Seraphine (2008)

Drama Rated NR

Seraphine won a bunch of Cesars – the French equivalent of the Oscars – and what’s most striking about it is the way it perfectly fits into the respectable, historical, biographical, Academy Award-friendly tradition. That said, Yolande Moreau gives an arresting, nearly wordless performance as Seraphine, the French “naïve” painter of the early 1900s who

Lovely Bones, The (2009)

Drama Rated PG-13

"…a murder drama made from cotton candy.

Public Enemies (2009)

Drama Rated R

“There is a lot to discuss concerning Public Enemies … but the elephant in the theater is that the movie looks like crud.

Last Laugh, The (1924)

Drama Rated NR

“…can still pierce a hardened heart – especially these days, when demotions and layoffs have become a daily occurrence and the streets are full of forlorn former doormen.

Class, The (2008)

Drama Rated PG-13

"A tonic to the Hollywood teacher movie."

Joy Luck Club, The (1993)

Drama Rated R

"…not only fails to give the novel cinematic stature; it denigrates the delicate beauty of the book itself.

Ballast (2008)

Drama Rated NR

A quiet stunner. With his assured feature debut, writer-director Lance Hammer explores the tentative relationship between two people on the brink of despair: a suicidal single man (Micheal J. Smith) and his latchkey nephew (JimMyron Ross). With the austere winter landscape of the Mississippi Delta as a backdrop and two novice, riveting actors in the

Revolutionary Road (2008)

Drama Rated R

I wonder if Kate Winslet and her director husband Sam Mendes – who work together in the domestic drama Revolutionary Road – have ever lived in the suburbs. Separately – she in Little Children; he with American Beauty – they have made their own contributions to the familiar Hollywood genre of suburban satire. With Revolutionary

Rachel Getting Married (2008)

Drama Rated R

I don’t usually fall for it when an actor or actress deglams – when they get scruffy and ugly onscreen in hopes of winning an award. Yet Anne Hathaway redeems the practice in Rachel Getting Married. Hathaway doesn’t really hide her beauty here, as, say, Angelina Jolie did in A Mighty Heart or Charlize Theron

Frozen River (2008)

Drama Rated R

“Holding Frozen River up to traditional standards of morality doesn’t work.