Critic Ken Tucker reviews four home video releases of movies inspired by the antiwar movement. Three of them, about burgeoning romances amid student demonstrations, don't hold up. But Joe, a film that rejects hippy values, is worth watching, if only for star Peter Boyle's excellent performance.
Ken Tucker is, as usual, disappointed by the winners of this year's Grammy Awards. But he's also dismayed by reader and critic polls which, according to him, celebrate dolorous and purposeless artists. New Order's recent album, Technique, could be described the same way, but Tucker appreciates its charm and accessibility.
The 1967 film Point Blank, directed by John Moorman, never found a wide audience in the U.S. Critic Ken Tucker says the crime thriller was a success nonetheless, with a brutal, fast-moving style and a directorial vision never recaptured in Moorman's later work.