Latest Film Reviews

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Bobby Deerfield (1977)

A resonant Pacino...though ultimately a misfire, suggests that there are worse things to call a movie than 'a curiosity.'
...And Justice for All (1979)

Pacino at the top of his game...[but] the film's lack of faith in its audience is glaringly apparent.
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead (2008)

At 67, George A. Romero can still kick upstart film-school horror junkies to the curb with his restless intellect and artful vitality. It sounds like a joke, but it's a compliment: Romero comes up wi...
The Bank Job (2008)

Tunneling underground notwithstanding, a heist movie shouldn't feel this much like drudgery.
Girls Rock! (2008)

An inspiring rebel yell from four girls unwilling to recede into the background as passive sacrifices to the MTV culture.
My Kid Could Paint That (2007)

Abstract art has always had its skeptics, but the documentary My Kid Could Paint That gives new meaning to "artistic inquiry." Following a blithely instinctive painter under investigation by uncon...
In the Valley of Elah (2007)

In and of itself, the story offers rich dramatic material that Haggis exploits well, but the writer-director's unsubtle condescension to his audience represents small thinking.
Fälscher, Die (The Counterfeiters) (2008)

Markovics expertly projects every craven instinct and heartfelt yearning of the complex protagonist, making The Counterfeiters an experience as satisfying emotionally as intellectually.
Semi-Pro (2008)

A sort of cinematic comfort food: it's the mac and cheese of the cineplex.
Penelope (2008)

Penelope, a gender swap on the old Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, casts Christina Ricci as an innerly beautiful rich girl literally cursed with a pig snout. Marriage to "one of her own kind" can re...
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

The film gets a full 'This is a work of fiction' disclaimer, even noting that any resemblance to any person living or dead is unintentional. That tells you something about how much trust to put in these historical CliffsNotes.
Damages—The Complete First Season (2006)

Series creators Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman put a premium on giving every episode at least one major plot twist...generally a satisfyingly suspenseful ride.
Justice League—The New Frontier (DTV) (2008)

The only real problem with the film is that it isn't long enough...wild story, complex and crammed plot, far-reaching cast of characters, terrific voice work, and sophisticated themes...
Be Kind Rewind (2008)

A kid's movie for adults, a charming notion for a time of postmodern ennui.
The Signal (2008)

The tripartite film The Signal borrows a conceit from J-horror—technology as a portal for evil—and puts it through the American indie horror wringer. The signal in question, sent by someo...
Beaufort (2008)

One of this year's five Oscar-nominated foreign films, the Israeli entry Beaufort essays the last days of the 12th Century Beaufort Castle, a mountain stronghold in Southern Lebanon. Once held by the...
Michael Clayton (2007)

A straight-ahead suspense melodrama, complete with villain and a climax with satisfyingly clean lines. But Gilroy constantly elevates the material with surprise gifts.
American Gangster (2007)

Inflated talk of American Gangster as a modern masterpiece--or even an Oscar-worthy picture--ignores the fact that there's not a single memorable setpiece in the film.
Goya's Ghosts (2007)

Director Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie) join forces for Goya's Ghosts, a reckless historical-ficti...
Sie, jie (Lust, Caution) (2007)

Lee provides no such easy comfort, instead keeping audiences constantly off-kilter, purposefully frustrating them with character behavior that's just...wrong.
Eastern Promises (2007)

Eastern Promises' unusually ambiguous character study makes for a different kind of crime drama, a striking if not entirely satisfying one.
Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (TV) (2007)

The dichotomy of Rickles' customary matador-theme entrance and tongue-in-cheek but true theme song "I'm a Nice Guy" captures Rickles' secret of success: you gotta love him.
Paranoid Park (2008)

A study in isolation and, yes, paranoia...The mesmerizingly beautiful images--often in slo-mo--glide to evoke Alex's primary pursuit of skating.
Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (The Band's Visit) (2007)

One of the film's prime strengths is its wordless willingness to let the principal characters express themselves through music and mime to overcome cultural barriers.
Taxi to the Dark Side (2008)

The Abu Ghraib controversy sparked a national debate on torture that has yet to calm. Were the horrors of Abu Ghraib the work of "a few bad apples" or a systematic, tacitly authorized approach to war...
Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights—Hollywood to the Heartland (2008)

Sometimes all we want from a movie is a good time out, and that's exactly what Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights—Hollywood to the Heartland provides. The documentary...
In Bruges (2008)

Playwright Martin McDonagh, an expert of sweaty crime dramas, takes his show on the road in his feature debut, In Bruges. McDonagh (who won an Oscar for his short film "Six Shooter") writes and direc...
The Aristocats (1970)

Proves that even the studio's halfhearted larks still have life in them, thanks to golden-age animators...tunesmiths...and vocal talent.
Martian Child (2007)

Though it panders shamelessly, it's not entirely unwelcome in a time when the PG movie is an endangered species.
Across the Universe (2007)

It's a dicey proposition to reverse-engineer a story, and Across the Universe shows the strain...[nonetheless] a very impressive music-video anthology.
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

An historical story of consequence and consequences around an enduringly lively social argument.
The Witnesses (2008)

From director André Téchiné (Wild Reeds) comes this insinuating drama about an emotionally complicated web of "open relationships." Novelist Sarah (Emmanuelle Béart of 8 W...
Over Her Dead Body (2008)

After these 97 minutes, resting in peace sounds pretty good.
Alice's House (2008)

This Brazilian drama from writer-director Chico Teixeira moves to its own rhythm. The story of a wife (Carla Riba's Alice) and husband, their three troubled sons, and the undervalued (grand)mother wh...
Untraceable (2008)

Sets the tone with an opening suite of scenes that put a kitty in danger.
Paprika (2007)

Kon marries visual dazzle to unblinking pop existentialism in ways that make viewers' heads hurt so good.
Molière (2007)

Deluxe tribute to the playwright gets by, surprisingly, as much by romantic poignancy as farce...it's hard to dislike a picture so in Love with its subject.
Mad Money (2008)

Roger Ebert maintains a "movie glossary" on his website of cinematic cliches, and the mind wandered to it as I watched Diane Keaton in Mad Money. Keaton's fallen upper-class wife has one of those mov...
The Great Debaters (2007)

Were the film not so insistent on conventional payoffs, The Great Debaters could have been much more satisfying. As it is, it's a pleasant holiday film with a positive message.
Rush Hour 3 (2007)

Sends the endlessly bickering couple to Paris, where the great director Roman Polanski gives them a rectal exam. I wish I were kidding.

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