[7] Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam star in this story about a wrongfully-expelled college student who falls into the dangerous British subculture of football ‘hooliganism’. The closest thing we have in America are street gangs, but the British ‘hooligans’ are a little more organized and revolve around football (soccer in America). Wood plays the disenfranchised student while Hunnam plays a higher up in the Green Street Elite …
[8] Neil Marshall follows up his auspicious feature directorial debut, Dog Soldiers, with this all-female plunge into the claustrophobic depths of Appalachian caves. The Descent reminds me of From Dusk Til Dawn in that it’s really two completely different movies jammed together at the middle. The first half is harrowing enough just watching the women climb, crawl and wiggle their way deeper and deeper into …
[7] Gael Garcia Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien) and William Hurt star in this dark, disturbing drama about a troubled young Navy officer (Bernal) who comes to Corpus Christi to find the father he’s never met (Hurt). Unfortunately, Hurt’s character is a devout preacher with a new family and wants nothing to do with his illegitimate son. But that doesn’t stop Bernal from starting an …
[7] Episode III is far and away the best of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Everything I don’t like about the previous two films remains true, namely that it’s over-produced and the characters aren’t very interesting or engaging. But at least George Lucas and co-screenwriter Jonathan Hale finally cash in on some of the story’s dramatic potential. As the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid in a starring …
[6] A British diplomat in Kenya tries to solve the mystery of his activist wife’s murder, only to get in over his head with the culprits — a pharmaceutical company that is intentionally poisoning and killing people. The first third of the film belongs to Rachel Weisz, who plays the deceased wife in a series of flashbacks. Weisz took home the Oscar for best supporting …
[4] George Clooney directs, co-writes, and co-stars in this examination of famed broadcast newsman Edward R. Murrow’s attempts to thwart McCarthyism at CBS. David Strathairn brings his usual nonchalance to the role of Murrow. Clooney plays his right-hand man, Fred Friendly. McCarthyism was scary and Murrow’s victories were important, but Clooney keeps Good Night, and Good Luck so restrained, it teeters on becoming a snooze …
[7] Julianne Moore stars in this true story based on the life of Evelyn Ryan, a ’50s housewife and mother of ten who kept her family afloat by writing award-winning marketing jingles. Director Jane Anderson manages to keep the movie light and airy, which keeps in tone with Evelyn’s indomitable spirit, but without short shrifting the film’s more serious, underlying statements about gender roles. Both …
[3] In this morose and supremely depressing film from Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland), a troubled college student (Ryan Gosling) seeks the help of a shrink (Ewan McGregor), who then investigates the boy’s life to see if there might be any merit to his vow to commit suicide later that week. I might have liked Stay better if it were a reality-based drama, but …
[7] Writer/director Miranda July also stars in this Cannes and Sundance Film Festival winner about people trying to connect with each other in an age when culture and technology make that connection more challenging. The film seems to be saying that we are all experiencing this difficulty, but July’s characters are so quirky and awkward that Me and You and Everyone We Know is as much …
[9] Steven Spielberg remakes H.G. Wells’ sci-fi classic, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s easily his best movie in many, many years. Through the eyes of a single father (Tom Cruise) and his two children (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin), we experience the apocalypse — the end of the world — as towering alien tripods climb out of the Earth and begin destroying humanity …
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