The Rare Review - Movies, books, music and TV

Not Bad: “The Illusionist” (2006)

On August 24, 2026

Cover of The Illusionist [Blu-ray]

Edward Norton is The Illusionist in a 2006 period film by Neil Burger.

I got bored with Steven Millhauser’s short story, “Eisenheim the Illusionist,” and so stopped reading it. I’m glad it was transferred to the screen, however, for there is much to love in this curious movie. Norton’s Eisenheim works as a mind-boggling illusionist in 19th-century Vienna and is in love with Sophie von Teschen (Jessica Biel), the aristocratic inamorata of a callous prince (Rufus Sewell). Illusions are everywhere in the film, all performed by Eisenheim—unless the illusions are real. Burger keeps us guessing. What the whole of Vienna believes to be reality, in fact, turns out to be a happy falsehood.

The film uses a couple of the iris-outs so appreciated by director Francois Truffaut, and indeed The Illusionist greatly resembles Truffaut’s period pieces, e.g. The Story of Adele H., though without the customary charm. Cinematographer Dick Pope’s lighting cannot be improved on; truly the film has a look. Prague nicely stands in for Vienna, and the costumes of Ngila Dickson are unpretentiously agreeable. Philip Glass’s score is respectable if sometimes shopworn.

The film is entertaining as well as marred by plenty of flaws. For one thing, it’s a bit plebeian, and for another, I wish Jessica Biel’s acting had more sparkle, more imagination, for all her good looks.

Looking At Babylon Bee Videos

By EarlD

On August 20, 2026

In Movies

In the comic, satirical webzine The Babylon Bee, the hits outweigh the misses. It’s worth reading. To me, the misses, though, are quite frequent in the Bee’s short videos I watch on YouTube; but the hits are certifiably there too. This is political satire—right-leaning hilarity. One of the best videos is “What If We Abolished Prisons and Defunded the Police?,” a pet democratic socialist cause. Here, a judge’s “harshest sentence” for murder is . . . to pleadingly ask the defendant not to do it again. The defendant must be an illegal immigrant.

Clever, too, is a skit in which a pair of adults cannot define the word “woman” for a boy in a spelling bee who requests the definition. I also like the very brief “Upsides to Socialism.” These are funny items coming from the same folks who recently purveyed on their website the header, “Lindsey Clancy Honored With Planned Parenthood Lifetime Achievement Award.”

“Wichita”: Earp Was Never Marshal There

By EarlD

On August 17, 2026

In Movies

Wyatt Earp (Joel McCrea) is the main character in Jacques Tourneur‘s Wichita (1955). Wichita is not yet a boom town in 1874, and local bigwigs are afraid Earp, the new marshal,* is a threat to the town’s prosperity and existence. Earp tries to disarm the visiting, cattle-driving cowboys—Wichita providers—because their rowdiness routinely turns to violence. Scripted by Daniel Ullman, the pic would be a perfect Fifties TV movie. As it is, it’s a non-great but involving Western in color and with a palatable Western hero in McCrea. The cast is familiar and enjoyable, except that Edgar Buchanan is just Edgar Buchanan and Vera Miles is underwhelming.

*Ahistorical

Engaging “Obession”

By EarlD

On August 14, 2026

In Movies

Written and directed by Curry Barker, Obsession (2026) is a decent entertainment, a comedic horror flick that by and by loses the comedy. Which is fine; it retains its integrity. Michael Johnston plays teenaged Bear with amiable authority and sensitivity, while Inde Navarette plays teenaged Nikki with hair-raising credibility, with stunning stamina. Too, she is unforgettably sensual. This is the one about an occultic wish that comes true and leads Nikki not just to love but also to obsess over, with a deranged mind, the too-shy Bear. It’s very interesting if not quite perfect, and a big moneymaker.

It’s Romantic, Crude And Other Things: The “Goodbye Columbus” Movie

By EarlD

On August 6, 2026

In General

Larry Peerce’s Goodbye Columbus (1969) is a Hollywood movie for adults since the Philip Roth story from which it derives is a novella for adults. It is well known that it has to do with the attitude of rich American Jews toward low-income Jews (and vice versa), but when Peerce isn’t proving what a romantic he is, he is imposing on us some ugly, very raffish, and insulting satire. Romantic? Yes, in the scenes where Neil and Brenda, falling in love, are together, and these can be pleasant. Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw enact the lovers with savvy and heart. But Goodbye Columbus is pushy and fails to adequately convey the ultimate meaning of Roth’s story (in the diaphragm sequence). It is, I think, worth seeing but just barely.

Goodbye, Columbus (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)