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Written and directed by Atom Egoyan, the English-language drama [i]Adoration[/i] (2008) takes on terrorism, cultural identity, Internet video chat rooms and other challenging issues. The story is told employing a jigsaw-puzzle narrative and deliberately contrived to unfold as a mystery. But the film is nonetheless a moody, haunting rumination on life in the post-9/11 world.
Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes and an Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film,
The Class has received nearly universal critical acclaim.
A masterpiece of world cinema,
Ashes and Diamonds was initially released in 1958. The movie was co-written and directed by Andrzej Wajda, who in the year 2000 was given an Academy Award for "five decades of extraordinary film direction."
Directed by Edward Zwick,
Defiance stars Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber. The movie is based on the nonfiction book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans.Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett give fine performances in
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was nominated for 13 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Pitt) and Best Supporting Actress.
Changeling is topnotch, and the movie was directed by Clint Eastwood, who also composed the evocative musical score.
One of Powell and Pressburger's best films was
A Matter of Life and Death (1946), which became known in the United States as
Stairway to Heaven, apparently reflecting the insistence of American distributors on a more upbeat title.
Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, George Clooney, Richard Jenkins and Frances McDormand all play key roles in
Burn After Reading (2008), a hilarious black comedy written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.
In
Brand Upon the Brain! (2006), filmmaker Guy Maddin takes a mesmerizing autobiographical look at himself at age 12. The filmmaker isn't interested in depicting things as perceived by rational adults; instead, he is concerned with communicating the boy's worldview to us.
Inspired by a true story,
The Bank Job (2008) is an enjoyable diversion for viewers who like intricate plots, clear storytelling and good acting.
Review that explores both the movie and the DVD extras.
Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes,
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a powerful Romanian film that combines elements of dystopian thriller, realist drama and character study.
Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder and Michelle Pfeiffer star in
The Age of Innocence (1993), an absorbing and beautiful period piece directed by Martin Scorsese, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jay Cocks.
Based on a true story, this is a highly entertaining movie that gives us three colorful characters: playboy US Congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), right-wing Houston socialite Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) and scruffy CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman).
A faithful and sometimes dazzling adaptation of the best-selling novel by Ian McEwan,
Atonement stars Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. The movie is impeccably acted and offers topnotch cinematography, art direction and costuming, plus an Academy Award-winning musical score.
The full title of this lyrical, poetic historical drama is
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and the protagonist is Bob Ford, who is brilliantly played by Casey Affleck. The antagonist is Jesse James, and Brad Pitt supplies the necessary star power to this role to make the legendary outlaw and folk hero come alive on the screen.
This laugh-out-loud-funny film written and directed by Julie Delpy, who also costars with Adam Goldberg.
The year 2007 saw the theatrical release of a remake of
3:10 to Yuma with Russell Crowe in Glenn Ford's role and Christian Bale in Van Heflin's.
Stanley Kubrick'slandmark film that appears on most lists of greatest all-time movies. It ranks number 6 on the 2002 Sight and Sound Critics' Poll and number 15 on the American Film Institute's 2007 list of top 100 movies.
Arguably the quintessential French New Wave film, Jean-Luc Godard's
Breathless is often identified as one of the most influential movies of all time.
Sergei Eisenstein's
Battleship Potemkin is an important film, both in terms of cinema history and world history, and it is well worth watching many times.
Jack Nicholson gives a brilliant performance in the film noir
Chinatown (1974), which often appears in lists of the best movies ever made. Read a review of
Chinatown on DVD.
1408 is a horror movie in the vein of The Shining and Misery. There's almost no blood or gore in
1408, but it is creepy. Read a review of
1408 on DVD.
The Babel Two-Disc Collector's Edition DVD set contains only one extra of any consequence, an exceptionally good making-of documentary titled
Common Ground: Under Construction Notes.
Away From Her is a poignant, intelligent, low-keyed drama. Find out more about this movie in the DVD review.
Stanley Kubrick's
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is one of my all-time favorites. It's one of the films that started me on a life-long love of the movies.
"This movie is about how a person deals with his love stories in the past." So says writer-director Wong Kar Wai about his film
2046 (2004) in the behind-the-scenes documentary on the DVD. The movie centers around a man named Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung) recalling his relationships with women in Hong Kong and Singapore in the 1960's. Read a
review of
2046 on DVD.
Read a review of
21 Grams on DVD.
Winner of four Academy Awards including Best Picture,
A Beautiful Mind is a biopic about gifted, but troubled, math genius John Nash.
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is an ambitious film of raw emotional power.
Read a full-length
review of this movie on DVD.
In Ace in the Hole, the protagonist is an unlikable antihero played by Kirk Douglas in what is arguably the best performance of his career. From beginning to end, the gritty film presents a bleak vision of human nature. Read a review of
In Ace in the Hole on DVD.
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film,
After the Wedding is an absorbing Danish-language melodrama that packs an emotional wallop. Read a review of
After the Wedding on DVD.
Read a
review of this classic film collection on DVD.
Although
American Wedding offers little other than entertainment, I recommend this sweet-natured, laugh-out-loud comedy. However, it's not for people who don't like sophomoric, raunchy, vulgar humor.
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature,
Anne Frank Remembered (1995) does a better job of putting a human face on the Holocaust than any movie I know.
A review of
Apocalypse Now - The Complete Dossier on DVD.
Read a
review of this movie on DVD.
Ask the Dust is one of the most engaging romantic dramas I've seen in a long time. Read the
DVD review...
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review of this movie on DVD.
Babel intercuts linked stories of four families. The stunning visual style artfully of this movie intermixes close-ups of people with landscapes and cityscapes, capturing the differing lifestyles of the rural North African desert, Tokyo and the San Diego-Tijuana area. Above all, the film is intensely emotional.
Read a
review of this movie on DVD.
A
review of the movie
Before Sunset on DVD.
Starring Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci,
Black Snake Moan was written and directed by Craig Brewer (
Hustle & Flow).
Black Snake Moan is a blues film that takes its title from a traditional song by Blind Lemon Jefferson. At the movie's emotional high point, Jackson performs that song during a thunderstorm.
This is one of the most hilarious movies I've ever seen.
Borat is a hilarious, politically incorrect comedy starring Sacha Baron Cohen. Take an in-depth look at the film and the DVD in this DVD review.
Born Into Brothels won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and many other prizes. When I watched it on DVD, I found it very moving. Also, the extras on the DVD enriched my experience of watching the documentary. Read a
review of this movie on DVD.
Boudu is one of the relatively few movies that not only makes me chuckle while I'm watching it, but makes me smile every time I think about it later.
Chris Cooper gives an outstanding performance in this well-acted docudrama dealing with the two-month period that culminated in the arrest for espionage of FBI agent Robert Hanssen.
A review of Jean-Luc Godard's
Breathless (1960) on DVD.
Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn star in the 1938 screwball comedy
Bringing Up Baby. Read a
review of this movie on DVD.
Heath Ledger creates one of the most memorable characters in cinema history in
Brokeback Mountain, a melancholy drama about forbidden love. Read a full-length
review of of this movie on DVD.
Bill Murray gives a superb performance as the star of
Broken Flowers (2005), a bittersweet film that also features appearances by Sharon Stone, Julie Delpy, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton and Jeffrey Wright. I found this movie, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, highly enjoyable when I watched it on DVD. Read a
review of
Broken Flowers on DVD.
Bubble (2005) is a dark little movie about a murder in a small Ohio town. When I watched it on DVD, I found it riveting.
A review of
Bukowski: Born Into This on DVD.
This movie is an absolutely fascinating character study. Read a
review of
Capote on DVD.
Opening with shots of a bloody bull being tormented by a matador, this is a crowd-pleasing screen adaptation of Georges Bizet's 1875 French-language opera.
Read more...A franchise reboot with a new incarnation of James Bond,
Casino Royale offers top-notch entertainment with something for everyone.
Children of Men creates an unforgettable vision of things as they might become.
Cinderella Man (2005) is an old-fashioned, well-crafted, feel-good sports biopic, and I think it makes a nearly perfect star vehicle for Russell Crowe as boxing great James J. Braddock.
I can certainly see why
City of God was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director.
Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, and Clive Owen all give fine performances this talky drama directed by Mike Nichols.
This is a compelling crime drama directed by Michael Mann.
Read more...Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, The Aviator was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won five. I think this movie was one of 2004's very best.
The Barbarian Invasions won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. When I watched this emotionally engaging movie on DVD, it made me both laugh and cry.
Read a review of the Criterion Collection three-disc DVD set of "The Battle of Algiers."
The Big Red One: The Reconstruction is a World War II combat movie that was showcased at Cannes.
A DVD review of the slick spy thriller
The Bourne Identity.
Matt Damon again plays CIA-trained assassin Jason Bourne in the action thriller
The Bourne Supremacy, the follow-up to
The Bourne Identity.
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