Wonder Boys movie review: Well-known and generally admired – but inadequate – actors and an overbearing directorial hand fatally thwart Curtis Hanson’s attempt to revive Hollywood’s screwball comedies of the…
Stage Beauty movie review: Mixing elements from All About Eve and Shakespeare in Love, among other titles, Richard Eyre and Jeffrey Hatcher’s big-screen version of the latter’s play fails to…
The Grandfather movie review: As the titular – irascible, proud, prejudiced – abuelo in José Luis Garci’s period family drama, veteran Fernando Fernán Gómez discovers it’s never too late to…
JFK movie review: Then at the peak of his popularity, Kevin Costner plays a fearless justice fighter who uncovers a vast and sinister conspiracy behind the death of U.S. President…
Monster’s Ball movie review: Director Marc Forster’s psychological drama starring Best Actress Oscar winner Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton has a number of good qualities and noteworthy moments, but…
I Heart Huckabees movie review: Despite all the on-screen talent – Naomi Watts, Jude Law, Isabelle Huppert, Dustin Hoffman, etc. – the truly engrossing goings-on in David O. Russell’s satire…
Road to Perdition movie review: A great-looking production, Sam Mendes’ gangster noir works as an acting showcase for stars Tom Hanks and Paul Newman. On the downside, plot holes and…
Mulholland Dr. movie review: Starring a phenomenal Naomi Watts, David Lynch’s drama provides one of cinema’s most harrowing portraits of the evisceration of The American Dream – or, for that…
Faces movie review: About three years in the making, John Cassavetes’ 1968 dysfunctional marriage drama is both an American independent cinema landmark and an infuriatingly self-indulgent and long-winded exemplar of…
The Manchurian Candidate 2004 movie review: Jonathan Demme’s unsatisfying remake features two inadequate leads and suffers from pacing issues. In fact, the film comes to life only when ambitious mom…
Training Day movie review: Denzel Washington took home the year’s Best Actor Academy Award, but it’s costar Ethan Hawke who delivers the more memorable, more nuanced performance in Antoine Fuqua’s…
In Old Arizona movie review: Fox’s Cisco Kid Western is notable as the first all-talking motion picture shot outdoors, for earning Warner Baxter the first Best Actor Academy Award for…
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie review: Alfonso Cuarón’s hit fantasy about wizards, dementors, and hippogriffs boasts lots of great visual effects, but features precious little cinematic magic.…
A Woman Under the Influence 1974 review: John Cassavetes’ indie – starring wife Gena Rowlands as a mad (?) housewife – is evidence that fiercely independent filmmaking doesn’t necessarily result…
21 Grams movie review: Gripping characters and a quintet of solid performances mostly succeed in rescuing director Alejandro González Iñárritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga’s self-important, cliché-prone, and unnecessarily labyrinthine 2003…
About a Boy movie review: Chris and Paul Weitz’s trendy, trite comedy takes the moral high ground by lecturing audiences that “maturity” equals “commitment,” and that absolutely no man has…
Fahrenheit 9/11 movie review: Filmmaker Michael Moore’s indictment of the disastrous U.S.-led Iraq War; the hawkish George W. Bush administration; its unscrupulous corporate backers; and the craven, conglomerate-controlled U.S. media.…