Bad Education (2004)

Drama Rated NC-17

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s drama may sound like a stunt – put Mexican heartthrob Gael Garcia Bernal in a dress – but anyone familiar with the compassion Almodovar brings to even his most outrageous endeavors knows to expect more from him than that. This particular endeavor involves a movie within the movie that a director

Baxter, The (2005)

Romantic Comedy Rated PG-13

Comedy largely exists to soften life’s uncomfortable truths, but The Baxter rings a bit too true for its own good. Writer/director/star Michael Showalter means to make a romantic comedy from the point of view of the other man – you know, the perfectly pleasant, perfectly dorky guy who gets left at the altar when the

Bee Season (2005)

Drama Rated PG-13

One of those dense, complex literary adaptations that makes you want to read the novel on which it’s based. Unfortunately, I wanted to do that about halfway through the movie. As it follows 11-year-old Eliza Naumann (Flora Cross) through an astonishing succession of spelling bee triumphs, Bee Season tackles issues of both earthly and eternal

Behind the Sun (2001)

Drama Rated PG-13

In the blistering desert of Brazil, two rural families engage in a generations-old land dispute that breeds murder and – in the hands of director Walter Salles – overwrought symbolism. There’s some striking imagery here, from a blood-stained shirt flapping on a clothesline to the endless dried brambles that dominate the landscape. But as the

Big (1988)

Comedy Rated PG

Tom Hanks plays 13-year-old Josh Baskin, a boy who would give anything to be a man. He gets his wish thanks to a creepy, animatronic genie at a carnival, and the rest of the movie follows this awkward man-child trying to negotiate his way through adulthood. The genius of Hanks’ performance is its intuitiveness. Unlike

Half Nelson (2006)

Drama Rated R

“…not just another grungy depiction of drug addiction’s downward spiral. It has those moments, but it’s also a story of unlikely salvation – of the triumph of a person’s good side.

Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary (2002)

Documentary Rated PG

Throughout this documentary, 81-year-old Traudl Junge faces the camera and recounts her days spent taking dictation from Adolph Hitler, from 1942 to his final hours in the bunker. What she’s really facing, however, is her own conscience. A fascinating study of self-forgiveness, Blind Spot explores how we come to make the decisions that will define

Dressed to Kill (1980)

Thriller Rated R

Yet another example of Brian De Palma’s deep fear and resulting hatred of women. Dressed to Kill centers around psychiatrist Robert Elliott (Michael Caine), whose shaving razor is stolen by a troubled patient and put to gory use against various women. It’s a mystery, sort of – your first guess as to the identity of

Hollywoodland (2006)

Drama Rated R

This revisits in film noir style the 1959 death of George Reeves (Ben Affleck), the star of television’s ‘Adventures of Superman.’ Reeves’ demise was ruled a suicide, but it has become something of a Hollywood parlor game to imagine otherwise, which is what this debut feature from director Allen Coulter does. Adrien Brody anchors the

Last Kiss, The (2002)

Drama Rated NR

Girlfriends are bad, wives are worse and babies are the kiss of death in this bitter Italian comedy about a group of friends in their late 20s who are loath to give up bachelorhood, even as wedding days and children are fast approaching. A smug Stefano Accorsi stars as Carlo, a fun-loving advertising executive undergoing