Television actor Zach Braff (Scrubs) unveiled true filmmaking talent in this writing-directing-starring effort about a middling, heavily medicated actor (Braff) who returns to his native New Jersey for a funeral and learns that even a painful life is worth living. There’s a tinge of narcissim to get past, but the reward is Braff’s penchant for

What appears to be a female version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest actually is a quieter, subtler and at times even more discerning look at mental illness. Winona Ryder stars as 17-year-old Susanna Kaysen, whose memoir about her real-life experiences in a psychiatric hospital during the late 1960s inspired the film, but this

Admirable, yet never registering as more than a stunt, writer-director Michael Almereyda’s adaptation sets Shakespeare’s tragedy – original language and all – amid the corporate culture of 2000 New York (here it’s the Denmark Corporation that’s corrupted). This modernity allows for some sly wit and nifty touches – Hamlet (Ethan Hawke) delivers the “to be

Don Cheadle plays Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager who risked his life to house more than 1,0000 refugees from both sides of the genocide that plagued Rwanda in the 1990s. The movie’s triumph – particularly in light of the hero-worshipping biopics we’re used to – is the way it traces Rusesabagina’s burgeoning courage with an

Bad accents, bizarre wigs and dialogue that varies between windy speeches and hysterical screaming matches – many of which involve such phrases as, “By Zeus and all the gods!” – Alexander has all the makings of a camp classic, including the crucial element: deadly serious intentions. Once-vital director Oliver Stone (JFK) helps embarrass the likes

First-time director Denzel Washington brings a sincere, sympathetic touch to this tough story about a scarred, inner-city orphan (newcomer Derek Luke, showing real talent) struggling to put his painful past behind him after joining the Navy. The fact that this is the first screenplay from Antwone Fisher, who based the movie on his own life,

This independent drama follows a young couple (Campbell Scott and Hope Davis) trying to cram dual careers, three young kids and a happy marriage into one overextended life. The daily tensions only intensify when he begins to suspect her of having an affair. Not much happens that doesn’t happen in the lives of millions of

The marketing campaign for 21 Grams – a series of posters asking variations on the question, ‘How much does life weigh?’ – is more artful than the movie, because the film itself is anindulgent exercise that could use some of the streamlining a poster demands. With flair and pretension, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu follows three