Film
Seven Pounds: Will Smith Demands Lump in Your Throat
Two years ago, Will Smith and Italian director Gabriele Muccino released The Pursuit of Happyness, which starred Smith…
Film
The Tale of Despereaux: Adorable Animated Mice
Kate DiCamillo’s 2003 children’s novel about a big-eared mouse with an inspiring case of shining-knight envy is one…
Film
Doubt: Meryl Streep Scares the Devil Out of Us
Back in the early 1980s, when I was a graduate student in Boston, a prominent professor I knew…
Film
Yes Man: Jim Carrey Wont Grow Up
Jim Carrey plays a self-absorbed Debbie Downer named Carl Allen who green-lights every bad decision in an effort…
Film
Lake City: Crime and Punishment in Rural Virginia
Troy Garity has a rangy, lonesome-stranger body and pouchy eyes. He can boot a cigarette butt to the…
Film
Nothing Like the Holidays: Chicago Catholics Bicker and Bond
The Rodriguez kids, spread far from their native Chicago, reunite for Xmas under the roof of their voluminous…
Film
Virtual JFK: Brown University Prof Insists Vietnam Couldve Been Avoided
This elegantly constructed if misleadingly titled class lecture, written and delivered by Brown professor of international relations James…
Film
Dark Streets: Like Chicago Without the Star Power
So obsessed with mimicry it’s practically a tribute band of a movie, Dark Streets throws copious amounts of…
Film
My Name Is Bruce: B-Movie Icon Lampoons Himself
If your ears perk up at the mere mention of a fourth Evil Dead movie, or you tune…
Film
Frost/Nixon: Ron Howard Insists the 70s Still Arent Over
I hear America singing and I see… Richard Nixon. Not the man but the muse: Has any president…
Film
The Dukes: An Old Tune, Professionally Sung
Even if you don’t know the name, you’ll recognize Robert Davi’s slightly corroded handsomeness and shiny, bottomless eyes.…
Film
PICK Stranded: Life, Death, and Cannibalism in the Andes
No surprises here—first the subtitle, then the prior book (and later movie) Alive, and finally the inevitable cannibalism.…
Film
Cadillac Records: Old Album, Bad Needle
For a film “based on a true story”—that of Leonard and Phil Chess’ eponymous record label, featuring the…
Film
Great Speeches From a Dying World: Seattles Homeless on Film
The guy holding the “Smile” sign at the Marion Street pedestrian ramp to the ferry terminal? He’s got…
Film
Australia: Nicole Kidman Versus the Kangaroos
You don’t have to have been raised on colonial Brit Lit, classic melodramas, Westerns or war movies, or…
Film
Transporter 3: Jason Statham Takes His Shirt Off
After the disappointingly shallow new James Bond movie, maybe a third helping of Frank Martin isn’t a bad…
Film
PICK Breakfast With Scot: Our Kind of Gay Hero
Eric (Tom Cavanagh) is a deeply closeted sportscaster and ex–Maple Leaf; Sam (Ben Shenkman) is his patient partner.…
Film
Frontrunners: Revenge of the Nerds
The great American student-government election: Teenagers exposing their fragile egos to public ballot-box rejection and spending a small…
Film
PICK Milk: Sean Penn Goes Gay for Another Oscar
Gus Van Sant has never been what you’d call a risk-adverse filmmaker, but he directs his Harvey Milk…