I suppose if I created a flowchart of characters and devoted a few solid hours to it, I could make some sense out of the oil drama Syriana. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the urge to do any political-science homework since college (and even then the urge was faint). As another 2005 Message Movie featuring George

Steven Spielberg’s penchant for sentimentality and narrative convention hold back The Terminal, yet the movie is far too much a flight of fancy to be kept completely grounded. Heaving a bulky accent but otherwise light on his feet, Tom Hanks plays an Eastern European traveler stranded in an American airport, resulting in a Kafkaesque piece

A drug-addled drug movie about two bikers (Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper) who make their way across America – Hopper also directed – Easy Rider is, inevitably, a bit of a mess, with a loopy graveyard climax that feels like one of the first – and worst – music videos. Yet in its own laconic

From its subtle early images – the sight of a little boy’s bicycle blowing over in the wind nicely foreshadows the upheaval of one family’s life – to its lovely and ambiguous final shot, this is a provocative sex thriller whose best moments are the least explicit ones. When a happy-enough housewife (Diane Lane) embarks