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Ishtar
(May, 1987)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (OOP)
(Ross, 1976)
The Devils
(Russell, 1974)
The Pirates of Penzance
(Papp/Leach, 1983)
The Fortune
(Nichols, 1975)
-30-
(Webb, 1959)
Betrayal
(Jones, 1983)
Play It As It Lays
(Perry, 1972)
The Outfit
(Flynn, 1973)
Alex in Wonderland
(Mazursky, 1969)
The Legend of Lylah Clare
(Aldrich, 1968)
In The Cool of the Day
(Stevens, 1963)
That Cold Day in the Park
(Altman, 1969)
Thumb Trippin'
(Masters, 1972)
Midas Run
(Kjellin, 1969)
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1973)
Brewster McCloud
(Altman, 1972)
Outcast of the Islands
(Reed, 1951)

Reader Submissions
1930's-1950's
The Moon's Our Home
(Seiter, 1936)
Sh! The Octopus
(McGann, 1937)
The Mating Season
(Leisen, 1951)
Bad for Each Other
(Rapper, 1953)
The Phenix City Story
(Karlson, 1955)
Run of the Arrow
(Fuller, 1956)
House of Secrets
(Green, 1956)
Saint Joan
(Preminger, 1957)
Macabre
(Castle, 1958)
The Fiend Who Walked the West
(G. Douglas, 1958
Five Gates to Hell
(Clavell, 1959)
1960's
Key Witness
(Karlson, 1960)
Summer and Smoke
(Glenville, 1961)
The Chapman Report
(Cukor,1962)
Bachelor Flat
(Tashlin, 1962) [on Hulu]
The L Shaped Room
(Forbes, 1963)
The Chalk Garden
(Neame, 1964)
A Thousand Clowns
(Coe, 1965)
You're a Big Boy Now
(Coppola, 1966)
The Whisperers
(Forbes, 1967)
Dark of the Sun
(Cardiff, 1968)
Skidoo
(Preminger, 1968)
Last Summer
(Perry, 1969)
The Comic
(C. Reiner, 1969)
1970-1974
The Revolutionary
(Williams, 1970)
The Landlord
(Ashby, 1970)
Diary of a Mad Housewife
(Perry, 1970)
Tropic of Cancer
(Strick, 1970)
I Never Sang for My Father
(Cates, 1970)
Sometimes a Great Notion
(Newman, 1971)
Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
(Turman, 1971)
The Music Lovers
(Russell, 1971)
Drive, He Said
(Nicholson, 1971)
The Steagle
(Sylbert, 1971)
The Last Movie
(Hopper, 1971)
Made For Each Other
(Bean, 1971)
The Day the Clown Cried
(Lewis, 1972)
Hickey & Boggs (OOP)
(Culp, 1972)
The Carey Treatment
(Edwards, 1972)
Pete 'n' Tillie
(Ritt, 1972)
Slither
(Zieff, 1973)
Man on a Swing
(Perry, 1974)
Open Season
(Collinson, 1974)
The Tamarind Seed
(Edwards, 1974)
Law and Disorder
(Passer, 1974)
Homebodies
(Yust, 1974)
Stardust
(Apted, 1974)
Celine and Julie Go Boating
(Rivette, 1974)
1975-1979
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins
(Richards, 1975
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1975)
Hearts of the West
(Zieff, 1975)
Welcome to L.A.
(Rudolph, 1976)
W.C. Fields and Me
(Hiller, 1976)
Citizens Band
(Demme, 1977)
Twilight's Last Gleaming
(Aldrich, 1977)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
(Brooks, 1977)
Girlfriends
(Weill, 1978)
Movie Movie
(Donen, 1978)
The Medusa Touch
(Gold, 1978)
American Hot Wax
(Mutrux, 1978)
Hot Stuff
(DeLuise, 1979)
Scavenger Hunt
(Schultz , 1979)
Players
(Harvey, 1979)
Rich Kids
(Young, 1979)
Nightwing
(Hiller, 1979)
Screams of a Winter's Night
(Wilson, 1979
When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?
(Katselas, 1979
1980's
Resurrection
(Petrie, 1980)
The Awakening
(Newell, 1980)
Simon
(Brickman, 1980)
God's Angry Man
(Herzog, 1980)
Fast-Walking
(Harris, 1982)
Twice Upon a Time
(Korty & Swenson, 1983)
Trouble in Mind
(Rudolph, 1985)
When the Wind Blows
(Murikami, 1986)
Housekeeping
(Forsyth, 1987)
The Glass Menagerie
(Newman, 1987)
Patty Hearst
(Schrader, 1988)
Drowning by Numbers
(Greenaway, 1988)
Haunted Summer
(Passer, 1988)
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
(Spheeris, 1988)
1990's
Old Times
(Curtis, 1991)
Prospero's Books
(Greenaway, 1991)
City of Hope
(Sayles, 1991)
The Baby of Macon
(Greenaway, 1993)
King of the Hill
(Soderbergh, 1993)
Dadetown
(Hexter, 1995)
SubUrbia
(Linklater, 1997)

Upcoming

January 8

Bitch Slap

Waiting for Armageddon

Wonderful World

Youth in Revolt

January 15

January 22

Drool

Extraordinary Measures

The Girl on the Train

Dese Dem Dose

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Two Lovers (2929 Prods., 2.13.09) is a very decent...no, better-than-decent blue-collar drama from director-writer James Gray. It plays in the vein of Paddy Chayefsky's Marty, and has very fine performances from the entire cast, but especially from Joaquin Phoenix, Gwynneth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw.

Americans Loved 'Em<< previous | next >>For Whom The Text Smears

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 29, 2008 at 6:25 PM

comment #1

DeafBrownTrashPunk says ...

i just can't watch anything with Gwyneth Paltrow without getting irritated. I'm sorry, I just can't.

Posted by DeafBrownTrashPunk at December 29, 2008 6:35 PM

comment #2

ZayTonday says ...

So this is better than We Own The Night then?

Posted by ZayTonday at December 29, 2008 6:51 PM

comment #3

VoiceOfReason says ...

I've dug everything James Grey has done so I'm looking forward to this. It'll be nice to have what appears to be a quality film released in Feb. Hopefully, Mark Cuban won't file for chapter 11 between now and then.

Posted by VoiceOfReason at December 29, 2008 7:12 PM

comment #4

VanRamblings says ...

Of course, those of us in the cold, cold north (make that, Canada) can't view Hulu videos, so the whole 'viewing area' issue is kind of irrelevant to us. YouTube works across the board, though; Hulu and NBC, not so much.

Posted by VanRamblings at December 29, 2008 7:18 PM

comment #5

BurmaShave says ...

I just watched the second half of THE YARDS last night. That movie really sucks me in.

Posted by BurmaShave at December 29, 2008 7:30 PM

comment #6

BurmaShave says ...

Wells btw how tight are you with Gray vis-a-visVinessa Shaw candids from this? I kid because I love.

Posted by BurmaShave at December 29, 2008 7:33 PM

comment #7

thegreatmags says ...

Lol, Burma. You should interview her, man!

Posted by thegreatmags at December 29, 2008 8:38 PM

comment #8

Pinko Punko says ...

Jeff- every single time you complain about the widths and every single time I post how to change them. I am now e-mailing you how to change the width on the embed.

Posted by Pinko Punko at December 29, 2008 9:51 PM

comment #9

JosephB says ...

Damn... I've said it before and I'll say it again. Gray's films always look INCREDIBLE. "We Own the Night" was full of great texture (thinking of the apartment scene where Phoenix goes in undercover) and pretty much everything in "The Yards". Gray certainly understands his 70's Conrad Hall.

Posted by JosephB at December 29, 2008 10:39 PM

comment #10

Josh Massey says ...

We Own the Night would have made my Top 10 list last year. A severely underrated film.

Posted by Josh Massey at December 30, 2008 5:18 AM

comment #11

MindlessObamaton says ...

DBTP: Right there with you.

Wells: Yeah, probably will never be able to post about anything about Shaw ever without someone bringing up that classic ep. Roll with it, my man.

Posted by MindlessObamaton at December 30, 2008 5:55 AM

comment #12

actionman says ...

Huge fan of The Yards and really, really enjoyed We Own the Night. That car chase in the rain is masterful.

Two Lovers looks like a change of pace for Gray but it still looks damn fine.

Paltrow's looking hot.

Posted by actionman at December 30, 2008 6:45 AM

comment #13

actionman says ...

And hey -- does anyone know if this film is going to be released ON DEMAND before (or during) its theatrical run?

Posted by actionman at December 30, 2008 7:06 AM

comment #14

Edward Havens says ...

According to the email sent out yesterday, TWO LOVERS premieres on HDnet Ultra VOD January 16, 2009 and opens in theatres February 13, 2009.

Posted by Edward Havens at December 30, 2008 12:34 PM

comment #15

Bingo says ...

James Gray is a terribly overrated filmmaker. His films are horribly derivative and clunky with boilerplate plots and cliched characters. They have the pretense of being raw when he wouldn't know raw from a walk to the deli. He would have been a brilliant college professor, specialising in the American films of the seventies from which he steals everything except real emotion, of which he is incapable. As a director he's a pretentious dud.

Posted by Bingo at December 30, 2008 1:04 PM

comment #16

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

"I just watched the second half of THE YARDS last night. That movie really sucks me in."

You had me until the last two words of the 2nd sentence.

Jesus, what a D.Z.-esque retort that was. I quit for the day.

Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum at December 30, 2008 1:25 PM

comment #17

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

I guess I lied. Bingo pretty much summed up my opinion of JG better than I could myself. Erm, bingo!

Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum at December 30, 2008 1:26 PM

comment #18

MilkMan says ...

What Bingo said. Gray is a hack. The Yards is lifeless and so was We Own The Night. He has the portentous vibe down pat and that's about it.

Posted by MilkMan at December 30, 2008 3:29 PM

comment #19

MilkMan says ...

Oh, and one more thing: I am Jewish. Leaf Phoenix does not look Jewish nor have even a vague Jewish vibe to him and neither does Shaw. I know this is a nitpicky thing to point out, but it always bothers me. And making a dude chose between Vinessa Shaw and Gwyneth is shitty drama. Both of them are super hot and it's hard for me to not hate a character that is having some kind of existential crisis about which of these two babes he's going to bone. You can make Shaw as dowdy as you want but you can't erase the fact that she's a genetic bonanza. Let' see, do I want to drive my Rolls Phantom or my Aston Martin? Gee? I don't know. Maybe I should look pensive while deciding what I should do. Fuck this movie and fuck James Gray. Hated Little Odessa and his other movies and I'm tired of being told what great director he is. If James Gray is a great director then Jack Sholder is a genius.

Posted by MilkMan at December 30, 2008 3:36 PM

comment #20

MilkMan says ...

From Director James Gray...

Gordon Willis' Some Kind of Wonderful

Posted by MilkMan at December 30, 2008 3:43 PM

comment #21

hownice4u says ...

milkman, your point about the actors being jewish makes no sense, since the press in france (TWO LOVERS came out here last month--and it is really great) says that both joaquin phoenix and vinessa shaw ARE actually jewish in real life. as for your angry point about joaquin choosing between two hot women, well, like i said before, i saw the movie in paris two weeks ago and that's not even the story of the movie! in it, joaquin is in love with gwyneth but she doesn't love him back. so you can say fuck james gray all you want, but you sound like a real idiot because you obviously don't know a single thing. please stop posting and embarrassing yourself.

Posted by hownice4u at December 31, 2008 7:54 PM

comment #22

YRG says ...

I don't know if it's meant to, but in the trailer I saw, Joaquin's character comes across as a bit slow. Also, I think it's safe to say that any film with V. Shaw will be positively reviewed on this blog.

Posted by YRG at January 5, 2009 3:38 PM