Julie & Julia was largely criticized for its split format. Most people loved Meryl Streep as a fluttery, determined Julia Child, while hardly anyone wanted to spend time with Amy Adams’ narcissistic blogger, who chronicles her attempt to cook her way through Child’s famous recipe book in one year. Yet as unlikeable as the Adams

Gorgeous and anchored by a flinty performance from Abbie Cornish, it’s a mystery as to why this Jane Campion period piece fades away rather than catches fire. Cornish plays Fanny Brawne, a seamstress who had a love affair with John Keats up to his youthful death. Campion beautifully weaves Keats’ poetry with her romantic imagery,

This German import, from writer-director Maren Ade, made waves in the foreign-film world in 2010, but it struck me as a minor work. A navel-gazing mood piece with just enough Eurosex to keep you awake, Everyone Else follows a young couple on a Mediterranean vacation whose relationship comes to a tipping point. The couple was

The writing and directing team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson) turn their attention to Major League Baseball’s farm system in the Dominican Republic, where promising young player Miguel “Sugar” Santos (Algenis Perez Soto) endures the indentured servitude and eventually shows big-league promise. But what, exactly, is that promise? The second half of