A pet project of star and co-producer (and otherwise TV talk-show queen) Oprah Winfrey, an adaptation of the Toni Morrison novel concerning a tangibly "haunted" black family in postbellum Ohio. The adjustment of former slaves to an unaccustomed state of freedom is untrampled territory in movies, and this one opens …
Beloved asks the question, Why bring AIDS and 9/11 to an otherwise affectionate musical tribute to the films of Jacques Demy? Is it because the director felt the need to rely on the two greatest tragedies in recent history to add depth to his otherwise flimsy characters and plotline?
Modest little WWII submarine drama takes a while to reveal itself as a ghost story: "I'm telling you, there's some bad hoodoo on this boat." The modesty persists, even then, except in amount of perspiration. A couple of eerie underwater sights: a school of stingrays buzzing a team of diving-suited …
John Belushi could milk more laughter with a slight shift of the eyebrow than most comedians can with a pratfall. He transformed slobbery into an art form, and sewed danger into the heart of each gag. You’re familiar with talking heads documentaries, that effortless approach to filmmaking that transforms interview …
A pair of hardware store buddies find themselves unemployed and taking jobs as debt collectors. In order to claim the arrears due their employer, the duo takes temporary care of Qianqian, the daughter of the debtor. However their ruse as supposed expert babysitters falls apart when Qianqian has an unexpected …
A picture-postcard mutoscope flips us backwards through time, from modern day Hollywood to Fort Lee, NJ (cinema’s original hub), all the way back to a crowded Paris theatre, where, in 1895, Alice Guy-Blaché bore witness the birth of cinema. She was the first woman director, yet not even filmmaker and …
Feminist pep fest, or pap fest, about an Indian girl in West London who must weave her way through the obstacles set by her cookie-cutter traditionalist family -- is there any other kind from India? -- in order to pursue her bliss as a soccer player. (Glossary note for the …
Boogeyman drivel from director Martin Guigui about a mortician (Dennis Quaid) who likes to stock his caskets with his kills. The script aims for juvenile banality and falls short of even that mark, and the acting is a roundup of static delivery and clichéd expressions. But the greatest problem is …
Leave it to Paul Verhoeven (Turkish Delight, Basic Instinct) to set an erotic thriller inside a convent. Don’t let the bird poop and fart jokes that open the picture throw you. It’s his way of distracting audiences from the corporeal abominations that await. Verhoeven’s role in this fact-based 17th Century …
Expect another masterful essay on regretfullness when Terence Davies (The Neon Bible, The Deep Blue Sea) turns back time for a biographical study of war poet Siegfried Sassoon, played at various ages by Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi.
Convicted wife-killer, parolled after twenty-two years, cozies up to the daughter who testified against him as a child, and who now has a child of her own. What is the man after? And was he guilty or not? Plodding suspense film with an even heavier-footed climactic chase. Amy Irving looks …
Sampath Nandi wrote and directed this action-comedy with star Ravi Teja in mind. In Telugu.
If the Chuck Heston interpretation is comparable to a Classics Illustrated comic book, MGM’s new digital facelift should never have left Turner Network Television. This Ben hurt! Running 90 minutes shorter than its predecessor — the Jack Hawkins subplot didn’t make the cut — the film feels twice as long. …