An Australian politician/absentee father (Anthony LaPaglia), afraid that news of his wife’s nervous breakdown leaking out will ruin his chances for re-election, throws the missus in a “looney bin” and hires an earthy, in-the-ozone hitchhiker (Toni Colette) and her attack dog to babysit his five hypochondriacal daughters. Finally, Uncle Buck …
Adaptation of Salman Rushdie's novel about Indian children switched at birth and growing up in a newly independent India.
Tarsem Singh brings his flair for visual composition to the fairy tale genre, and the modesty of scale reins him in to good effect. But the star of this Snow White adaptation isn’t the scenery, nor the workaday comedy, nor even Snow White herself (an adorable Lilly Collins), even if …
Neither a remake of the turgidly depressing John Huston neo-western with Nick Cannon in the role originated by Montgomery Clift, nor a return to form by once-prospering action director Renny Harlin (Born American, Die Hard 2). It starts well enough, with narrator Ringo (Cannon) informing us that of the 19,000 …
From French Canada, a stirringly direct, human film about an émigré Algerian who talks his way into teaching at a Montreal school. He helps repair the traumatized morale of students and staff after a loved teacher commits suicide. In the fine cast (the kids are beyond just acting), Mohamed Fellag …
Animated feature based on the beloved children's book, adapted from the worldwide best-seller by Tomi Ungerer. The gentle man on the moon is lonely and wants to dance and have fun with the people of Earth. If only Moon Man knew just how much children loved him! But he's not …
Bookended by Benjamin Britten’s stirring “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” this is the most subtle, supple, deftly stylized fantasy from Wes Anderson. It happens on an island where scouting sets the tone of life. Brainy, dreamy kids (Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward) flee camp and home to share a wee …
Documentary follows two sisters hit by the economic downturn in China.
A subtle, atmospherically skillful vampire movie directed with care by Mary Harron...until the final fall into generic obviousness (blood, flames, etc.). Appealing Sarah Bolger is a prep schooler whose best friend is lured into the dark spell of a new oddball (space-eyed Lily Cole). The softly eroticized story is teased …
Director Joss Whedon invites a bunch of friends into his home for a weekend of Shakespearean partying, and films the proceedings in intriguingly muted black-and-white. The friends are actors, the house is designed by his wife Kai, and the goings-on involve a lot of drinking and deception (lighthearted and otherwise) …
Writer-director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter) treats 14-year-old Ellis and his friend Neckbone to a cornucopia of boyhood pleasures: walkie-talkies, taking an outboard up the river, a deserted island, a boat in a tree, old girlie mags, dirt bikes, chainsaws, fistfights, girlfriends, and looming over it all, a desperate outlaw in …
Director Charlie Minn points his camera at the recent surge in violence and death in Juarez, Mexico, a border city and battleground between warring drug cartels. Unfortunately, Minn captures little more than talking-head interviews, most of which rehash the same information for 90 minutes. Of the “experts” Minn consults (including …
Subtitle: the awakening of an aesthetic sense. But of course, an aesthetic sense is not the sort of thing you can shake into waking. You've got to nudge it, coax it, maybe sing to it a little. The setup here is contrived, but still believable: an ordinary, unexceptional Canadian (Mary …
More modern, more problems. Writer-director Sally El Hosaini brings a few tweaks to the familiar themes of brotherly strife and immigrants rising through drug-dealing. The immigrants are Egyptian; the religious background is Muslim ("If it's written, it's gonna happen anyway"); the city is London. Handsome, muscular Rashid (a winning James …
Navigating the world's longest river, from source to sea.