REVIEWS IN A HURRY More movies that begin with T. Back to First Page & Alphabetical Index.				Thunderheart (1992, 118 min, R) ***1/2 – Directed by Michael Apted, starring Val Kilmer, Graham Greene, and Sam Shepard.  Crackerjack police procedural about a politically-motivated murder on an Indian reservation that may be part of a conspiracy.   Not only are all the mystery elements spot on, but a young FBI agent’s (Kilmer) gradual contact with his Native American ancestry is intriguing as well.  Greene is scene-stealing as a foul-mouthed “Rez” cop, Shepard is Kilmer’s world-weary partner, and director Apted uses his experiences with documentaries to give the entire reservation a sad, vast, and mysterious feel, almost as if it were a character. Titanic (1997, 170 min, PG13) ** - Directed by James Cameron, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.  Overlong, overwrought, and self-important epic about a boring romance between a rich girl (Winslet) and a poor boy (DiCaprio) on the doomed trans-Atlantic ship.  The class warfare that keeps them apart is seriously and insultingly dumbed-down and there are no supporting players of interest to save us.  Even the fantastic visual effects and art direction, as the “Titanic” arrives, departs, and sinks, are smothered by director Cameron’s constant reminders, through music, slow-motion, and absurd runtime, that what we’re seeing is supposed to be so very, very important.  11 Oscars, including Picture and Director. Titus (1999, 162 min, R) **** - Directed by Julie Taymor, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange.  Awesome, wildly anachronistic adaptation of “Titus Andronicus” combines swords, guns, tanks, fedoras, punk rock, and art deco architecture.  It’s a game of violence-begets-violence in an endless stream of revenge between the captured queen of the Goths (Lange) and the Roman general (Anthony Hopkins) who conquered her land and executed her son.  Taymor directs ferociously and the leads are scene-stealing psychotics, while the bodies pile up as they only can in Shakespeare.
	The Tailor of Panama (2001, 109 min, R) ***1/2 – Directed by John Boorman, starring Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush, and Jamie Lee Curtis.  Deliciously cynical political thriller, from the book by John le Carre, about a rogue British spy (Brosnan in a role that can only be described as “anti-007”) sent to Panama as a punitive measure.  While there he puts the squeeze on an ex-con tailor (Rush) who used to be connected to the underground.  When the tailor has nothing to tell the spy, he starts making things up, and their rapidly-growing ball of lies spirals out of control, with deadly consequences.  Much more about character, motives, and politics than about guns and gadgets. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999, 139 min, R) **** - Directed by Anthony Minghella, starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jude Law.  Haunting thriller-cum-character study about a pleasant but mysteriously blank young man named Tom Ripley (Damon) who idolizes a spendthrift American couple (Law and Paltrow) living in Europe.  Murder, cover-ups, and fake identities ensue.  Wonderfully shot, deliberately paced, and genuinely suspenseful, the movie passes from good to great when it creates its own mood of loss and regret, reminding us of when we are enormously sad and have no to blame but ourselves.  Oscar nominations include Best Supporting Actor Law. Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead (1995, 115 min, R) **1/2 – Directed by Gary Fleder, starring Andy Garcia, Christopher Lloyd, and Christopher Walken.  Proof that the same ideas come to different people at the same time, “Things to Do in Denver” may look like an inferior “Pulp Fiction” knock-off but it was actually made around the same time as that film.  A chatty group of gangsters, led by Garcia and under the supervision of a paralyzed mastercriminal (Walken) known as The Man with the Plan, or simply The Head, re-unite to pull an easy job.  But something goes wrong, as something always does.  Entertaining but meandering. The Thin Red Line (1998, 170 min, R) **** - Directed by Terence Malick, starring Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, and Nick Nolte.  Possibly the most daring and challenging big budget film since “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the battle for Guadalcanal in WW2 is told not through story or character but through images, color, mysterious narration, and haunting, contemplative music.  Surreal thoughts and conversations, not meant to be taken literally, are juxtaposed with gritty battle sequences, just as the ordered beauty and faceless cruelty of nature are juxtaposed with the wonder and violence of human kind.  A recurring argument is held by a jaded sergeant (Penn) and a simple, idealist private (Caviezel) about whether the world is ordered and meaningful.  Amazingly photographed by John Toll using only natural light.  7 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Original Score, and Adapted Screenplay, no wins; picked by Martin Scorsese as the best American film of the 1990s. The Third Man (1949, B&W, 104 min, NR) **** - Directed by Carol Reed, starring Joseph Cotton, Orson Welles, and Alida Valli.  The greatest film noir of all time finds a hopelessly naive American pulp writer (Cotton) in post-war Vienna trying to solve an old friend’s murder.  The movie is as cynical and jaded as Europe after WW2, the mind-bogglingly beautiful photography of a bombed-out city won an Oscar, Orson Welles makes one of the best entrances in film history, Anton Karas’ zither score is perfectly ironic, even sarcastic towards our protagonist—I could talk about “The Third Man” all day, and the whole thing, especially the closing shot, leaves you feeling so wonderfully, deliciously sad.  Winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2002, 104 min, R) ***1/2 – Directed by Jill Sprecher, starring Matthew McConaughey, Alan Arkin, and John Turturro.  Five interlocking stories demonstrate that the key to happiness and contentment isn’t always what happens in life but what our perspective about life is.  We meet many different characters, including a lawyer (McConaughey) with a convincing code about what brings forth order and goodness; an insurance man (Arkin) who distrusts the happiness of a coworker; and a physics professor (John Turturro) for whom an ordered, predictable cosmos is both what he treasures and what he fears.