In the world of American cinema, there are two constants: over-saturated summer films and Woody Allen. The 75-year-old filmmaker has just about made one film per year since 1969. Through he 70’s and 80’s, heRead Full Review

I guess no one should ever question a winning recipe, and lord knows the filmmakers behind this sequel to The Hangover have any qualms with it, even though it tastes so familiar. The Hangover Part II is a nearRead Full Review

Will Ferrell has taken only a precious few ventures into dramatic territory, but Everything Must Go certainly counts amongst his darkest characters. There are no traces of Ron Burgundy or Ricky Bobby here, but instead the portraitRead Full Review

It seems like Kristen Wiig has been the funniest lady in the room for the last few years. Whether it be her consistently brilliant work on Saturday Night Live or her four minutes of pure comedic blissRead Full Review

There’s something particularly sweet about how bizarre a film like Hesher is. Think about this: here, we have a movie led by a character that speaks in so many non sequiturs that we eventually just get usedRead Full Review

I cannot say whether or not Duncan Jones is a fan of the 1993 Bill Murray film, Groundhog Day, but I may suggest to him to check out that film’s screenplay. In it, Phil (a characterRead Full Review

When I originally saw the trailer for Win Win, I turned to a friend of mine and asked, “Does that movie look really good? Because I’m at a point in my life where anything that starsRead Full Review

Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is considered to be amongst the greatest of the Gothic-Romantic novels of its time. When you read it, with its underlying sexual tension chastising the hypocritical nature of 1840’s culture, you almost haveRead Full Review

In Cedar Rapids, we are given a group of insurance rep misfits that couldn’t be any more buffoonish, yet couldn’t be any more sincere. There’s a certain level of warmth within the people we meet inRead Full Review

Somewhere within The Adjustment Bureau is a very compelling romance, and even better, a wonderful farce. Furthermore, the film stirs serious moral questions about predestination and existentialism. These three aspects (the romance, the farce, the existentialism) areRead Full Review

You may never see a film that appreciates faces the way that Another Year does. Not the kind of faces we’re used to staring at in most Hollywood films, but a different kind. Faces with cracks andRead Full Review

Barney Panofsky is the kind of character that is tailor-made for an actor with the talent of Paul Giamatti. Grumpy, condescending, always quick to jump to judgment. How is it that Giamatti is able toRead Full Review

There are certain film actors that are imbued with such wonderful likability that they fill their screen characters with such unavoidable watchability. I think Sally Hawkins is the newest member of this group and in MadeRead Full Review

I’m sure that it’s tough being royalty. It no longer holds the political stature that it did throughout history, but it still carries with it the emotional burden of being the face of an entireRead Full Review

If you can play “You Always Hurt The Ones You Love” on the ukulele, you might as well use it to your advantage in your romantic ventures. It’s the kind of talent that is humbleRead Full Review

Chances are, if you’re watching a John Wayne film, you’re watching a western of the highest quality. Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance are all amongst the best of the most American genre. But ifRead Full Review

Sports movies are by the books. They always follow the same storyline: beaten underdog must overcome enormous odds to make it to the top of the mountain. And there’s only two outcomes: either the underdogRead Full Review

On the surface, it seems odd to hear Darren Aronofsky talk about his latest film, Black Swan, as a “companion piece” to his 2008 film The Wrestler. One is a gritty journey of realism that is toldRead Full Review

Everyone grieves differently. Some turn to rage, some turn to silence… others turn to misery. Some will get over it, some will die trying. Rabbit Hole is a film that addresses grief in a pretty interesting way,Read Full Review

It would appear that the very talented Mexican film director Alejandro González Iñárritu loves making his audience gloomy. He’s never made a bad film, but he’s never made a particularly happy one neither. ‘Who cares?’ many may ask.Read Full Review

You don’t see many mainstream American films that are as open about sex as Love and Other Drugs, and for that alone, I guess the film deserves some credit. Of course, it’s a little easier toRead Full Review

In telling the story of Aron Ralston, there are few film directors I would have preferred more than Danny Boyle. When you know that the majority of a movie is going to be a guyRead Full Review

I think we can safely assume that Sofia Coppola doesn’t think much about a life of Hollywood excess. Much like her fantastic 2003 film, Lost In Translation, her latest movie Somewhere follows a famous Hollywood actor at aRead Full Review

It’s weird to tag on to a phenomenon as late as I have with the Harry Potter films. Only within the last twelve months have I seen all the films that came before this year’s Deathly Hallows PartRead Full Review

I grew up in a suburb outside of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and spent my entire education in a public school system that I was convinced was teaching me close to nothing. I graduated from McArthurRead Full Review

I guess I understand why the posters and trailers for Never Let Me Go try to hide the fact that it’s a science fiction film. It’s a genre that has become overloaded in various cliches (usually involvingRead Full Review

It takes some serious sack to pull off a film like Buried. On the surface, it just seems like a giant, suspense film gimmick – even its throwback poster seems more like homage then actual serious filmmaking. AnRead Full Review

As much as I loved The Social Network, there was an aspect of the film that I felt was missing. It’s not a film’s fault if it doesn’t address the concepts that I wanted it to address, butRead Full Review

When I saw the 2008 Swedish film Let The Right One In, I was blown away. This doesn’t happen to me often when it comes to horror films – particularly ones about vampires. So, there wasRead Full Review

It happened in a moment. But when it did, it was irreversible. Eight years ago, nobody knew what Facebook was. Today, for all young people, a world without Facebook seems like a world without televisionRead Full Review

When Gordon Gekko first appeared in 1987’s Wall Street, his silky charm mixed with his snake-like, coldblooded nature fascinated audiences to the tune of an Academy Award for Michael Douglas, the man who played the infamousRead Full Review

If Ben Affleck had appreciable acting talent, he could probably be just as big as George Clooney. The likability factor is there, as well as the charm, and no one can deny his boyish, yetRead Full Review

When you consider the pacing of a film like The American, as well as the tone and the characterization, you soon realize how unsuccessful a film like this will be, unless its lead is one ofRead Full Review

I’m often decrying a film’s lack of character development and how certain directors don’t trust the actors to do what they need to do. Well, there’s another extreme when discussing that argument. There are certainRead Full Review

There’s a certain level of stupidity and insanity within The Expendables. So much so that I feel like writing a one-star review for it is actually like giving the film a complement. The movie sets theRead Full Review

I know the films of Adam McKay are meant to be sophomoric and silly, but I sometimes wonder if he realizes how unfunny his films really are. I don’t think I’m saying anything controversial whenRead Full Review

In a time when the multiplexes are filling with the complex, cyber-technology that leads to films like Inception, it’s almost refreshing to approach a movie like The Kids Are All Right. Very seldom can a film soRead Full Review

When Avatar was setting box office records and racking up Oscar nominations, a million people were asking the same question: “Doesn’t anybody realize that the screenplay is terrible?” Now, imagine if the visual innovation of a filmRead Full Review

There’s something poignant about the end of an era. For anyone born after 1985, the Toy Story films certainly feel like an era, cataloging times in our lives like snapshots. The first two, released in 1995 andRead Full Review

The list of exceptional spin-offs is pretty exclusive, but you’d have to etch Get Him To The Greek on that tablet. Borrowing a few characters from 2008’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Greek is a cheery, sometimes dreary rock & roll comedyRead Full Review

By the end of the Summer of 2008, I was holding the very, very unpopular opinion that Iron Man–not The Dark Knight–was the best superhero film of the season. And now that I’ve had over a yearRead Full Review

A phrase you might hear a lot of when you listen to people talking about Edward Norton’s latest film, Leaves of Grass, is “tone issues”. This is a film that does not seem to care ifRead Full Review

In the world of the Ozark Mountains, there are some pretty sketchy characters to be found. Winter’s Bone is a pretty gritty portrayal of the darkest corners of this world. Quickly growing as a festival hit, theRead Full Review

Did Robert Altman perfect the Hollywood satire with his biting film The Player? Probably, but it hasn’t stopped many filmmakers from trying to top him. Punching The Clown is a film that gives it a shot. It’s aRead Full Review

Noah Baumbach seems to have a soft spot for insufferable assholes. In an effort to expose the darkest, more honest aspects of the human condition, Baumbach exposes his viewers to pretty grotesque psychological images. InRead Full Review

There’s a reason that psycho-sexual films don’t do well in the United States. As a country, America is supremely sexually repressed and gawk at the sight of real, sincere perversion being displayed on film. ItRead Full Review

Roman Polanski is a person whose reputation precedes him on several levels. But for the purposes of this blog, let us just say that every time he releases a new film, it is a eventRead Full Review

There are some films that are just too clever for their own good. Such is the case with Shutter Island, which had me entranced through its first two-thirds before imploding upon itself and vomiting in theRead Full Review

There are some people who, just by name alone, conjure up the thought: “That guy’s life would make a terrific money.” Even if you don’t know anything about them as a person, just their nameRead Full Review

Wes Anderson has never made a film I have disliked. He’s been working since 1996’s Bottle Rocket, and has made six films overall. Each film has been touched with the same flavor of detachment, smugness, andRead Full Review