Velvet Goldmine (1998)

In 1984, a British journalist investigates the career of 1970s glam superstar Brian Slade, who was heavily influenced in his early years by hard-living and rebellious American singer Curt Wild.

Using a plot modeled after Citizen Kane this movie offers some great period details and music and succeeds in recreating the 70s glam rock scene; the story, however, remains negligible in comparison.

Halliwell**: "A camp account of a camp phenomenon, flamboyantly revelling in the fakery and the androgynous appeal of it all."

Maltin**1/2: "Opulent, glittery paean toearly '70s glam rock (and youth-culture head movies like QUADROPHENIA and PERFORMANCE) is such a triumph of style and excess it's easy to overlook the film's clinky CITIZEN KANE narrative structure and emotionally aloof characters. Rhys Meyers is effectively snotty as a bisexual David Bowie-esque pop star, but Collette is a standout as his negelcted party-girl wife..."

I'm Not There (2007)

Ruminations on the life of Bob Dylan, where six characters embody a different aspect of the musician's life and work

Far from Heaven (2002)

In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife faces a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in the outside world.

In all departments masterful reimagination of a Douglas Sirk melodrama contrasting its artificiality and the protagonists' superficial restraint with the lowdown of the issues that are still relevant even today.

Halliwell (no star): "Elegantly designed and shot and acted, and made in the style of a Douglas Sirk melodrama, this subverts the form by bringing to the fore what would have been the subtext of the movie in the 1950s; it is undeniably clever, but too often feels like an exercise in style."

Maltin***: "Fascinating filmmmaking exercise in which writer-director Haynes replicates the look and feel of a Douglas Sirk Technicolor soap opera, while tackling issues that would have been taboo in that era...Not so much a parody as a recreation, as if a 1957 movie were being made in 2002, with art direction, camerawork, costuming, music, and color that recall such films as ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS."

New acquisition: Carol (2015)

I liked the movie so much I had to get the Blu-ray.

New acquisition: Velvet Goldmine (1998)

Although I played this movie at my cinema (with some success), I hadn't watch it yet myself.

Carol (2015)

An aspiring photographer develops an intimate relationship with an older woman.

Highly exquisite adapation of Patricia Highsmith's lesbian love story achieves an intimate perspective from within a fragile relationship and awes with some Saul Leiter-inspired cinematography.