West Hollywood, 1979. A carefree female impersonator (Alan Cumming) and a closeted D.A. (Garret Dillahunt) engage in a one night stand, and in no time they’re a couple immersed in a custody battle to adopt a 14-year-old (Isaac Leyva) with Down Syndrome. (The boy’s mother is serving time for drug …
By way of a review, Scott Marks presents the How to Make a PG-13 Horror Film Checklist: Spooky house, pre-credit flashback to Super8 footage, two attractive teenage-ish leads, a Kristen Stewart replica, paranormal security-cam footage, a first-time director manning the till, a plot that crumbles faster than a piece of …
There’s a frozen lake in Russia that each year engulfs a handful of autos piloted by daredevil drivers foolish enough to deem their vehicles light enough to ford thin ice. At least, I’m assuming that’s what happens. With no on-screen graphics or narrators to guide us, we’re left to wonder, …
First impression: a disease-of-the-week weepie about a widowed cancer survivor, the last tenant standing in a “ghost building” that can’t undergo urban gentrification until she vacates. But never judge a film by its trailer, as proven by this ravishingly realized study in filmed exasperation. Women’s pictures — those dark, intricately …
Sent to the home of an ill factory worker to fetch a change of clothes, an 18-year-old boy discovers a journal that changes his life (and the course of this heart-saddening and fiercely naturalistic road movie). The notebook to which author and off-camera narrator Cristiano (Aristides de Sousa) gives voice …
Is there ever a good time to tell your brother that his four years spent in stir — taking the rap for a job you both committed — was just enough time for you and his ex to fall head-over-heels in love? The question that becomes a running gag in …
Oscar-bound dramatization of the far-fetched but true story of six Americans who managed to escape the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 and find shelter in Canada by pretending to be actors in a big budget Hollywood space opera. Ben Affleck directs and stars as the CIA “exfiltration” expert who comes …
Kyle (Liam Hemsworth), a proud bottom-rung drug dealer, slithers a few steps up the crime ladder after being placed under the tutelage of Park Ranger Bright (John Malkovich) and then partnered with blithesome jerk Swin (Clark Duke) to drive deliveries across state lines. (The opening passage had me hooked — …
There’s a feature film waiting to be made on each of Robert Cenedella’s canvases; they illustrate as big a battleground of love, hate, and action as you’ll find in any of fellow outsider Sam Fuller’s movies. As an artist in all seriousness, Cenedella likes to cyanide-coat his message with humor. …
Fearing a possible breach of the “no child left behind” clause, it’s up to Santa’s son, Arthur, to save the family business by delivering one last present. Other than the fact that all of the characters appear to suffer from rosacea rhinophyma, this witty, handsomely appointed 3-D animated feature is …
We open with four-legged friend Enzo (voiced by Kevin “3-Packs-A-Day” Costner), explaining why a dog’s tongue makes it impossible for the animal to speak. And just like that, I’m psyched at the promise of a good dog movie. We know from the outset that before it ends, Enzo will make …
Qiao (Tao Zhao) is, and will remain, a woman in control, even after serving a 5 year stretch for possession of an illegal firearm. (The gun belonged to her gangster beau.) According to Qiao, “Anything that burns at a high temperature is made pure.” A boat trip up the Yangtze …
Those who knew Adam Goldstein — a pioneering plate-mate remixer who survived an airplane crash only to die of a drug overdose — called him a “digital shaman,” a DJ who assumed rock star status. He no more invented mashups than he did the wheel, but he was the first …
Before Dr. Phil, Dr. Drew, and Dr. Laura began their careers as radio and TV advice dispensers, Ruth Westheimer was the pioneering therapist with whom Americans were on a strictly first-name basis. Who better to broach the subject of sex in graphic yet straightforward and wholly non-threatening terms than someone …