and he did it very well. Almost dreamlike in it's flow, this story moves swiftly along touching on situations and all kinds of people along the way, making the situations and people better than they were before he breezed through their lifes. Did he hurt anyone? Only himself. He gave a wonderful, slam-bang of a good time to everyone he came in contact with from the start of this film till the credits roll.

I found this film a complete delight.

AKA
$19.99
All he did was give "them" what they wanted and he did it very well. Almost dreamlike in it's flow, this story moves swiftly along touching on situations and all kinds of people along the way, making the situations and people better than they were before he breezed through their lifes. Did he hurt anyone? Only himself. He gave a wonderful, slam-bang of a good time to everyone he came in contact with from the start of this film till the credits roll.

I found this film a complete delight.

Wah-Wah
$14.99
Any movie with Gabriel Byrne or Emily Watson in it is well worth watching. So this one, graced with both of their presences, is a shoe-in.

Actually, the entire cast is fantastic in this tale of the artificial life a cadre of privileged British ex-pats in colonial Swaziland have created for themselves, complete with adultery and alcoholism. In this volatile mix, a fragile boy makes his way to manhood maneuvering through his crumbling family life.

Such is the craft of this movie that you have sympathy for every member of the family... the wife who runs away, the alcoholic father, the artistic and abandoned son, the new wife. I could understand the desertion, the adultery, the dependence on alcohol, the facial tics. What a dreadful cocoon to be trapped in!

At least the lives of these blighted souls are leavened with a little clean fun and levity -- one of the plot lines involves a play the community puts on for royalty. I recently read The Bolter, a true story of British colonizers in Kenya, and the action was unrelentingly depraved. It makes you truly glad for the appearance of the bright and irreverent American that Emily Watson plays in this movie. Insular little worlds need her kind of shaking up!

Stage Beauty
$2.99
I'd never heard of this 2005 movie when I saw it on TV in 2009. What a failure of publicity! For me, it was everything 'Shakespeare in Love' should have been and wasn't. Billy Crudup, as the man who's been through a lifetime training regime equal in perversity to that in 'Mao's Last Dancer' or 'Farewell My Concubine,' but finds his skills superceded in his prime, is absolutely brilliant. He explores his craft and, through it, himself, taking us along for the ride. Clare Danes, as the woman who loves Crudup from afar but aspires to act the parts he plays, manages an incredibly demanding role with great verve and subtlety. It's hard to believe they are both Americans--they inhabit Restoration England as though they were born there. The rest of the cast are just as good, especially Rupert Everett as Charles II--full marks to the casting director. And the script was a joy to hear unfold. Witty lines and knowing insights emerge in every scene. If only there were more films like this! A completely satisfying entertainment experience.