Matthew Modine

[6] Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later) stars as the physicist credited with inventing the atomic bomb in this sprawling, rapid-paced, three-hour Best Picture Academy Award winner from director Christopher Nolan (Interstellar, Inception). The first hour of Oppenheimer focuses on the man’s life before the bomb, establishing him as a brilliant but difficult personality and a bit of a womanizer whose Left-leaning politics threaten to make …

[7] Robert Altman directs this adaptation of David Rabe’s award-winning stage play about four young Vietnam draftees who let their fears and insecurities get the better of them after one of them reveals he’s gay. StreamersĀ is a character study that takes place over two nights in a U.S. army barracks. Matthew Modine plays the all-talk tough guy, David Alan Grier plays the mediator of the …

[6] Intentionally bizarre and overwrought, I’m not sure what to make of this adaptation of John Irving’s novel about an extended, eccentric family that moves into a down-trodden hotel. I liked a previous Irving adaptation, The World According to Garp, much better. Garp director George Roy Hill was better able to balance the humor and sorrow than Hotel director Tony Richardson. Richardson leans so much …

[7] Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine rent out a room of their San Francisco dream home to the tenant from Hell and barely escape to tell the tale. Michael Keaton plays the psycho boarder, a guy who hammers and makes noise all night long, lets cockroaches loose in the building, kidnaps their cat, and eventually encourages physical assault — all in an effort to use …

[4] I really like Oliver Stone about half the time, but the show-offy style he used with Natural Born Killers and J.F.K. doesn’t service Any Given Sunday. Those other films, with their multiple perspectives and drug-induced visions, felt right to employ rapid editing and multiple media. But Any Given Sunday is (or should have been) a reality-based ensemble drama about the rigors and tribulations of …