If Spielberg’s account of the Holocaust is not his greatest movie, it is still the defining moment of his career, the point where his yearning to be taken seriously (The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun) finally fully merged with his filmmaking talents. Schindler’s List brought Spielberg to a new level because he was able

The Searchers has such disturbing implications concerning racism and sexual panic beneath its familiar Western elements that it was years before anyone felt comfortable enough to discuss what the movie was actually about. The part of Ethan Edwards is one of John Wayne’s most conflicted roles, that of a brave man whose most valiant gestures

A “women’s picture” that features people rather than platitudes. This is a family portrait of two sisters and their mother, all of whom have lives that are functioning but fractured. Thankfully, writer-director Nicole Holofcener (Walking and Talking) doesn’t go for grand gestures in the manner of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. As a low-budget,

You could choreograph the entire plot outline of Step Up after hearing only a brief description of the movie’s premise, but the dancing is another matter entirely. This follows the cliched, Romeo-and-Juliet romance between a criminally inclined Baltimore street dancer (Channing Tatum) and a high-strung ballet student (Jenna Dewan), but rather than concentrating on the

One of Shelley Winters first significant roles – long before The Poseidon Adventure – was that of Alice Tripp, a factory girl who falls for Montgomery Clift’s George Eastman. George, however, has higher goals – especially when he meets a stunning socialite played by Elizabeth Taylor. It’s a love triangle that turns criminally complicated when

This means to be James Franco’s An Officer and a Gentleman and Top Gun all rolled into one, but I don’t remember Tom Cruise grimacing much in Top Gun, which is about all Franco manages. As a young welder who has grown up across the water from the U.S. Naval Academy and has been given

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington runs on just the sort of idealism that gave director Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life) his reputation for cornball sentimentality. Yet Capra could pull this tone off better than anyone, especially when he teamed up with James Stewart, an actor of towering sincerity. Stewart stars here as Jefferson Smith,