As recently as ten years ago, Tom Cruise was an unstoppable movie machine, propelled by his aggressive perfectionism, gleaming smile, and legitimate talents into his box office golden boy slot. Then comes Scientology and his weird divorce and marriage, the loss of his long-standing Paramount production deal, and, with Valkyrie, he almost proved to [...]

In 1977, David Frost interviewed post-resignation President Richard Nixon to give America satisfaction after his close-lipped exit of the White House. As a synopsis, that sounds pretty dry, but the narrative keeps the foregone conclusion only a trembling possibility, with the potential to collapse at any moment. Adapted from Peter Morgan’s play by [...]

This biopic was reportedly 30 years in the making. Over the years, scripts and stars have come and gone; then Brokeback Mountain opened some doors long closed. Now, glowing in the dark shadow of California Proposition 8 (banning the previously legal gay marriage) comes Gus Van Sant’s Milk with a terrific script. [...]

In my Religulous review, I recalled my companion telling me not to give that movie a good review just because I liked the subject. One could also say the same for this movie, except I am the opposite of fond of this subject. But don’t misunderestimate this movie. W is director Oliver [...]

Long did I put off watching this film – it’s lonely watching foreign screeners with no companion and I kept hoping for a reprieve, until finally I had to complete my Oscar ballot. And yet I struggle still to find the words to describe this film. Marion Cotillard’s win? Totally justified. Best [...]

Based on the autobiographical graphic novel of the same name by Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis chronicles how a little Iranian girl has come to live in France today. It’s as simple and as complex as that – and the animation follows suit. Almost entirely in black and white, Persepolis finds its visual complexity in [...]

I missed this in the theatre and, sour-grapes-style, presumed it was some half-baked Seven retread. Sure, directed by David Fincher, but all those reliable names have let us down at one time or another. It was advertised exploitatively and then poof! Gone. So why did I see it now? Frankly, [...]

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a true story about Elle power player Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffered a severe cerebral-vascular accident that resulted in a rare condition known even in French as “locked-in syndrome.” He is completely paralyzed save for one eyelid, but fully alert and conscious. His only means of communication [...]

Comparisons to last year’s “poor boy makes good with raw talent, almost ruins it with drugs and womanizing, and then redeems self” award-winning biopic Ray are inevitable, so let’s just get it out of the way now. Walk the Line does less than Ray in showing us the character that made the man’s music, [...]

As we all trip over ourselves to find just the right hyperbolic adjective that begins with “de-,” we may lose sight of what makes this movie such an artistic triumph. My companion, very wise in the ways of all things, noted that this movie could not have been made without the pioneering film language [...]