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Tag: Drama

Last Mistress, The (2008)

Drama Rated R

"Slouching at the opera and frequently adjusting her elaborate costumes, Argento mostly appears bored."

Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The (2008)

Drama Rated PG-13

Hardly the nostalgic romance it was promoted as being, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is about the fleeting nature of happiness, the struggle of life and the inevitability of death. It’s told with generosity and warmth, true, yet even the comfort it offers is the sort usually found next to hospital beds or in

Brideshead Revisited (2008)

Drama Rated PG-13

“It’s like three movies – about a single book – in one.

Wackness, The (2008)

Drama Rated R

Everyone in The Wackness tries so very, very hard to be risqué that there isn’t a moment in which the movie isn’t posturing. Centered on a recent high-school graduate selling marijuana in 1994 New York City, The Wackness stars Josh Peck, desperately trying to shed his kiddie image from Nickelodeon’s “Drake & Josh.” As Luke

50/50 (2011)

Drama Rated R

Deeply affecting and admirably even-keeled, the cancer drama 50/50 avoids both bitter disconsolation and false inspiration to come up with something that’s honest, clear-eyed and, well, a lot like being there. This authenticity probably comes from the fact that screenwriter Will Reiser based the story on his own life-threatening bout with cancer – though it’s

Man With the Golden Arm, The (1955)

Drama Rated NR

Frank Sinatra plays Frankie Machine, a card dealer and recovering heroin addict who is returning to his old neighborhood after a stint in rehab. Sinatra’s “cold turkey” scenes – the usual shivering and moaning – aren’t as impressive as his smooth inhabiting of a hep cat with a heart, not an arm, of gold. Frankie

Persepolis (2007)

Drama Rated PG-13

An extraordinary adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel about a young Iranian woman coming of age in the 1970s and ’80s. Although Satrapi experienced the Iranian Revolution, the resulting Islamic fundamentalist government and a stint in Vienna to escape all the turmoil, Persepolis eschews outright politicizing and stands as a personal story first and foremost.

Reprise (2008)

Drama Rated NR

"The picture has a real feel for its tortured characters. It starts out navel-gazing and ends up empathetic."

Fall, The (2008)

Drama Rated R

“…deserves three-and-a-half stars for its dazzling opening sequence alone.

Life Before Her Eyes, The (2008)

Drama Rated R

“Director Vadim Perelman fetishizes the threat of violence with his caressing camera.

Recent Reviews

Mother Mary (2026)

Drama Rated R

“A collage of religio-goth gestures…”

The Great Dictator (1940)

Comedy Rated G

“Charlie Chaplin was not messing around.”

Sophie’s Choice (1982)

Drama Rated R

“Streep has what can only be called a commanding fragility.”


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