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

Protector, The (2006)

Action/Adventure Rated R

Amid all the atrociously edited, laughably dubbed and poorly plotted action that makes up this Thai import is a bravura sequence that single-handedly saves the movie. Tony Jaa plays a Thai elephant herder who travels to Australia to rescue a pair of pachyderms that have been kidnapped by gangsters – see what I mean? –

Before Night Falls (2000)

Drama Rated R

This ambitious biographical drama is so intent on defining persecuted Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas by his homosexuality that we never quite grasp a sense of his artistic accomplishments. Javier Bardem, nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Arenas, strains valiantly to fill in the gaps, but it still feels like an incomplete

Envy (2004)

Comedy Rated PG-13

Envy, about best friends (Ben Stiller and Jack Black) torn apart when one becomes rich, is like one of those cliffhanger rides at an amusement park: It starts out nice and smooth, then the bottom drops out. The movie’s release date was repeatedly delayed, and it seems to have seen the light of day not

Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005)

Drama Rated PG-13

Big Momma’s House meets Misery meets Enough. Who would want to combine a Martin Lawrence cross-dressing comedy, a Stephen King story about a tortured crippled man and a Jennifer Lopez melodrama about domestic abuse? Tyler Perry, who adapted the movie from his own stage play and stars as a sassy grandmother. His slapstick painfully grates

Elf (2003)

Family Rated PG

Will Ferrell brings his usual dim-bulb zaniness to this holiday comedy about a human orphan (Ferrell) raised by Santa’s helpers, but most of the laughs come from easy fish-out-of-water humor. This should have been much better considering the star and the premise.

Elizabethtown (2005)

Drama Rated PG-13

As another writing-directing effort from Hollywood sensitive male Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire), this carried the burden of high expectations. I watched it holding my breath, waiting for the arrival of that singular punch to the gut that all of Crowe’s movies deliver. It never comes. Elizabethtown flounders, flopping about in search of a consistent theme,