My companion saw the 1974 original film adaptation of John Goday’s novel, remade here by Serious Director Tony Scott, and he reported that the original was just not this serious in tone.  At the time, I couldn’t imagine a movie taking itself more seriously; the more I thought about it, though, the less serious it [...]

We saw State of Play immediately after Angels and Demons, and the story parallels are actually quite surprising. A man and a woman operating in opposition to the authorities chase puzzles and clues down a rabbit hole, their unorthodox methods bearing more fruit than the “official” investigation, concluding with a kind of middling semi-surprise [...]

I fully expected to like this movie ever since seeing the preview. If you’re not drawn in by the cast (Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin) then maybe you’re sucked in by the premise: sisters start a crime scene clean-up business. My companion and I had the amazing good fortune to get to chat before [...]

Gone in a blink and cleaning up awards nominations, Rachel Getting Married should have gotten wider distribution to offset the obvious horror of star Anne Hathaway’s other movie, Bride Wars. Perhaps someone thought we would be confused by two Hathaway wedding themed movies? Be that as it may, when this comes out on [...]

Last Chance Harvey looks like it could be any number of movies from the outside – a romance, a drama, a missed opportunities bittersweet tale, or another Dying Young. It’s not, thank heavens, “just” any one of those things. If I were pitching it to a studio, I would probably say it’s a [...]

An icon in his own right, Clint Eastwood is a fixture, a flavor. His gravelly voice pushes all his characters automatically into the “crusty” category and the topographical map of his face renders him unmessable-with. In Gran Torino, also-director Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a crusty, unmessable-with Korean war veteran watching his Detroit neighborhood [...]

After a dark horse Oscar nomination for Best Picture, we got a chance to see this movie at last. Kate Winslet had been gobbling nominations and wins right and left for her work in this and in Revolutionary Road, and I must say that this is the performance of the two to honor. [...]

Tom McCarthy wrote and directed this very personal-feeling story about Walter, a drifting widower (Richard Jenkins) who finds squatters in his NYC apartment and gets intertwined in their lives. It’s an odd premise – a professor wealthy enough to neglect a Manhattan apartment with a hard-working, undocumented couple renting it from the unknown Ivan. [...]

It may have been a mistake to watch Defiance in a double feature with Valkyrie. These two WWII movies could not be more different in tone, though both are portraits in bravery above and beyond reasonable hope. Where Valkyrie is very military and fawning, sort of, Defiance is gritty, earthy, trembling, and intense. [...]

Twenty years later, the battered face looking out at his fans is so weary, so changed, and yet full of regret and good intentions. Am I speaking of actor Mickey Rourke or his character, Randy “The Ram” Robinson? Either way, your heart opens up to the guy almost immediately, and by the end, [...]