He Always Finds His Money

John Malkovich's Kreskin-like title character in The Great Buck Howard is a distant cousin of the scam artist he played a couple of years ago in Color Me Kubrick: two eccentrics (and flamboyant dressers) doing what they can to get by in the lower rungs of the showbiz universe. And both men have a talent for deception, or at least illusion: even at the end of The Great Buck Howard, you still don't know how Buck performs his signature trick... you don't even know if there's some secret cheat he uses, or if he really does have psychic powers after all.

The Great Buck Howard is a minor movie, but it's a tremendously likable one, and it's my "Hidden Gem" DVD pick this week on CBC Radio in Edmonton. Click here and you'll be able to listen to the segment... it's like magic!