Skin I Live In: Hide and Sick
OK, here’s one of the more messed-up things I’ve seen in a while, and I mean that mostly in a good way. Much of...
Happy Feet Two: Heading South
I’m still trying to figure out how the disjointed and heavy-handed Happy Feet got such great reviews five years ago, but there’s no secret...
My Name Is… Martha Marcy May Marlene.
One of the big stories at last winter’s Sundance Film Festival was Martha Marcy May Marlene. This low-budget psychological thriller turned heads even before...
J. Edgar: Hoover Ville
Mark Harris recently wrote that while film critics often slam a movie whose directors and/or actors are better than its weak script, those same...
Margin Call: Sell High
Talk about great timing: Margin Call premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last winter to middling buzz and reviews, but now this drama —...
Elevate: Rêves du Hoop
Any documentary about basketball has to contend with the long shadow cast by Hoop Dreams. The new film Elevate isn’t in that league, yet...
Anonymous: Shakespeare in Lies
The whole idea that Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare’s plays is a load of crap. I feel safe saying this, having spent a chunk of...
Puss in Boots: Break an Egg
The biggest problem with Puss in Boots is that it has come out five years too late. The feline adventurer voiced by Antonio Banderas...
Low Heat
After several decades’ worth of movie directors’ sons taking up their fathers’ line of work, now we’re seeing directors’ daughters do the same, and...
Penn’s States
“Why are you interviewing me?” Lindsay Penn suddenly asked me in the middle of our recent talk. She wasn’t asking out of false modesty...
