IT was just around the time when the giant eagle swooped out of the greater Philadelphia night to rescue a creature called a narf, shivering and nearly naked next to a swimming pool shaped like a collapsed heart, that I realized M. Night Shyamalan had lost his creative marbles. Since Mr. Shyamalan’s marbles are bigger than those of most people, or so it would seem from the evidence of a new book titled “The Man Who Heard Voices” (and how!), this loss might have been a calamity, save for the fact that “Lady in the Water” is one of the more watchable films of the summer. A folly, true, but watchable. A bedtime story that plays like a stab at a modern myth, “Lady in the Water” follows Mr. Shyamalan’s sensationally entertaining breakout (“The Sixth Sense”), a pair of misfires (“Unbreakable” and “Signs”) and a raging bore (“The Village”). As before, this film involves characters who, when faced with the inexplicable, behave less like real people than idealized movie audiences: they … [Read more...] about Finding Magic Somewhere Under the Pool in ‘Lady in the Water’
Hell or high water movie
Deadly storm pummels Northern California, breaching levees, forcing many water rescues
After a powerful New Year’s Eve storm triggered landslides, blackouts and road closures across California, residents were left to deal with the aftermath Sunday as forecasters warned of even more rain in the coming days. The heavy wind and downpours left tens of thousands of homes in Northern California without power for much of Sunday, while record high waters on the Cosumnes River near Sacramento breached three levees and inundated the area. Flash flooding along Highway 99 and other roads south of Sacramento submerged dozens of cars near Wilton, where the water poured over the levees. Search and rescue crews in boats and helicopters scrambled to pick up trapped motorists. A t least one person was found dead in a submerged car near Dillard Road and Highway 99, according to local media reports. “I don’t want to use the term apocalyptic, but it’s ugly,” Sacramento County spokesman Matt Robinson said by phone from a stretch of Highway 99 that he described as a vast lake. “We … [Read more...] about Deadly storm pummels Northern California, breaching levees, forcing many water rescues
What Will It Take to Trust M. Night Shyamalan?
A man enters a dark room and faces a suspicious audience. Within these four walls, he explains, he’s going to tell captive strangers a tale with life-or-death stakes. But first, he needs something crucial from them: their trust. Gaining trust isn’t easy for Leonard (Dave Bautista), a heavily tattooed muscleman wielding a pitchfork fused to a scythe in “Knock at the Cabin.” It’s even harder for the film’s director, M. Night Shyamalan, a yarn-spinner who’s become more associated with the twist than Chubby Checker. “I don’t look at it as a kind of fancy dance move,” Shyamalan said of his trickster reputation in a 2021 NPR interview . “Now I’m going to do the moonwalk, everybody! Here we go!” Shyamalan insists he’s not after gotchas. He’s a spiritualist chasing moments of epiphany, that exhalation when the reveal of one piece of information makes the world make sense. Early on in “Knock at the Cabin,” Leonard and his three fellow kidnappers tie up a family — the parents … [Read more...] about What Will It Take to Trust M. Night Shyamalan?
With ‘The Visit,’ M. Night Shyamalan Returns to His Filmmaking Roots
LOS ANGELES — “I don’t know, bro. I was screwed up in the head.” M. Night Shyamalan, ruminating last month about career choices gone wrong, spoke those words and then burst into a giddy giggle. Just kidding! But the tenderness in his eyes betrayed him: There was some truth in that tease. In contrast to his first four studio movies, which were all substantial hits, starting with “The Sixth Sense” in 1999, Mr. Shyamalan’s last four films have been a series of misfires. “Lady in the Water,” “The Happening,” “The Last Airbender” and “ After Earth ” severely tarnished his reputation among moviegoers. The guy who brought us those clunkers — and, yes, we know, “The Sixth Sense” — wants us to buy tickets again? Pass. But here comes a hairpin twist nobody anticipated: Mr. Shyamalan, 45, seemingly humbled and more mature, took a hard look at his professional life, made a course correction, and the result, a quirky comedic thriller called “ The Visit ,” may well deliver a surprise … [Read more...] about With ‘The Visit,’ M. Night Shyamalan Returns to His Filmmaking Roots
Gatsby, and Other Luxury Consumers
The pages of “The Great Gatsby” are suffused with romance and dusted with sexual implication, but perhaps the most intensely and disturbingly erotic scene — the one that distills the novel’s seductive blend of desire and sorrow — involves clothes. Showing off his mansion to Daisy Buchanan, the great love of his life, and Nick Carraway, his diffident, dazzled neighbor, Jay Gatsby opens a cabinet in which his shirts are “piled like bricks in stacks a dozen high.” He throws them into a pile, and as Nick notes the wondrous textures and colors — “stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, with monograms of Indian blue” — Daisy bursts into tears: “ ‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. ‘It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such — such beautiful shirts before.’ ” A reader might speculate about other causes of her weeping, but there is no reason not to take Daisy at her word. One of F. Scott … [Read more...] about Gatsby, and Other Luxury Consumers
FILM IN REVIEW; ‘National Lampoon’s Van Wilder’
See the article in its original context from April 5, 2002 Section Page Buy Reprints View on timesmachine TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Directed by Walt Becker R, 95 minutes Though National Lampoon hasn't existed as a print publication since November 1998, its spirit lives on, at least as a brand name. A commercial spinoff from Harvard Lampoon, the magazine enjoyed its heyday in the early 70's, when self-indulgent hedonism went hand in hand with a radicalized social consciousness. For a brief moment, donning a toga and drinking to wild excess could be considered a revolutionary gesture. The Lampoon's instinctive antiauthoritarian attitude bled over into films like ''National Lampoon's Animal House'' (1978) and ''National Lampoon's Summer Vacation'' (1983). It helped define a new school of slob comedy that still thrives today, populated now as then by veterans of ''Saturday Night Live.'' ''National Lampoon's … [Read more...] about FILM IN REVIEW; ‘National Lampoon’s Van Wilder’
