Director and co-writer Eugene Jarecki’s documentary tells the story of Elvis Presley in America — or rather, Elvis Presley as America. To wit: a youthful phenomenon, the likes of which the world had never seen, rocketing up from humble, hardscrabble beginnings into the stratosphere on the strength of talent, energy, …
Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner star in Rodgers and Hammerstein's tale of cross-cultural romance(?) between a Siamese king and his children's governess. Directed by Walter Lang.
A printed preamble tells of scholarly investigation to trace the legendary title figure to a real historical personage, a Fifth-century Sarmatian dubbed Artorius, who was posted by the Romans to hold the line against the Saxons in Britain. The film then authenticates this research by investing its hero (Clive Owen) …
Guy Ritchie takes his Guy Ritchiefier to the tale of Uther Pendragon’s son and his magical sword, thus ensuring that the lad (eventually played by Charlie Hunnam) will grow up in a whorehouse where he learns to be kind to whores and mean to bullies, that he will become an …
A lurid dimestore novel come to life. Also a nearly perfectly orchestrated murder thriller set in the time after the internet made pornography — in this case, the gay variety — widely available, but before it made it free. Though based on a true story, it’s presented with none of …
Let's see, what don't they want us to eat this week? Corn?! Without corn what is one supposed to do with their hands during the movie?
Joel and Luke Smallbone lead audiences on a sonic journey that blends the sights and sounds of the season with the musical mastery, and heartwarming storytelling.
After Richard Gere was chosen (or anointed) for the title role, director Bruce Beresford decided to take no more unnecessary risks. And there is so much hair, so much blood, so much "realism," that all fun, along with all Hittites, is threatened with extinction. But there is still Goliath, of …
Makisig is the widowed king of Kalayaan, an uncolonized version of the Philippines. As he prepares to retire from the throne, Makisig is unsure which among his children should succeed him; Bagwis, his short-tempered but politically inept son, or his eldest daughter Matimyas, whom he had previously groomed to be …
A remedial history lesson on U.S. -Saudi relations, behind the opening credits, introduces a hypothetical massacre of a hundred-plus American citizens at an oil-company picnic, the handiwork of an "Osama wannabe." Speedily onto the scene -- where were they on 9/11? -- comes an FBI response team (Jamie Foxx, the …
Graceless comedy about the gathering of the Slocumb family to put Daddy Bud in the ground. The funeral parlor is named Depew's, and the lisping pastor breaks wind in the middle of his oration -- just for instance. With LL Cool J, Vivica A. Fox, Jada Pinkett Smith, Anthony Anderson, …
AKA The Rise and Fall of Studio Ghibli? Yeah, probably, at least if you listen to cofounder and chief director Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle). “The future is clear,” he intones with an old man’s matter-of-factness as he smokes in the studio’s rooftop garden, “it’s …
Or, One More Reason Why the Middle East Hates the West. Back, back, back to the 12th Century, back to before the Third Crusade ("To kill an infidel is not murder, it is the path to heaven"), equipped with cultural relativism, vats of blood, miles of slow-motion, and wave after …