Yo Adrian

The History Boys (Nicholas Hytner, 2006) - B+

The reason I love British humor is that it sneaks up on you from around corners rather than announcing its presence from miles away. This wordy and intelligent film is filled with wordy and intelligent characters, and consequently jokes (and insights) that come from nowhere and quickly disappear into the ether. It's unforgiving to those who don't hang on the screenplay's every word, and rewarding to those who do. There is sometimes the sense that this worked better on the stage, but no matter the medium, it's a frank and engaging look at education in general, and British education circa the mid-80's in particular, latent homosexuality and all. I do wish that Nicholas Hytner, whose "The Crucible" was one of my favorite films of the 90's, would start making actual movies (rather than direct stage-to-screen translations) again.


Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone, 2006) - B+

Contender for movie moment of the year: finally, nearly 90 minutes into "Rocky Balboa," we hear the triumphant strains of Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" as Rocky, now nearing 60, hoofs it laboriously along a snowy Philadelphia expanse. (Philly looks terrific here by the way.) I loved seeing this story on screen again in all its schmaltzy, underdog glory. Stallone directs and, god help us, writes with a sure hand and impressive attention to detail; those who expected the 60 year-old actor and his film to look ridiculous are eating crow about now.