Despite protestations to the contrary, Woody Allen has always betrayed autobiography in his films. Of course, Allen isn't telling his own life story in any literal sense, but his movies are a psycho... 
Zesty and essentially true to its source, Spider-Man does the job. 
Undercover Brother--Malcolm D. Lee's blaxploitation spoof--may not be wholly original and it's definitely not politically correct. But it is fast and funny, which qualifies it as sterling summer ente... 
Writer-director Jill Sprecher took the long road to her latest film. It started with a severe head injury, the result of a New York mugging. It continued with the loss of backers and her own apartmen... 
It's easy to relate to Stacey Peralta's Dogtown and Z-Boys, a documentary chronicling the birth of skateboarding as a hobby, sport, and phenomenon. Like any average Joe at a high school reunion, tell... 
Swimming with Sharks brings to mind a host of Hollywood satires which have come before, perhaps especially David Mamet's play Speed-the-Plow in its sick, Tinseltown triangle of self-centered lovers a... 
In an apparent effort to get all the business there is to be had at the movies, Columbia offers us a teen comedy for the Spider-Man run-off crowd. But The New Guy is strictly theater filler, whose on... 
More an embarrassing therapy session for Peter Bogdanovich than a fulfilled film, The Cat's Meow gives the director the unusual opportunity to both skewer and identify with the enemy of his friend. F... 
The Deep End may not be deep, per se, but it touches surprising chords nevertheless. The second film from San Francisco writer-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel (after 1994's Suture), The Dee... 
In the early months of the year, the Hollywood crap parade flaunts fantasy, even in supposedly realistic settings. Britney Spears' debut as film star, Crossroads, spins a tale that has the feel of m... 
Mr. Nicks:I've reviewed your independent study materials and found them sorely lacking. Based on the promise you display, you should be ashamed of the shoddy work you have submitted here.First, let... 
First, the camera pushes in, into thick underbrush of lantana, revealing an unknown woman's body. For the next two hours, the film, in effect, slowly pulls back to reveal greater perspective and tru... 
An actor's performance as a mentally-challenged character can come off as a stunt designed for Oscar attention more than a role in service of a compelling story, and Sean Penn in I Am Sam skirts dang... 
If you like your devastation juxtaposed with jaunty jazz, you might enjoy Rintaro's new anime film Metropolis. Be forewarned, though: I use the term "new" lightly, as Metropolis scavenges the bones... 
Very seldom does a modern comedy come along which makes me laugh out loud, even amidst a guffawing preview audience. Orange County achieved this feat...repeatedly. In other hands, Michael White's sc... 
1998's Blade became that rarest and most hunted of Hollywood creatures: a franchise. This success story for New Line and star Wesley Snipes has come roaring back at the unfettered reins of Mexican h... 
Following closely behind Alejandro González Iñárritu's breakthrough success for Mexican film, Amores Perros, Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu Mamá También has been desc... 
Though we've never been long without one, it seems war movies are all the rage again. In particular, Hollywood has resurrected the brotherhood theme in depicting our brave fighting men. Screenwriter... 
In a year of notable biopics about gay artists - such as Wilde and Love is the Devil--Gods and Monsters might be expected to fade into the background. But director Bill Condon's ode to gay film direc... 
Hollow Reed is the sort of drama Hollywood thinks it has been making for years: earnest, gripping, emotional and real. of course, Hollywood dramas are more often artificial, predictable, and facile t... 
Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence? This unlikely pair fuels as cheerily stupid a buddy comedy as we've had this decade. It's the brainchild of writer-director Steve Oedekirk, who brought us the Ace Ve... 
Another vehicle for Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau? A cruise ship, no less? Surprisingly, this long-in-the-tooth duo, long settled into their fussy-growly shtick, haven't worn out their welcome in th... 
Would you believe a positively endearing gay character in a Farrelly Brothers movie? What, are they getting soft? Okay, the movie is directed by Michael Corrente (American Buffalo), and released by... 
For his follow-up to Forrest Gump, director Robert Zemeckis selected the epic story of humankind's first contact with alien life, based on Carl Sagan's novel. The result is an uneven and often pedant... 
Michael Lehmann has one of the most tumescent careers among mainstream directors. Beginning with his breakthrough film Heathers through the underappreciated absurdist action comedy Hudson Hawk, D.O.A... 
Imagine your surprise, returning home with your rental copy of Citizen Kane to discover that you've accidentally been supplied with Citizen Cum, a gay porno. For L.A. newcomer (no pun intended) Sean... 
Though eluding the unofficial Hollywood policy against pitch black comedy, Danny DeVito's twisted vision of Death to Smoochy succumbs to a much worse pitfall: an underdeveloped script. Adam Resnick'... 
The latest New Yawk Jew relationship comedy, Kissing Jessica Stein, plays a little like a ripoff of Rob Reiner's ripoff of Woody Allen's Annie Hall, but with lesbian chic. Despite the faint praise, t... 
Being rushed into U.S. release for no apparent reason (perhaps for some arcane tax purposes), Mean Machine lacks the benefit of a big promotional push. Presumably its audience--of die-hard Vinnie Jon... 
In a year rife with tales of obsession and trauma in the wake of death (like The Pledge and In the Bedroom), the achievement of Marc Forster's Monster's Ball stands in impressive relief. Like most 2...
Among this year's Oscar Bait options, consider the latest Coen Brothers "art project": The Man Who Wasn't There. Like TV's The Simpsons, the Coen Brothers seem well past their prime, and yet their mat... 
With the advent of digital effects and digital sound, war on film has entered a new frontier of realism. The filmmaker's impulse with these new toys seems to be to expand the carnage to punishing len... 
In one intense scene from the Disney "family" movie Snow Dogs, Oscar-winning actor James Coburn yells at Oscar-winning actor Cuba Gooding, Jr., "You've got something wrong in your head!" to which Goo... 
Summer is the season of idealization, depicting worlds that tend to be just a bit too good to be true. For escapists, Big Eden offers gentle, charming romantic "dramedy". First-time writer-director T...
Director Philip Kaufman has almost become synonymous with button-pushing films. Kaufman has been put in the position of defending his films more than once, but usually when they cross into sexually c... 
A Latin American doctor disappears into the forbidding wilderness of his country, in search of his former students and, perhaps, absolution. In John Sayles' Men With Guns, Dr. Humberto Fuentes journe... 
Based on the hit Broadway play by Terrence McNally, Love! Valour! Compassion! is a graceful, sharp-witted, and poignant gay film. It is also, like Jeffrey before it, a fairly conventional genre tale... 
If your summer ideals run to the "knight in shining armor" or "fair damsel" types, get a load of Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale. This Hollywood action-romance extravaganza is loud, obnoxious, ove... 
Kenneth Branagh is known for bringing Shakespeare to the masses with his successful adaptations of Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing. Branagh favors international star power in casting his Shakespea...
Eyes Wide Shut. The title names several states— the lucid dreaming of contemporary manners, the shadow world of our dreams and nightmares, and perhaps the most powerful state of all: a consciou... 