Film
The Other End of the Line: Bollywood Attempts a Crossover
This meager cross-cultural romantic comedy stars Jesse Metcalfe as ultra-smooth New York advertising executive Granger and Bollywood actress…
Film
Zack & Miri Make a Porno: Seth Rogen Gets (Almost) Naked
Ostensibly, this should be money-shot Kevin Smith: Pals make a porn to pay the bills, and, in the…
Film
RocknRolla: English Hoodlums Pose Like Mad
What do you have to do to get your career revoked in England, short of being Gary Glitter?…
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The Unknown Woman: An Execrable Italian Snuff Film
Remember Giuseppe Tornatore, who made the overrated but harmlessly cute Cinema Paradiso, about the grumpy projectionist who made…
Film
Pride and Glory: Cops, Cops, and More Cops
Ed Norton is Ray Tierney, a good cop whose scar on his left cheek suggests deeper damage caused…
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Happy-Go-Lucky: Mike Leigh Finds the Brighter Side of Life
The protag of Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky is a modestly gaudy people’s heroine industriously repairing the social world, one…
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Tru Loved: Everyone Is Totally Gay and Totally Happy
Writer-director Stewart Wade’s Tru Loved is a kitschier incarnation of an after-school special: hokey and simplistic, but also…
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Changeling: Angelina Jolie Makes a Desperate Oscar Bid
Rescued from a City Hall junk heap by journalist-turned-screenwriter J. Michael Straczinski, this 1928 true tale of a…
Film
PICK Trouble the Water: Hurricane Katrina Filmed From the Inside Out
Hurricane Katrina’s third anniversary roughly coincided with the Republican and Democratic national conventions. If the two presidential candidates…
Film
The Secret Life of Bees: Weve Had Enough of Dakota Fanning Already!
From its attention-grabbing B-movie beginning, this family drama (based on the bestselling novel by Sue Monk Kidd) chugs…
Film
What Just Happened: Robert De Niro Cast in Mirthless Hollywood Satire
Jaw-droppingly arcane and dripping with self-regard, Barry Levinson’s tedious excuse for a Hollywood caper asks us, as if…
Film
W.: Oliver Stone Presents Our Sad Recent National History
W. may be less frenzied than the usual Oliver Stone sensory bombardment, but in revisiting the early ’00s…
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Rachel Getting Married: Anne Hathaway Has a Filthy Mouth
Those who believe that Jonathan Demme went all soft with Philadelphia and never recovered may not be reassured…
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Call + Response: Slavery Is Bigger Than Illegal Downloading?
Somebody’s got to pick up where Bono left off, right? A Bay Area musician and Live Aid baby,…
Film
The Grocer’s Son: A Red State-Blue State Divide in France
Director Eric Guirado’s The Grocer’s Son is a small, self-assured film that moves at its own pace, always…
Film
What We Do Is Secret: The Germs Are Resurrected
In my day, you had to visit a dozen Blockbusters to find a ratty copy of The Decline…
Film
PICK Secrecy: More Bad News About Our Government
Few Americans would argue with Winston Churchill’s dictum: “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always…
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The Express: A Spot of Glory Amid Our Current Terrible Football Season
The story of Syracuse running back Ernie Davis—the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy, in 1961, two…
Film
PICK A Girl Cut in Two: Claude Chabrol Isnt Done With Adultery and Murder
Claude Chabrol, who should soon be shooting his 70th feature, is at once wildly prolific and utterly faithful—at…
Film
PICK My Father, My Lord: A Boy Is Torn Between Faith and Family
Like Amos Gitai’s 1999 Kadosh, Israeli writer-director David Volach’s first feature has scores to settle with ultra-Orthodox Judaism,…