The Ruins: Unrated
July 21, 2008
The Ruins (2008) is the latest gruesome horror film with a xenophobic streak in the tradition of Hostel (2005) and Turistas (2006). Take a group of young, attractive American tourists, drop them into a strange, inhospitable country and punish them for...
Four Last Songs
August 27, 2007
Four Last Songs (2007) derives its title from the last pieces of music composer Richard Strauss wrote for his wife before he died and, not surprisingly, dealt with grandiose notions of life and death – themes that this film clumsily tries to examine...
Pride and Prejudice
March 10, 2006
Originally titled First Impressions, Jane Austen’s 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice is considered a classic piece of boy meets girl literature and has already been adapted in to two mini-series (1980 and 1995) and now a second film. The first was...
The Ballad of Jack and Rose
January 16, 2006
Jack (Day-Lewis) and his daughter Rose (Belle) live in relative isolation on an island gradually being encroached by an ever-expanding suburbia. Jack is trying desperately to prevent this from happening for as long as he can. They live together with very...
Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut
August 27, 2005
Donnie Darko (2001) had the misfortune of being released right around the time of 9/11. At the time no one was interested in seeing a strange time travel movie involving a teenage boy who talks to a large rabbit and is almost killed by a jet engine fallen...
Confessions of an American Girl
July 30, 2005
One of the hardest obstacles for independent films to overcome is distribution. Some films are relegated to obscurity by bad timing, lack of funds or, simply, they just aren’t that good. Such is the case with Confessions of an American Girl (2002),...
The United States of Leland
January 31, 2005
The United States of Leland (2003) is a disturbing trip into the mind of a troubled young man named Leland Fitzgerald (Gosling). This 15-year old boy is in juvenile hall for killing the mentally handicapped kid brother of his girlfriend, Becky (Malone)....
Donnie Darko
September 30, 2003
A hit at Sundance last year, Donnie Darko arrives here with a highly deserved buzz of anticipation but bafflingly limited cinema release. On paper the setup sounds cheesy – Messed up teen sees giant bunny rabbit who predicts end of the world –...
Cold Mountain
May 2, 2003
Adapted from Charles Frazier’s book of the same name, Cold Mountain (2003) is an epic odyssey of one man’s struggle to travel back home to the woman he loves set against the backdrop of the American Civil War. Unfairly snubbed at last year’s Academy...
