March 03, 2006

The Babylon Sisters' Thursday matinee

We saw "Brokeback Mountain" this week, just in time for the Oscars. We don't have much to add -- it's very good -- but you can hear us here.

February 24, 2006

We're back! The Babylon Sisters' Thursday matinee

Yes, after a week off for our crazy/beautiful lives, we returned to the movie theater for "Cache" (with an accent over that e). It's a French thriller about a well-off Paris couple -- intellectual, urbane, attractive -- who begin receiving videotapes of their comings and goings. Who's filming them and why? "Cache" (remember that accented e) is French for "hidden, "and there's much that's secreted away in the relationship, in the past and in politics in this intriguing film. Hear our comments here.

February 10, 2006

The Babylon Sisters' Thursday matinee

Woo! Did we disagree this week! Barbara enjoyed "The Matador," starring Pierce Brosnan as an unsavory hit man desperate for friendship, and Nancy found nothing redeeming about it. In her opinion, it failed as a caper movie (as opposed, say, to "The Good Thief" with Nick Nolte), and it failed as an acting showcase. Barbara, ever more plebeian, found it quirky enough, funny enough, for an afternoon in the dark.

Hear more of our comments here. (If it takes a few seconds longer to connect to our dulcet tones, please hang in there. We're trying some new technology.)

February 03, 2006

The Babylon Sisters' Thursday matinee

This week we saw "Nanny McPhee," the Emma Thompson family film about seven very naughty children and a warty nanny with an unblemished heart.

We were charmed. Hear why here.

January 27, 2006

The Babylon Sisters' Thursday matinee

This week we saw "Match Point," Woody Allen's latest take on adultery.

Hear our comments .

Blog us back and let us know what you thought of the movie.

January 20, 2006

The Babylon Sisters' Thursday matinee

Hi, this is Nancy and Barbara, and this Thursday we saw "Munich." Through the wonders of digital, we've gone audio! Listen to our take on the film here. Our apologies for the ahs, ums and, well, babbling. This is new turf for us. We promise to be briefer down the line. Mr. Spielberg, can you make that same promise?

January 13, 2006

The Babylon Sisters' Thursday matinee

Hi, we're Nancy and Barbara, and we have been movie buddies for four years. We go almost every week, almost always on a Thursday.

This Thursday we saw "Breakfast on Pluto," Neil Jordan's picaresque tale of young Patrick "Kitten" Brady (Golden Globes nominee Cillian Murphy). Kitten has a spray of dark curls, like a slipped halo, and a fondness for platform heels and feather boas. But the Irish lad's real passion is his search for the mother who abandoned him. From the days of Mitzi Gaynor to the years of Margaret Thatcher, Kitten journeys amid music, mayhem and magic.

Barbara: I don't know about you, Nancy, but if a movie can make me tear up at Bobby Goldsboro's schlocky "Honey"...

Nancy: That terrific soundtrack does take you back to a sweeter time. That's the beauty of the movie. Jordan shines at showing us the underbelly of society. And here he send the soft, vulnerable Kitten into the arms of Ireland's and England's baddest and oddest. Our unlikely hero navigates with an eerie calm. I loved Kitten, and Jordan's intertwining of the sentimental and the shocking. And though the movie was long, you truly care about Kitten's fate.

Don't you love Cillian Murphy? And the supporting case was great: the always sexy Liam Neeson; Stephen Rea of "The Crying Game," in a neat twist on that role; and Gavin Friday as Billy Hatchet, the last person you'd imagine would be smitten with Kitten.

Barbara: I loved, too, Jordan's eye: Kitten emerging from the Thames in a sea of umbrellas to a dark London, Kitten wide-eyed at the city that never sleeps, although it might wink. And the gaudy, although moving, "confession" between priest and boy at a peep show.

Too long, yes, indeed. Too many plot elements, probably. But "Pluto" sings.