A romantic-comic Rashomon: first we get "his" angle on their affair, then "hers." The gimmick, even as applied to relationships, is not new (see André Cayatte's two-part Anatomy of a Marriage, see the TV movie Divorce His/Divorce Hers). What's new is that a man, Ken Kwapis, directed the first part; …
Before today, this sheltered Yiddisher kop cinephile from Chicago’s far north side didn’t know a Hesburgh from a Hesher. Thank you, Father, for every now and then favoring us with an enlightening, meticulously deliberated (and well-tooled) documentary. Return with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when the biggest …
The film is an opportunity to see familiar faces in unfamiliar roles, most notably Natalie Portman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The story centers around TJ (played with vulnerable conviction by Devin Brochu), a diminutive high schooler struggling with the death of his mother. His grief management takes a drastic turn with …
As an explanation of romantic incompatibility, the catchphrase title is stunningly unilluminating, no matter which of its six words is stressed. (On screen, the third one stands out in green from the white of the rest, but that seems an arbitrary reading.) Satisfied with the what and incurious about the …
Joan Micklin Silver's ambitious but penny-wise independent production about the Americanization of Jewish immigrants on Manhattan's Lower East Side at the turn of the century. The substantial subject is filtered down to individual scenes that are tidy, to-the-point, and a bit thinned-out. (A big line comes across loud and clear: …
Combination screwball comedy and black comedy (blackball comedy?). A hotel desk clerk and compulsive liar gets involved for real with a homicidal and very hot-tempered international fashion model called Hexina. Writer and director Alan Spencer generates little style but many gags, never slowing to worry about taste (e.g., a replay …
Culp and Cosby, reunited I Spy pair, play two baggy-pants, struggling private eyes, and they have wrung out their acting of the comedy-team glibness flaunted in their TV series routines. This glum, nicely paced thriller is directed by Culp, who plays his cards very smartly, if conservatively.
Fresh on the heels of Robocop comes a sort of Robo-robber (with a Robo-G-man in hot pursuit) -- only it's not actually a robot but an alien parasite who inhabits human bodies and is impervious to bullets (although the host's body isn't). The photography, by Jacques Haitkin, is crisp and …
Conspiracy thriller about English abuses of power in Northern Ireland, featuring a simple but effective strategy of establishing an almost documentary realism so that the viewer will be less disposed to doubt the undocumented allegations. There is a considerable presence of TV news cameras on screen, and a considerable imitation …
A moody Chinese WWII thriller directed by Er Cheng. Starring Tony Leung, Zhou Xun, Eric Wang, and Yibo Wang.
Tariq Nasheed's documentary explores the reasons the contributions of African and aboriginal people have been left out of the pages of history.
A woman discovers her lover’s ex living inside the walls of a lavish country manor, trapped in a secret vault built by one of Hitler’s engineers. If you can get past one cardboard characterization (a stereotypical cop) and a haphazard patch of plotting, there’s enjoyment to be found in this …
NASA’s gone funky when a trio of African-American women (Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe), all experts in the field of analytic geometry, prove they have the right stuff needed to crack the elite white boy’s space program. An important historical achievement — and apparently, the space center’s …