Parkland
November 19, 2013
Oliver Stone’s JFK (1991) reignited the American public’s fascination with the John F. Kennedy assassination, spawning several other films that took a look at either the peripheral figures involved (Ruby) or its impact on society (Love Field). In...
The Illusionist
January 9, 2007
The Illusionist and The Prestige were released in theatres in 2006 and featured 19th century magicians as their protagonists. However, the latter was backed and promoted by a major Hollywood studio while the former was a modestly budgeted independent...
Cinderella Man
February 14, 2006
Cinderella Man (2005) had all the ingredients for a successful, prestigious crowd-pleaser: it’s a classic underdog story made by the Academy Award-winning team behind A Beautiful Mind (2001). And yet, despite all of this talent in front of and behind...
The Truman Show: Special Edition
January 23, 2006
With the proliferation of reality TV shows of all kinds, we aren’t too far away from the premise of The Truman Show (1998). Reality TV proves that people will watch just about anything and Peter Weir’s film takes that notion one step further by having...
Sideways
October 11, 2005
Alexander Payne’s last film, About Schmidt (2002), continued his fascination with American cinema in the ‘70s by featuring one its biggest (and most prolific) stars, Jack Nicholson. His latest movie, Sideways (2004), continues the road movie motif...
Paycheck
January 5, 2003
Phillip K. Dick just doesn’t get any respect from Hollywood. With the exception of Blade Runner (1982), film producers and writers have butchered his fiction, rendering them unrecognizable by the time they hit the big screen. “We Can You Remember...
American Splendor
March 22, 2002
Harvey Pekar’s comic book, American Splendor pioneered a new genre: the autobiographical comic book. At first glance, the everyday events of a file clerk from Cleveland seem hardly the material for an interesting film. Fortunately, filmmakers Robert...