In My Country

John Boorman continues his exploration of remote political situations by moving from an invented situation in Panama to a fictional account around the real stories told during the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the end of Apartheid under the presidency of Nelson Mandela. He also continues his propensity for pushing too much into…

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The Tailor of Panama

I think this film almost works. Almost. Not quite, though. There's a saggy middle section that just drags the whole affair down without building up the tension like it probably should that the rest of the film can't get past. However, the first third and final third are actually quite adept at pulling together this…

The General (1998)

John Boorman had been getting more explicitly political for about a decade, but he moves his focus from far-away jungles to close to home, namely his adoptive home of Dublin. Based on a book by Paul Williams, Boorman wrote his script about the brazen and notorious criminal Martin Cahill with a particular emphasis on a…

Beyond Rangoon

There's something off about this film. It's like there are puzzle pieces that don't fit and aren't even from the same puzzle being shoved together without any effort to actually find some semblance of cohesion. It makes me wonder about the writing process of the film. The credited writers are Alex Lasker and Bill Rubenstein,…

Where the Heart Is

Part of that weird 80s and 90s subgenre of rich people having to interact with the homeless, John Boorman's Where the Heart Is is actually one of the more successful efforts, in the lines of Mel Brooks' Life Stinks. It's more clear-eyed and realistic in its portrayal of the issue while having something to say…