Film Reviews | Clothes on Film

Posted by Chris Laverty on September 8, 2009

Starring: Kathy Bates, James Caan, Richard Farnsworth
Directed by: Rob Reiner

Screenwriter William Goldman applies his mastery of the clean, lean literary adaptation to this Stephen King penned shocker. Apart from the daft fist-fight ending, Goldman works well with Misery (1990) director Rob Reiner. They let the story unfold at a relaxed pace with cleverly integrated subplots to keep things moving. The narrative is steered by the health of its ailing protagonist, novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan). The better he gets, the worse his situation becomes.
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Posted by Chris Laverty on August 27, 2009

Starring: Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey
Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow

Back in 1991 the world was a smaller place. The internet was in its infancy and subcultures, tribes, such as the surfing community, were mysterious to most of us. Perhaps they did act and sound like Patrick Swayze’s boho-hippy bank robber in search of ‘the ultimate rush’, we didn’t know. Only now we do, and, assumed caricatures apart, they really don’t.
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Posted by Chris Laverty on August 19, 2009

Starring: Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz
Director: Quentin Tarantino

World War II set Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino’s first ‘period film’ as such. It is an occasionally taxing two and half hours, not for the easily distracted. Though judging by Tarantino’s appreciation of how costume (military or otherwise) defined this brutal time, maybe he should revisit history’s atrocities more often.
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Posted by KB on August 10, 2009

Establishing a new feature at Clothes on Film, the following review is written in collaboration with costume designer Kristin M. Burke (Death Sentence, Crossing Over); the intention being to provide a deeper, more balanced analysis of the film in question. For a detailed synopsis of the plot from Saturday Night Fever (1977), visit Kristin’s own site Frocktalk.

Kristin’s Thoughts:

I love this movie. It is so dark, and at the time it was released, taped into the zeitgeist of a large, young part of our population. In a post-hippie reality, with a culture embracing its own diversity at last, along comes a movie that talks about all of it. In Saturday Night Fever, we find forums for discussion about everything from women’s lib to racism – hot topics at the time – and yes, these issues are carried out, expressed and explored in the costumes.
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