Thriller Rated R
“…ultimately undone by a ridiculous final half hour in which Bacon turns into the Terminator.
Documentary Rated PG
"The film’s eagerness to embrace alarmist speculation undermines the basic truths it tells."
Drama Rated R
“…a female-made romance that largely takes the male’s point of view.
Comedy Rated PG
Before it succumbs to schmaltz, this well-meaning comedy from Chinese director Zhang Yimou works as a nice fable about a con man who can’t help but do good. Zhao Benshan stars as an aging bachelor whose desperate desire to marry leads him to a variety of George Costanza-like schemes, including a claim to be the
Comedy Rated R
Harvard Man opens on the image of a nude sculpture by Auguste Rodin, and writer-director James Toback seems to think he’s offering up a similar convergence of art and eroticism. Instead, this talky and supremely silly morality tale about a Harvard basketball player (Adrian Grenier) who gets caught up in web of drugs, sex and
Documentary Rated PG-13
The perception exists that women’s sports still have a purity to them, an emphasis on teamwork and fundamentals that is lacking from the individualistic, highlight reel-driven world of men’s competition. The Heart of the Game, a documentary that follows a Seattle-area girl’s high school basketball program, punctures a hole in that myth. Selfishness, trash-talking, clashing
Family Rated PG
Another well-meaning family drama that can’t quite make the leap from cloying to endearing, this New Zealand import details a young girl’s dream of meeting Queen Elizabeth II when she visits the islands in 1953. In its desperate attempt to be sweet and quirky, Her Majesty overplays just about everything. Sally Andrews, making her movie
Horror Rated R
“If you’ve read The Ruins, you can probably guess there will come a point at which the movie succumbs to silliness. And sure enough, that moment arrives…
Drama Rated NR
From Japanese director Mikio Naruse, this melodrama is a sleek and handsome precursor to Memoirs of a Geisha. A thirtysomething “hostess” (Hideko Takamine) in the Ginza bar district is at a crossroads: should she accept a marriage offer from one of her suitors or buy a bar of her own? Takamine is a bit of
Thriller Rated NR
The movies’ first whack at Jack Finney’s 1954 serialized novel remains the best. When alien life forms try to take over the planet by replacing us with automaton look-alikes – walking vegetables that literally grow in pods – it’s up to a small-town doctor (an increasingly hysterical Kevin McCarthy) to fight the power. Director Don
