Mi Vida Loca: My Crazy Life
Mi Vida Loca: My Crazy Life 1994. D: Allison Anders; with Angel Aviles, Seidy Lopez, Jacob Vargas. From the opening moments, you know you’re seeing something that you’ve hardly seen before in a commercial movie. Sad Girl (Aviles), a Latina gang girl from the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, breaks the dramatic fourth wall…
Zeram
Zeram 1991. Directed by Keita Amakemia, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Yuko Moriyama, Kunihiko Idia, Mizuho Yoshida. Slickly produced and stylishly directed, bursting with good special effects and generous production values, Zeram is both a good example and a fine introduction to the lighthearted science fiction genre that has become increasingly popular in…
The Shawshank Redemption
Frank Darabont’s debut feature based on the Stephen King novella receives a 10th anniversary reissue. The prison drama features standout performances by Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins.
Terminal Velocity
Terminal Velocity 1994. Directed by Deran Sarafian, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Charlie Sheen, Nastassja Kinski, James Gandolfini, Christopher McDonald. Charlie Sheen’s name is an almost perfect anagram for “Hail Cheese,” which makes almost perfect sense in light of this post-summer blockbuster wannabe. Playing off the success of Keanu Reeves’ turn in Speed…
Quiz Show
Quiz Show 1994. Directed by Robert Redford, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Ralph Fiennes, John Turturro, Rob Morrow, David Paymer, Paul Scofield, Elizabeth Wilson, Martin Scorsese, Barry Levinson. Trying to pinpoint precisely when 20th-century America lost its innocence is a futile pursuit; it presupposes that this nation of contradictions initially had virtue to…
Anchoress
Anchoress 1993, 106 min. Directed by Chris Newby, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Natalie Morse, Eugene Bervoets, Toyah Willcox, Christopher Eccleston, Peter Postlethwaite. Striking visuals and a theme that transcends its 14th-century setting mark Chris Newby’s debut film Anchoress. The film’s screenplay is loosely based on two letters from the late 1300s that…
New Legend of Shaolin
New Legend of Shaolin 1994, NR, 97 min. Directed by Wong Jing, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jet Li, Damian Lau. If you were one of the 100 or so audience members turned away during the Riverside’s initial run of this movie, the latest action film from fight film superstar Jet Li, then…
