Oscar Movies

Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? review: Oscar nominee Barbara Harris steals Dustin Hoffman film.

True Grit 2010 movie review: Far superior to the 1969 John Wayne version, as Joel and Ethan Coen Western is much more than the sum of its parts.

Mitchell Leisen’s 1941 romantic melo Hold Back the Dawn is a good Olivia de Havilland showcase. Also in the cast: Charles Boyer and Paulette Goddard.

Starring Harrison Ford, Ridley Scott’s 1982 dystopian thriller Blade Runner is a modern classic. But does it merit that label? Sean Young and Rutger Hauer costar.

Is Michael Curtiz’s 1942 Oscar-winning romantic drama Casablanca truly great cinema? Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid star.

Joan Crawford exudes charisma in Jean Negulesco’s stylish but ponderous 1946 melodrama Humoresque. John Garfield and Oscar Levant costar.

Ingmar Bergman’s sumptuous big-screen swan song, the 1982 period family drama Fanny and Alexander is even more engrossing in its longer form.

The Departed with Leonardo DiCaprio. Best Picture Academy Award winner The Departed boasts a respectable pedigree: the cop thriller was directed by Martin Scorsese; edited by Thelma Schoonmaker; shot by…

Krzysztof Kieslowski’s brilliant Three Colors: Red features Jean-Louis Trintignant in a career-capping star turn and Irène Jacob in a career-making one.

Brian De Palma’s neo-noir The Black Dahlia is a poor imitation of 1940s films noirs. Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank are the badly miscast stars.

Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 action classic Seven Samurai is one of those rare films that get better and better with each new viewing. Toshiro Mifune stars.

As an imperial fashion-world ogress, Meryl Streep is the best thing about David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada movie version. Anne Hathaway costars.

Munich movie (2005): Steven Spielberg’s uneven but complex political thriller is his most satisfying in decades. Eric Bana, Geoffrey Rush + Daniel Craig star.

Sorrell and Son movie: Adult themes aplenty in father-son drama starring a superlative H.B. Warner. Anna Q. Nilsson, Alice Joyce + Nils Asther costar.

The Letter movie with Jeanne Eagels and Herbert Marshall. The Letter movie (1929) review: Creaky yet a must-see as murderess + adulteress Jeanne Eagels’ sole extant talkie Having watched William…

The Letter 1940 movie: Bette Davis’ outstanding femme fatale in this classic remains one of the most memorable film performances in history.

Bruno Ganz Is an out-of-control Adolf Hitler and Corinna Harfouch is a coolly deranged Magda Goebbels in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s convoluted drama Downfall.

Featuring Jamie Foxx in a showy but skin-deep characterization, Taylor Hackford’s uninspired Ray Charles biopic Ray aims for the big bucks.

Darrell Roodt’s Oscar-nominated Zululand-set AIDS drama Yesterday is a must-see partly thanks to a sensational central performance by Leleti Khumalo.

Johnny Depp is a lifeless, Disneyfied version of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie in Marc Forster’s feel-good family tragedy Finding Neverland.

Brad Silberling’s handsomely mounted fantasy adventure Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is a Jim Carrey mugfest. But Meryl Streep is wasted.

Christophe Barratier’s boys school drama The Chorus is an unabashedly sentimental rehash of numerous other such tales (e.g., Going My Way).

A superlative Hilary Swank can’t beat the odds against Clint Eastwood’s cliché-ridden boxing + surrogate father-daughter melo Million Dollar Baby.

A superb Don Cheadle stars as Kigali hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina in Terry George’s absurdly ‘uplifting’ genocide drama Hotel Rwanda.