Let's Get Clinical

Is a movie any good if you would rather watch it again with the sound off? We saw Kinsey last night and although it was quite good, I can't wait to re-watch it with the director's comments on. Liam Neeson and Laura Linney are quite good as Prock and Mac, the married couple who helped shepard post-war America into the sexual revolution. Some conservatives complained that the film didn't make any value judgments on Kinsey's research into sex offenders but the scene with William Sadler as a spectacularly repellant subject nailed it for me. Writer/director Bill Condon also helmed Gods and Monsters, a wonderful picture of 1950s Hollywood through the eyes of the director of The Bride of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man. Condon reminds me of Paul Schrader in that he creates these little worlds that we think we know and then shines a light on the people inside. Definitely check out Kinsey for the smart direction, Frederick Elmes' stirring cinematography, and the stellar performances from Neeson, Linney, Peter Sarsgaard, and a priggish John Lithgow, who sounds like a methodist Foghorn Leghorn. And keep an eye out for recovering actor Chris O'Connell and Tim Hutton, who borrows Sean Penn's mustache from The Falcon and the Snowman.