The arms-dealing drama Lord of War could have been fired from a shotgun – it sprays all over the place. Part action movie and part message piece, the picture is only one thing for sure: a major misstep for gifted writer/director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca). In following the unlikely career of Ukrainian-American antihero Yuri Orlov (a

This ensemble picture means to explore the nature of happiness, but only one plot strand, in which Alan Arkin plays a corporate drone at an insurance company, really comes close to saying something interesting about the subject. As other characters (played by the likes of Matthew McConaughey and John Turturro) float in and out of

Whimsy and war wouldn’t seem to be likely companions, but don’t tell that to Audrey Tautou and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the star and director, respectively, of the French romantic comedy Amelie. The pair re-teamed for this World War I romantic drama about a young French woman in search of her missing fiance. This has an epic

Closer is for those who hate the falseness of Hollywood endings and maybe even hate life itself. The trailer is touting this as a sexy love square involving Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen as two couples who become unwisely intertwined, but the film is too pessimistic to ever raise much of

Erin Brockovich uses all of Julia Roberts’ attributes – her casual glamour, genial humor and, yes, acting talent – to make this fact-based story about a single mom who leads a legal battle against a polluting corporation into a compassionate and riveting consideration of America’s class system. It’s a surprising delight that gives star vehicles

A culture mash of hip-hop rhythms, ancient Japanese traditions and modern gangland ethics, this latest treasure from revered indie director Jim Jarmusch follows a rap-loving assassin (Forest Whitaker) who has pledged his services to the low-level mafia thug who saved his life a few years back. Beneath the violence is a thoughtful consideration of what

You can feel it in the movie’s insinuating score and the oppressively happy opening section, which follows small-town diner owner Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) as he enjoys a blissful slice of Americana with his wife (Maria Bello) and two kids. Such contentment can’t last, especially with squirm-inducing director David Cronenberg (Dead Ringers) at the helm.

In this unobtrusive account of the final days of a strung-out rock star, based on the suicide of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, the camera passively watches as the central figure (Michael Pitt) trudges across the grounds of a rural mansion. Even the most mundane of scenes are given an ethereal sheen by director Gus Van Sant.

If Fahrenheit 9/11 made you feel queasy, take some Pepto-Bismol before seeing this remake of the 1962 thriller from director Jonathan Demme and star Denzel Washington. It may be a work of fiction, but its paranoid vision of events circa 2004 somehow felt even more real. Both the original and the remake revolve around a

Filmmaking workhorse Clint Eastwood takes a seemingly routine genre exercise – an adaptation of a mystery novel by Dennis Lehane – and makes it something all his own, in this case another of his meditations on the ripple effect of violence. Mystic River follows three childhood friends (Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, all excellent)