A fascinating morality play about honor and loyalty. Russell Crowe, as the real-life tobacco company scientist who risks his family and personal freedom to testify against the industry, provides a mesmerizing portrait of integrity’s cost; you can see the worry weighing down on his drooping eyelids and sagging mouth. A slow-burning, interior epic from muscular

An early effort from director Jonathan Demme, Melvin and Howard takes off from a real-life situation – a contested will of Howard Hughes, who may have left millions to an unknown gas-station worker – and turns it into a comic satire on the fickleness of the American dream. As the movie opens, Melvin Dumar (Paul

Could that really be Mrs. Robinson? Anne Bancroft made a permanent mark on film culture with her galvanizing turn as the desiccated, predatory housewife of The Graduate. Yet it would be unfair to let that performance overshadow her other formidable work, especially her Oscar-winning turn as Helen Keller’s teacher here. The Miracle Worker has all

An original script from Arthur Miller, The Misfits turns on the playwright’s usual concern: that of the individual trying to maintain his identity in a changing world. Cowboys are the dying breed here, specifically an aging wrangler played by Clark Gable, a mechanic played by Eli Wallach and a daredevil bull-rider played by Montgomery Clift,