A rare unimportant work from the otherwise prolific and fertile mind of Michael Winterbottom. Clearly wanting to direct in as many different types of genre pictures as possible, Winterbottom has already proven to be a whiz when it comes to literary adaptations (The Killer Inside Me, Tristram Shandy: A Cock …
Do words travel through the universe — and if so, does Christmas Flint’s (Mckenna Grace) late momma hear them? A representative of NASA, upon visiting her school, brings Christmas news of a local competition: first prize is a chance for a troop of Birdie Scouts to leave a message for …
“I’m mad about so many things you can’t count them,” bellows Maggie (Anjelica Houston), her laser-sharp, Botoxed glower emanating from beneath the brim of her cowboy hat and leveling all those foolish enough to rub eyeballs with her. Sadly, her anger doesn’t impinge upon writer-director Theresa Rebeck, who has nothing …
Morris Bliss, who lives at home, gets involved with the barely legal daughter of an ex-classmate in yet another coming-of-age comedy about a slouch in his 30s. This one works, thanks to a charming and highly observant script by novelist Douglas Light and director Michael Knowles. Michael C. Hall leads …
There’s trouble with the terminally cute script in this, Clint Eastwood’s first actor-for-hire job since In the Line of Fire (1993). Clint stars as a corroded baseball scout with three months left on his contract. A severe case of macular degeneration forces him to make every day take-your-estranged-child-to-work day. Clint’s …
Boozy, one-eyed Marshal Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) is hired to babysit a headstrong teenager (Kim Darby) on her journey through enemy territory in search of the man who killed her father. While the Vietnam war raged, the Academy no doubt deemed it a gutsy move on their part to bestow …
Given all the anti-Trump dogma that’s crossed my screen over the past four years, it’s time to give Dinesh D’Souza, this administration’s answer to Leni Riefenstahl, his due. Listen closely: there’s as much Pesci as President in the voice artist hired by D’Souza to ape his adored liberator. (The celebrity …
Truth is, Oscar season is upon us and Robert Redford’s banking that his portrayal of journalist Dan Rather in Truth will set him free to take home a best supporting Oscar award. Cate Blanchett is always worth watching, even when her character as Rather’s producer never rises above that of …
A troubled teen (the infinitely engaging Kaya Scodelario) shoulders the blame for her mother’s death in childbirth. New neighbor Jessica Biel not only bears more than a passing resemblance to Kaya’s mom, the poor delusional soul wants a child so badly that she’s convinced herself the Cabbage Patch Kid in …
With two toddlers and a newborn to ride herd on, stressed-to-the-max mom Marlo (Charlize Theron) accepts her brother’s gift of a night nanny. Diablo Cody’s dialogue still sounds forced, but at least here, the characters don’t speak with one voice the way they did in Juno, the screenwriter’s first pairing …
The cloistered widow of a rock legend (Rebecca Miller) whose one-hit-wonder legacy she aims to protect, is stalked by a cheeky, “back East” college professor (Jason Sudeikis) shopping a scholarly tome. Minutes into their first sit down, she clicks off his recording device and snorts, “I don’t have to worry. …
A young man loses his virginity to the woman of his dreams, only to turn around and deflower her younger sister...before finally being shown a good time by their divorced mother. The only thing separating writer-director Jeff Lipsky’s low-budget, tripod-free, string-of-dialogue scenes from mumblecore is a non-improvised, overly elaborate script. …
It’s rare to find female characters behind more convincing mustaches than their male counterparts, but then again, it’s even more uncommon for a film to come along that defies classification. How else does one account for a subject as potentially lethal as the fall and rise to power of Canadian …
Difficult as it is to imagine someone treating Audrey Hepburn badly, Albert Finney does. Luckily screenwriter Frederic Raphael and director Stanley Donen don't let him get away with it for too long. A masterpiece, strongly influenced by the French New Wave, that through time lives on as one of the …