Crazy Heart
April 19, 2010
In 2010, Jeff Bridges finally received an Academy Award for acting after several previous nominations over the years and a long, illustrious career chock full of diverse roles in films as varied as the murder mystery Cutter’s Way (1981), big-budget...
Away We Go
October 5, 2009
After the intense drama of Revolutionary Road (2008), one could hardly blame director Sam Mendes for opting to switch gears for decidedly lighter fare with his next film Away We Go (2009). After the soul-crushing dysfunction and overwhelming feeling of...
Paris, Je T’aime
December 18, 2007
The short film, much like the short story, is an artform unto itself. It takes a certain set of skills as a storyteller to be able to tell a tale succinctly. People who make commercials have even less time. Unfortunately, outside of television stations...
Stranger than Fiction
March 12, 2007
At some point in their careers many comedians want to be taken seriously. Robin Williams, Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler have all tried their hand at more dramatic fare with varying degrees of success. Lately, Will Ferrell has been making inroads at more...
Trust the Man
February 7, 2007
Trust the Man (2006) is a romantic comedy set in New York City so we’re on familiar ground. We knew what to expect because we’ve seen so many of these kinds of movies: white, affluent New Yorkers with relationship problems. Which means that this film...
Criminal
October 6, 2005
Based on the movie, Nine Queens (2000), Criminal (2004) is the directorial debut of Gregory Jacobs, a protégé of filmmaker Steven Soderbergh (who also co-produced the movie). Stylistically speaking, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. The...
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...
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 –...
Mona Lisa Smile
March 11, 2003
Once upon a time Julia Roberts was the queen of the 90’s romantic comedy who reinvented herself via Steven Soderbergh in 2000 as an Oscar-winning actress. Mona Lisa Smile fails Roberts in both these categories, never once throwing up a surprise...