A Little Sex (1982)

A Little Sex (1982)

[3] It's not Tim Matheson or Kate Capshaw's fault. Really, it isn't. Both of them are plenty attractive and charismatic to carry a film like this. The problem is that A Little Sex is a boiled-down reduction of every rom-com ever made.…
Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997)

Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997)

[4] Terrence McNally adapts his play for the silver screen, with direction by Joe Mantello. Love! Valour! Compassion! is about a group of gay men who get together around the holidays at a rustic house in the middle of nowhere. Since the…
Ransom (1996)

Ransom (1996)

[7] Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon) directs this crime thriller about a wealthy businessman (Mel Gibson) whose young son is kidnapped and held for ransom. With the boy's life hanging in the balance, Gibson must decide whether to take the FBI's…
Blue Steel (1990)

Blue Steel (1990)

[5] Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Strange Days) co-writes and directs this female cop thriller starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis plays a new cop on the New York streets who shoots a grocery store bandit to death. The film takes a bonkers…
Normal (2003)

Normal (2003)

[7] Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson star in playwright/director Jane Anderson's story about a rural midwestern family weathering the father's decision to undergo a sex change. Wilkinson portrays the father, who endures prejudice from his coworkers and family. Lange plays his shocked…
Ladies of Leisure (1930)

Ladies of Leisure (1930)

[8] Behold the glory of Barbara Stanwyck. One of classic Hollywood's sassiest broads makes a big splash in this early talkie that's leagues ahead of other early 30s flicks in terms of story, craftsmanship, and performance. Babs plays a "party girl" (we…
In a Glass Cage (1986)

In a Glass Cage (1986)

[8] In this Spanish film from writer/director Agustín Villaronga, a Nazi child killer is put in an iron lung after a botched suicide attempt. His wife hires a young male nurse to take care of him, but the young man becomes increasingly…
Emma. (2020)

Emma. (2020)

[2] This is the worst adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma I've seen, with Gwyneth Paltrow's middling 1996 version coming in ahead, and Amy Heckerling's Clueless easily taking the crown. This newest incarnation is directed by Autumn de Wilde, a first-time feature director…
Fortune and Men’s Eyes (1971)

Fortune and Men’s Eyes (1971)

[7] A young man named Smitty (Wendell Burton) goes to prison and immediately falls into a brutal struggle for power and supremacy. He reluctantly enters into a submissive relationship with one of his roommates, a tough guy named Rocky (Zooey Hall) who…
A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

[7] Writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir) won his first two Academy Awards for writing and directing this drama about three wives who reflect on their marriages when they learn a fourth woman has just left…