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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY RECOMMENDS: VIDEO & DVD |
Reviews: 'Thelma & Louise,' 'Igby Goes Down'
DVD review: 'Thelma & Louise: Special Edition'
(Entertainment Weekly) -- As written by Callie Khouri, directed by Ridley Scott, and played by Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, ''Thelma & Louise'' -- a film variously interpreted as a feminist statement and a ''male-bashing'' tract -- was intended simply as a buddy flick about two fully realized female characters.
Sarandon's fed-up waitress and Davis' put-upon housewife are together on the road and on the run, cruising in their convertible T-Bird through an American West out of a John Ford movie. They encounter aggressive villains, Harvey Keitel's conflicted lawman, and Brad Pitt's abs.
As the disc's supplementary material has it, lucky timing (and the cover of Time) inflated it into a cultural event; the insightful documentaries and self-effacing commentary tracks (one features Scott, the other the stars and screenwriter) find principals discounting any notion that they were out to produce ''Bonnie and Bonnie.''
And as an alternate, longer version of the famous cliff-diving finale makes clear, personal vision and Hollywood rules can combine to surprising effect: Its intro blankly notes that Scott's original conclusion ''was shortened to create the perception of a more upbeat ending.''
Grade: B+
-- Troy Patterson
Video review: 'Igby Goes Down'
Macaulay Culkin never had it so bad in ''Home Alone'': His little brother Kieran here plays a Manhattan brat who gets stuck with a hateful, terminally ill mother (Sarandon) and a schizophrenic father (Bill Pullman).
First-time writer-director Burr Steers' acidulous satire doesn't go down easily, but a remarkable ensemble that also includes Ryan Phillippe as Igby's sociopathic brother redeems the movie, if not the characters. And Steers' mordantly quippy dialogue proves you can't spell dysfunctional without f-u-n.
Grade: B+
-- Bruce Fretts
