Drama Rated R
“…can be strident and didactic, but it’s also necessary.”
Drama Rated NR
This is the Western from which every other Western – even those that came before it – feels born. Gary Cooper, in the final, grimacing stage of his career, won an Oscar for his portrayal of Will Kane, the outgoing marshal in a small town who is about to start a fresh life with his
Annette Bening bites into the title role – that of a 1930s London stage actress whose personal life is only slightly less dramatic than her theatrical one – as if it will be the last good part she ever gets. The scenery-chewing is a fortunate necessity, considering it only emphasizes the theme of ageism in
Another MGM/United Artists mess from 2002, though not quite as inept as Rollerball. Two brothers (Stephen Dorff and Brad Renfro) try to protect their neighborhood from a violent gang in 1958 Brooklyn, and the result – tough guys marching down the street in matching white T-shirts, more fake lightning than a heavy metal music video
What at first seems to be a stylistic lark – another British crime caper involving fancy camerawork and foul-mouthed antiheroes – matures into a tragic rumination on the criminal lifestyle. Ben Kingsley has received rave reviews for his performance as a violent and verbose gangster, but it’s Ray Winstone, as the retired, likable lug whom
From its subtitles on down, Clint Eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima inverts the war-movie experience – at least for those of us who expect such pictures to follow in the footsteps of Saving Private Ryan and Eastwood’s own companion piece, Flags of Our Fathers. With Japanese soldiers batting the same sacrificial puppy-dog eyes that blond-haired
There are plenty of contenders for the title of alpha male in Alpha Dog, a barking drama based on an actual account of a drug ring run by privileged California teens. Ben Foster (X-Men: The Last Stand) goes for broke as the requisite hothead, leaving little edible scenery for the likes of Shawn Hatosy, Anton
"Coincidence can be a heavy burden for a movie…"
An atmospheric account of an affair between a married woman (Julianne Moore) and a novelist (Ralph Fiennes) in World War II London, this adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel has been described as a love triangle involving those two and God, so heavily do religious themes come into play. Indeed, the story seems like little more
Two snipers – a Russian (Jude Law) and a Nazi (Ed Harris) – square off during the World War II battle of Stalingrad, leading to expertly staged action sequences, as well as a mournful acknowledgment of what it means to lie in wait and take a life.
