16 Blocks

2006 PG-13

When you go into a Bruce Willis action movie, you expect Bruce Willis action movie. Unfortunately, "16 Blocks" is like ordering a slab of ribs and getting...

A Lobster Tale

2006 PG-13

The irony of Maine is that L.L.Bean gear engineered to make life bearable during days when 10 degrees is the high temp is too pricey for everyone who's poor...

A Perfect Day

2005 not rated

Hundreds of thousands died during the 15-year civil war in Lebanon that sets the stage for the kidnapping of the father figure in "A Perfect Day."

A Serious Man

2009 R

AMC's early-’60s drama 'Mad Men' costs a reported $2.3 million per episode. It's well worth it, but take an episode on its own and it likely wouldn't stand up....

Adventureland

2009 R

"Adventureland" is a by-the-numbers romance about New York City grad-school love emerging from the idealized, corndog stench of two months working at a carnival midway in Pittsburgh.

Afghan Star

2009 not rated

"Afghan Star" documents the third season of the scrap-iron indie version of the kind of show that introduced the world to William Hung, the Asian guy who sang...

All Good Things

2010 R

There's often a case to be made with fictionalizing true history, or speculating using a framework of truth.

An Education

2009 PG-13

On the verge of 17, Jenny, fresh-faced, skilled in literature and cello, on the path to Oxford greatness at a Twickenham girls' school in 1961, knows it's not...

Australia

2008 PG-13

Baz Luhrmann writes and directs best when he's limited. In the final scene of his "Strictly Ballroom," a couple ordered to leave the competition dance floor...

Avatar

2009 PG-13

Word started going around about Jimmy's new hot rod a while ago. Jimmy certainly doesn't know me, he's just a guy I know of, but everyone said you had to go...

Away We Go

2009 R

Once, when I had free cable, I sometimes caught "Househunters," a show as addictive as it was irritating (although not as much as "Clean House," where...

Banksy's Coming for Dinner

2009 not rated

There are a lot of irritating things in Banksy's Coming for Dinner but most of them have to do with how slow-moving, dim-witted, and sycophantic people are.

Be Kind, Rewind and Semi-Pro

2008 PG-13

Jack Black's 'Be Kind, Rewind' and Will Ferrell's 'Semi-Pro' follow two sweet, fired-up doofuses in quests to save their worlds.

Best Worst Movie

2009 not rated

We're in Alabama. And we're following a dentist, who is probably the nicest guy you've ever met. He's tall, handsome, blonde, a little rugged looking, and he's...

Black Swan

2010 R

It's telling that all of the over-the-top praise for a Natalie Portman movie about a ballerina performing in " Swan Lake" - at least the kudos I've heard -...

Blood Simple

1984 R

In writer-director team Joel and Ethan Coen's first movie, Abby (a very young Frances McDormand) has just left her husband, bilious bar-owner Marty, for bartender Ray.

Blue Valentine

2010 R

Here's a romance that will punch you in the gut with insecurity, that will make you cry like you never cried as a teenager in love, a romance where everything...

Bobby

2006 R

Emilio Estevez called his film "Bobby" "a call to action," but few know the true story behind the Hollywood prince's desire to deify JFK's lil bro... It...

Borat

2006 R

It's too bad that by the time "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" made it to the foot-dragging cinemas of...

Brand Upon the Brain!

2006 not rated

Paint Snoopy on a canvas — using marmite — and call it "Peace Treaty." Cut up the instructions on a box of condoms and mix them in with your grocery list and...

Bridesmaids

2011 R

I've seen divorce trials that painted a rosier portrait of marriage, episodes of "Jersey Shore" with more humanity and case files on "Hoarders" that were less...

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

2009 not rated

In his book of short stories, David Foster Wallace's fictionalized transcriptions of men answering questions about relationships and love serve as self-deprecating character studies.

Brokeback Mountain

2005 R

"Brokeback Mountain" is one of our finest love stories, of the ilk in which there are no happy endings — "Romeo + Juliet," "Lolita," or "Titanic." Instead of a...

Bubble

2005 R

Here's what happens in "Bubble" : There's a middle-aged lady, Martha, who takes care of her elderly father at home and works at a doll-making factory in rural...

Burn After Reading

2008 R

The Coen brothers have once again managed to re-invent the bungled heist film. They've done it in Southwest slapstick ("Raising Arizona"), blood-spattered...

Burning Man: Beyond Black Rock

2005 not rated

Well, that finally settles it. I'm never going to Burning Man. It sounded pretty cool in college at the turn of the century. A weird-out-the-squares gathering...

Call Northside 777

1948 not rated

Gotta be honest. Any classic noir piece is usually an automatic rave from me, but not "Call Northside 777," even though it's all about an intrepid crime...

Casino Royale

2006 PG-13

"Casino Royale," number 21 in the multi-billion-dollar franchise, is easily the best James Bond movie since Sean Connery's take on the secret agent. Thank...

Chapter 27

2008 R

Jared Leto gained a ghastly 67 pounds and took on a far heavier burden to get inside the head of Mark David Chapman in the long-delayed, boycotted-by-many...

Charlie Bartlett

2007 R

Preppy heir Charlie Bartlett has made one too many fake ID for his boarding school and decides to try public school. There, he pines after the daughter of the...

Charlie Wilson's War

2007 R

Back in the days of Donna Summer and Dallas, when news junkies got their fix from wire machines, there was a Cold War everyone knew about and a real war...

Cold Souls

2009 PG-13

We use the word "soul" so often in conversation, describing some things — telemarketers, TV evangelists, Walt Disney World, airport Chili's — as soulless,...

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

2003 R

"Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" is the story of Chuck Barris, the guy who hosted "The Gong Show," came up with "The Dating Game" and "The Newlywed Game,"...

Confessions of a Shopaholic

2009 PG

"Confessions of a Shopaholic" is a bad movie about bad people getting rewarded for behaving badly. New York City writer Becky Bloomwood is utterly inept at...

Cool as Ice

1991 PG

There's no way you're going to go and watch the Vanilla Ice movie "Cool as Ice," but if you were, I'd suggest first cuing up this clip from 1999 , from MTV...

Crossroads

2002 PG-13

The Spears chick flick "Crossroads" isn't, actually, awful. It deserves a Criterion edition compared to the loathsome worst movie ever made, "Red Cockroaches."

Cyrus

2010 R

If you're a guy like John, John C. Reilly's character in "Cyrus," discovering Red Bull and vodkas after seven years divorced, and a sparkling, beautiful woman...

Date Night

2010 PG-13

"Date Night" naturally goes for that "date night" audience. You're sitting in the dark during the four hours a week you've scheduled to go out with your...

Day Zero

2007 R

A time capsule from a parallel universe where the draft is reinstated. Three friends struggle with the fast-approaching deadline.

Defiance

2008 R

It's a strange thing to say about "Defiance," a gray and blue movie about a group of Belarussian Jewish brothers who escape into the woods and end up hiding...

Did You Hear About the Morgans?

2009 PG-13

It's not just geographical — there's a definite “flyover country” in film as well. There are the coasts — the only place worth spending any time, to anyone...

District 9

2009 R

Wikus wears a sweater vest and fumbles clipping the microphone to his lapel. The son-in-law of a private defense contracting bigwig, he's about to go out with...

Do the Right Thing

1989 R

Vicki Lawrence dressed as an old lady, keeping her wacky redneck family in check in "Mama's Family," was about as risque as approved viewing got when I was a...

Double Indemnity

1944 not rated

Reasons you won't like "Double Indemnity" : The smarty-pants title. The average person doesn't know what it means. It refers to insurance payouts. The subject...

Doubt

2008 PG-13

It's 1964 and Philip Seymour Hoffman is a young, kind Catholic priest brimming with pearls of wisdom: "Last year, when President Kennedy was assassinated, who...

Down to the Bone

2004 R

The average filmmaker can't make mainlining coke mainstream. Unless you're Danny Boyle, you can't make a heroin user heroic.

Dreamgirls

2006 PG-13

It's too bad "Dreamgirls" is so — I hate to say this — lame. It's too bad because it hurts to say it. Because it's like denouncing the play your budding...

Drillbit Taylor

2008 PG-13

A young veteran down on his luck, played by Owen Wilson, signs up to be the bodyguard of three nerdy freshmen. I expected so much more.

Earth Girls Are Easy

1988 PG

This one used to be locked away in the "too scandalous to see when it came out" files, a dark little corner of naughty 80s cinema.

Easy A

2010 PG-13

Don't hate, but "Easy A" was really entertaining. In the tradition of American teen movies taking on classics (with sassy results, like "Clueless" and "10...

Eat Pray Love

2010 PG-13

How could you resist "Eat Pray Love"? It's all the clinking wine glasses and bland spaghetti with marinara of an Olive Garden ad mixed with the exotic, yet...

Eden

2008 R

Marital disillusionment is an easy topic for any medium. Fleetwood Mac made nearly a whole career out of it — goodbye, sanity! Though the resulting songs of...

Eldorado

2008 not rated

Big, scruffy Bouli Lanners wrote, directed and starred as Yvan in "Eldorado" and did an admirable job at all three. You'd sigh in relief if his character Yvan...

Employee of the Month

2006 PG-13

Like the Costco warehouse where this flop was filmed, "Employee of the Month" is economy-sized. It's the movie version of the so-cheap-you-had-to-buy-it 25-lb...

Expired

2008 not rated

A ranking of 200 jobs came out Monday on CareerCast.com. Biologists, historians and actuaries came out on top, while oilfield workers, lumberjacks, and...

Extract

2009 R

Normal life, its mediocre details hovering right at the border between reality and satire, is a scarce product at the movies. Mike Leigh's version of England,...

Factory Girl

2006 R

Poor Edie Sedgwick, the subject of “Factory Girl,” she died at 28, you know? She slashed the wrists of her soul on the sharp tin edge of pop-artist Andy...

Fireman, Save My Child

1954 not rated

Cowbells. Washboards. Rib xylophones. Percussion pistols and flatulent brass. Tinkling chandeliers, tin cups. Parachuting ducks. Sneezing, clucking,...

Fish Tank

2009 not rated

The title of "Fish Tank" is easily the least interesting and most predictable thing about British writer/director Andrea Arnold's biting, bittersweet look at...

Flawless

1999 R

"Flawless" isn't flawless (what movie is, besides "The Big Lebowski"?) and it really doesn't have a lot to do with the titular drag-queen contest, not even...

Frost/Nixon," "The Wrestler

2008 R

"Frost/Nixon" is a fictionalized version of the 1977 interviews between President Richard Nixon and performer David Frost, of "That Was the Week That Was" and...

Frozen River

2008 R

It's funny how the premise of a movie can make you think the work within is good when it's wretched or likely to be hackneyed when it's amazing.

Generation Kill

2008 not rated

There are those who tsk the Marines for their lack of head-hanging, their lack of moralizing, the fact that none of the guys in the first recon bust out in...

Ghost Town

2008 PG-13

Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) is a New York City dentist whose brief death during an operation gives him the ability to see dead people — a "Ghost Town" full...

Grandma's Boy

2006 R

Sometimes, a movie comes along that is so great that, when you wipe a tear from your eye at its conclusion, you re-emerge into the world feeling your soul has...

Grey Gardens

2009 PG-13

A part of your humanity dies when you forget you can always lose everything, find yourself in line at the soup kitchen or on the business end of a crack pipe.

Hamlet 2

2008 R

Frailty, thy name is "Hamlet 2." Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan), a teacher with too few talents and too much passion, tries to save his cut drama program by...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2009 PG

Even as a now-devoted fan of the Harry Potter books and movies, I can still understand how and why I was embarrassed to pick up that first, "The Stand"-sized...

Heavenly Creatures

1994 R

Remember, right before you thought it was cool to leave playing with dolls and fencing with sticks and climbing trees behind forever? When you could run with...

Heckler

2007 R

Heckler" is an up-to-date documentary on the current state of the peanut gallery. As comedian Lewis Black mulls, "it used to be you had to have a RESUME.

High Hopes

1988 PG

My stepmother introduced me to the films of Mike Leigh. Her unparalleled cool credentials include a solo trip across Asia, wearing real kohl on her eyelids and...

High Noon

1952 not rated

What do you do for the 90 minutes after you've said your wedding vows? If you're Will Kane (Gary Cooper), the marshal of a small town in territorial New...

Hounddog and Rachel Getting Married

2008 R

The main character in Hounddog, Dakota Fanning's Lewellen, is a smarter, scrappier version of the broken-down girl who turns into Christina Ricci's tramp in Black Snake Moan.

How To Lose Friends and Alienate People / Choke

2008 R

Sometimes, an adaptation takes its source material, slashes its veins and soaks your eyeballs in a special extraction of imagination.

Hud

1963 not rated

They called Hud "the man with the barbed wire soul" on promo posters for "Hud," which is really an insult to barbed wire. I'd feel far more comfortable lying...

I Do & I Don't

2007 R

"I Do & I Don't" is a crude, perverted, pessimistic, straight-to-video rom-com that makes light of cocaine abuse, assumes homosexual curiosity is normal...

I Love You Phillip Morris

2009 R

A tour de force by Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, "I Love You Phillip Morris" (which has nothing to do with the tobacconist) was box office poison. McGregor...

I'm No Angel

1933 not rated

It's almost inconceivable that "I'm No Angel" existed in the same world as my grandmothers. Starring Mae West, one of the most famous female stars of the day.

I'm Still Here

2010 R

So "I'm Still Here" was actually actor Joaquin Phoenix, fresh off a speedball of celebrity and Hollywood after his turn as Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line,"...

I've Loved You So Long

2008 PG-13

To say that "I've Loved You So Long" is another foreign film about disappearance is like saying that "Ed Wood" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" are both just Tim Burton movies.

Illegal Aliens

2007 R

To its credit, "Illegal Aliens," knows it's dumber than the empty Coke bottle that fell to earth in "The Gods Must Be Crazy." It's as rowdy, low budget and...

Important Things With Demetri Martin

2009 not rated

Season one of Comedy Central's "Important Things With Demetri Martin" instilled a certain feeling of dread at first.

In Bruges

2008 R

The audience is likely to feel a lot like Ray (Colin Farrell) at the beginning of "In Bruges": "I didn't even know where Bruges f***ing was. It's in Belgium."...

In the Name of the Father

1993 R

An angry rock song builds as a group of young people walk happily into a pub one October evening in Guildford, England, in 1974. The door shuts, and the...

Inception

2010 PG-13

"Inception" didn't get me at first. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) has washed up, face-down, on a shore. Japanese mercenaries know, immediately, to pull up his...

Inglourious Basterds

2009 R

Two hours into "Inglourious Basterds," the fun starts. The biggest World War II Nazis are assembled in occupied Paris to watch a propagandistic film about a...

Inside Job

2010 PG-13

Most people call what happened in September, 2008, a bursting bubble. I don't think that's accurate at all. When everything hit the fan, the haves grabbed...

interMission

2003 R

Ah, the woes of Ireland, where the blood-and-drink-sodden heroics of Cuchulainn have been replaced by the "Jersey Shore"-like girl-punching of "interMission."...

Jack Goes Boating

2010 R

The titular character in "Jack Goes Boating" spends less time plying his oars in the Central Park lake as drifting comfortably in a numb, liquid womb of dinner...

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

2010 R

Why am I watching a documentary about Joan Rivers? I wonder this for about five seconds before dissolving with helpless, falling-over laughter.

Jude

1996 R

Beautiful Sue, regal in a long white Victorian gown in one moment and sexily tossing back ale and smoking cigarettes in the next, buys a statuary of a naked...

Julie & Julia

2009 PG-13

Julia Child's two-volume set sat behind glass, always within reach in the kitchen of my childhood, its ivory spines — one pale blue, one creamy tomato orange —...

Juno" and "The Tracey Fragments

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be film school students. Of the two Ellen Page vehicles, I thought I was going to hate the...

Kamp Katrina

2007 not rated

A look at a different group of social outcasts — a group of determined crackheads in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Kath & Kim

2008 not rated

All remakes are not equal. Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 "Psycho"? Classic. Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake? Poor taxidermy. The more something is loved, the taller the...

Kick-Ass

2010 R

If "Kick-Ass" were really just about the teen comic-loving geek (Aaron Johnson) who decides to become a superhero named Kick-Ass, it would decidedly not kick...

Kidulthood

2006 R

A foul-mouthed, street view of the seedy, shady, secret world of British teenagers — or so it bills itself.

King of California

2007 PG-13

Almost 16-year-old Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood) has warily reunited with her father, whose brain is made of equal parts Charlie Mingus and Don Quixote.

La Fille Sur Le Pont

1999 R

Hardscrabble sometimes-con Gabor the knife-thrower can’t resist the girl on the wrong side of the Paris bridge. Neither can we. Though we’ve already heard...

La Grand Bouffe

1973 NC-17

It starts almost like an episode of globe-trotting gourmet Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations." A man gets on a plane wheeling a heavy round of cheese along...

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains

1981 R

Besides striped cats and hot cider, there are few things that warm a chill Sunday evening like rage cinema. Anger is good for the heart.

Last Chance Harvey

2008 PG-13

The movie's called "Last Chance Harvey," but it's really divvied up more between the titular character's ultimate shot at happiness and that of a certain Kate....

Laura

1944 not rated

"I shall never forget the weekend Laura died," the nasally columnist played by Clifton Webb begins in his voiceover of "Laura" (1944, not rated, based on the...

Law Abiding Citizen

2009 R

About a third of the way into "Law Abiding Citizen," Jamie Foxx, a too-perfect Philadelphia prosecutor, cuts the cameras to the interview room and...

Les Raisins de la Mort

1978 not rated

NSFW warning/enticement: Totally gratuitous horror movie tits ahead. It's just so typical of Euro travel. Just when you've got settled into your train seat...

Let the Right One In

2008 R

Two small, doomed 12-year-olds meet and fall in love. Oskar carries a knife, stabs a tree, fantasizes about talking back to the bullies, growling at them to...

Like Water For Chocolate

1992 R

To be fair, "Like Water For Chocolate" lets you know up front what kind of movie it's going to be. A tear-streaked woman, our narrator, tells the audience...

Lucas

1986 PG

For the most part, teen movies today trend the following ways: taut teen bodies and fart jokes, hand-drawn titles and indie shoegazing music, or castrated vampire romances.

Man on Wire

2008 PG-13

For some, there's a natural aversion to artists. Sure, you've got your Renaissance painters, with their commissions for church ceilings or portraits of...

Marie Antoinette

2006 PG-13

If only beheading complaining aristocrats were still in style. Like Sophia Coppola's previous films, "The Virgin Suicides" (message: no one understands how...

Martha Marcy May Marlene

2011 R

There's a parody version of the 80s show "The Wonder Years" out there that makes one small adjustment — taking away lead character Kevin Arnold's voiceover...

Marwencol

2010 not rated

There's a fantastic new book out that explores everyday victims of too-often everyday violence, called "Everybody Sees the Ants," by A.S. King. Lucky...

Meet Bill

2007 R

If the water supply during the making of American Beauty had been pumped full of Prozac, Meet Bill might have resulted.

Melancholia

2011 R

Watching "Melancholia"'s depiction of two deeply troubled sisters, reckless Justine and severe Claire, facing the actual end of the world at the former's...

Milk

2008 R

So why do we need a movie about Harvey Milk, a Korean War Navy vet who left an unremarkable life selling insurance in New York at 40 to become an openly gay...

Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day

2008 PG-13

The book Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day waited 60 years to turn into a movie. It benefited for the tension of getting to throw in an air-raid.

Moon

2009 R

For its almost seven billion inhabitants, Earth can be a damned lonely place. Lack of contact with our fellow carbon-based life-forms can have dire...

Muriel's Wedding

1994 R

Now this is how you make a movie about a woman who wants to get married. A main character who is down on her luck but who's lovable enough and has the inner...

My Left Foot

1989 R

A foot? Honestly. No one's going to want to see a movie about a foot, what with its corresponding thoughts of toe jam and nail clippings. Have the disabled man...

My Week With Marilyn

2011 R

First of all, we're not even going back in time to peek behind the scenes at any of Marilyn Monroe's major movies. We're not tagging along with her during the...

Neil Young: Heart of Gold

2006 not rated

"It’s better to burn out and to fade away." That lyric from Neil Young’s "Hey, Hey, My, My" closed the suicide note of grunge anti-hero Kurt Cobain nearly 12...

Night of the Comet

1984 PG-13

Regina's a weird girl. She's mouthy and adorably, confidently casual in her job as a movie theater usher. She'd rather shoot arcade space invaders in...

No End In Sight

2007 not rated

An omniscient piece of investigative journalism about the war in Iraq, as gut-wrenchingly depressing as it is quality.

No Strings Attached

What a piece of garbage. What an utterly shiny inducement toward irritation, frustration and the throwing of crockery out a high window (in a pinch, crumpling...

Nobel Son

2007 R

An arrogant chemistry professor wins the Nobel Prize — and finds his son's been kidnapped. Unfortunately, the movie is a trap.

Obselidia

2010 not rated

Calling a movie "immature" usually calls to mind the diarrhea-in-a-sink scene from "Bridesmaids," Ace Ventura emerging from the rear end of a Rhino or the...

Offensive Behaviour

2004 R

New Zealander Patrick Gillies' "Offensive Behaviour" isn't stellar, but given that it was made on an $8,000 budget, it's entirely forgivable.

Only the Lonely

1991 PG-13

I love Maureen O'Hara ("Miracle on 34th Street" and the mom in "Parent Trap" — the original, good one) and I love Ally Sheedy (her portrayal of a rich girl...

Page One: Inside the New York Times

2011 R

All right, it's been four hours of procrastination, so I'll just face it: I can not divest my own job from a viewing of "Page One: Inside the New York Times."...

Paper Moon

1973 PG

Flanked by two women, a 9-year-old girl with inelegantly cropped blonde hair stands at an open grave on the windswept prairie of Kansas at the start of “Paper...

Parents

1989 R

How strange would it be to be a cubicle dweller in Showtime's marketing department whose big break comes during a late 80s encounter on a plane with actor Bob...

Pineapple Express

2008 R

In "Pineapple Express," Seth Rogen is Dale, a 25-year-old process server who enjoys weed, talk radio and the company of his high school girlfriend, in that order.

Pontypool

2008 R

I promise that this review has not been influenced by the fact that Netflix hit some kind of weird Internet frost-heave at the end, resulting in the last 15...

Post-Valentine's Day edition, part 1: "Much Ado About Nothing

It's summer, and the wine estate of Villa Vignamaggio is filled with lovely, happy people in jaunty vests and simple white dresses, nibbling on grapes, splayed...

Powder Blue

2009 R

"Powder Blue" sets its themes out early — radio news reports a man with AIDS has spotted the Virgin Mary in his windshield while a corner hobo's sign reads "In...

Precious

2009 R

"Precious" grew on me. In the days after watching it (which, itself, was an experience that frequently felt like many of the warning signs for a heart attack)...

Prodigal Sons

2008 not rated

The first-born son of a farm-born doctor and his schoolteacher wife, Montana son Paul McKerrow was tenderly beloved. He and his brothers' creativity expressed...

Public Enemies

2009 R

He was checking in movies when I came to the register and was amazed at coming across a copy of "Public Enemies." It's been impossible to keep on the shelves,...

Punching the Clown

2009 unrated

Henry Phillips is absolutely hilarious, and if you haven't heard of him yet, you will soon. I hadn't, but my online movie-watching service was practically...

Quantum of Solace

2008 PG-13

"Quantum of Solace," part two of a three-part Bond trilogy, starring the double-o-magnificent Daniel Craig, can — honestly — rest on the laurels of "Casino...

Red State

2011 R

Long ago, at the beginning of the century, my cousin Max somehow convinced me that the canceled-after-six-episodes, aired on squeamish network television out...

Repo Men

2010 R

A chiseled, battered man sits at a typewriter, looking very much like the height of his data entry experience consisted of a debit card purchase where he had...

Roman Holiday

1953 not rated

I couldn't make it through the 1961 classic "Breakfast at Tiffany's," so insufferably shallow and ditsy was the twiggy, privileged flirt, window-shopping...

Rudo y Cursi

2008 R

"Rudo y Cursi" is the engaging, funny, sad, true-to-life story of two young, rural Mexican brothers with dreams of unattainable stardom (one, of the soccer...

Run, Fatboy, Run

2007 PG-13

A Brit, an Irishman and an effeminate Guatemalan prince walk into a bad movie directed by Ross Geller from "Friends," the dopey nice guy who asks permission...

RV

2006 PG

This is the kind of movie that should never leave America, lest it be used as a terrorist training video to incite ire against the wretchedness of Americans....

Saint John of Las Vegas

2009 R

This is a Vegas movie that's not about Vegas, a cubicle movie that's not about office space, a love story that's not about sex, or love, a buddy movie that's...

She's the Man

2006 PG-13

Certainly no less believable than the rest of the Elizabethan comedy genre, "She's the Man " works if you can still tap into that part of you that requires you...

Sherrybaby

2006 R

Sherry Swanson (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a mess. Recently paroled after three years in jail, the none-too-bright girl with the trash Jersey wardrobe.

Silent Light

2007 not rated

In 1964, Andy Warhol aimed a camera at the Empire State Building, filmed it for six hours, then slowed down the frame rate to stretch it to eight hours, called...

Slacker Uprising

2007 no rating

I'm writing this a few hours after I dropped off my absentee ballot at the county complex, which has been busy with early voters both times I've popped in this...

Slouching Towards Hollywood: "The African Queen

It seems strange that one of the most lauded adventure movies of all time centers on two foreigners plotting to build a bomb to sink a boat stationed in a...

Slumdog Millionaire

2008 R

I'm no statistician. And I don't put much stock in luck. But if I'm trying to find a childhood pal in a city of 13 million — and accomplish it – I'd say my...

Smoke Signals

1998 not rated

One day in college, I asked about a fellow student's "Frybread Power" T-shirt and he told me about "Smoke Signals." But it took eight years before I could find...

Soapdish

1991 PG-13

There's a scene in "Soapdish" where Kevin Kline, as Dr. Rod Randall, is reading a script he's never read from a teleprompter for a live soap opera audience,...

Star Trek

2009 PG-13

Holla! I'm space playboy Jim Kirk, filling in on movie critic duties this week to talk about "Star Trek." But not Shatner-Kirk who sold out for high-carb...

State of Play

2003 miniseries, 2009 film, rated PG-13

"State of Play" started out as a BBC 6-part miniseries and has since been transformed into a movie starring Russell Crowe as intrepid, scruffy, old-school...

Stranger Than Fiction

2006 PG-13

Who pulled this out of the slush pile? Imagine the pitch session for "Stranger Than Fiction." Okay, so there's this boring IRS agent, whose boring life is...

subUrbia

1996 R

So Jeff, from a tent inside his parents' garage, and Buff, the pizzabox-folding pothead, and Sooze, the spiky-haired riot girl, and Tim, the kid who tried to...

Suddenly, Last Summer

1959 not rated

Regal and nutty as Lady MacBeth, Violet Venable (Katherine Hepburn) is in mourning over last summer's sudden death of her son, Sebastian, a poet who spent nine...

The Amateurs

2007 R

Industry outsiders can be great — cartoonist Max Cannon, poet August Kleinzahler and comedian Masaki Sumitani all excel at repelling, provoking thought.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

2007 R

In the beginning, no one had high hopes for Brad Pitt beyond being a piece of meat, the perfect model for underwear or aluminum smelling mid-market cologne....

The Baader Meinhof Complex

2008 R

Any peace-loving, rational adult watching “The Baader Meinhof Complex” will likely feel an ever-increasing level of disgust with the main characters and a...

The Boy With Green Hair

1948 not rated

My cousin Max woke up with green hair once. It was on purpose though. He was 13 and globbed bright, awesome "Green Envy"-colored Manic Panic on his blonde...

The Cake Eaters

2007 R

Kristen Stewart, with her bedroom eyes, long limbs and melodic voice, is some kind of passionate forest sprite — one studly young men are always tearing themselves away from deflowering.

The Deer Hunter

1978 R

Who are you? When? Where? Some movies will tell you, and so well that at the end, you feel like you've lived another lifetime by swimming in someone's...

The Departed

2006 R

Some days, going to the movie theater is a lot like coming home to a half a bowl of ramen noodles sitting in the refrigerator. And it's mostly broth. And the...

The Gate

1986 PG-13

I've never understood movie drinking games. If you want to get wasted by the end of a movie, just turn on something bad — something as bad as "The Gate" —...

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

2009 R

The Swedish title of this movie is "Men Who Hate Women." A more apt title might be "men who hate storytelling." Well, perhaps "hate" is too strong a word, but...

The Grapes of Wrath

1940 not rated

"The Grapes of Wrath" is a gripping book that begins in dust and ends in death after many dark miles, but if you showed a classroom the 1940 movie version of...

The Great Buck Howard

2008 PG

"The Great Buck Howard" is the story of a disillusioned law school dropout, Troy (played by Tom Hanks' son Colin), who takes a job as manager for a fading...

The Great Happiness Space

2006 not rated

My father's year working in Japan in the mid-90s introduced him — and me, by postcards and packages of mangosteen-flavored gum — to an incomprehensible world....

The Happening

2008 R

Pre-emptively striking at the human hordes in anticipation of xeriscaping coming to the East Coast, oak, grass, corn and rhubarb lash out with extreme prejudice.

The Hurt Locker

2009 R

Our post-9/11 wars continue, and even with our noses remain collectively pressed up against this monolithic thing that is conflict, filmmakers continue to...

The Informant!

2009 R

The exclamation point in the title of "The Informant!" is on purpose. So, too, is the harsh light, hammering down from the acoustic tile ceilings, glaring in...

The Informers

2009 R

"The Informers" is an unlovable movie full of unlovable people, as incompetent as it is over-ambitious. The problem isn't Bret Easton Ellis, a writer...

The Italian Job

1969 G

Proof that there's no sense in this world, a movie that glorifies robbers and the mafia and begins with a Cosa Nostra murder of a man driving a lickable red...

The King's Speech

2010 R

I can almost guarantee that everyone reading this review knows someone who is going through something far more debilitating, insurmountable or destructive than...

The Lincoln Lawyer

2011 R

My just-about adoptive mother June Russell, of Swans Island, Maine, was the one who got me into Michael Connelly, the author of unimpressive-looking,...

The Living End

1992 R

Another cinematic middle finger — the pessimistic swan song of two HIV-positive gay guys in Los Angeles in the hangover of the sexual revolution.

The Love Guru

2008 PG-13

National Public Radio's Terry Gross interviewed Mike Myers a few days before "The Love Guru" came out and set up the interview by saying that Myers had created...

The Man With the Golden Arm

1955 unrated

Remake this movie. Now. There's absolutely nothing wrong with "The Man With the Golden Arm" — it's so well shot, well cast, well scored, and jaw-droppingly,...

The Men Who Stare At Goats

2009 R

At the end of "The Men Who Stare At Goats," a man stands up, runs across a stretch of open office space, and disappears into a wall. That pretty well sums up...

The Messenger

2009 R

Busted eye, messed up leg or no, Army Sergeant Will Montgomery is not a likable person when we meet him at the beginning of "The Messenger." Just back from...

The Pink Panther

2006 PG

For every moviegoer, there are certain things that guarantee they will go see a movie, no matter how much of a bomb it looks like. Even though the movie "RV"...

The Reader

2008 R

The main character in “The Reader,” Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes) is a bottle-it-all-up ladykilling lawyer who suffers from a Humbert Humbert-like propensity to...

The Rocker

2008 PG-13

There's a theory aimed at breaking through writer's block with great ferocity that focuses on just churning out words, no matter what they are. "Keep your hand...

The Savages

2007 R

The old man was apparently not a very good father even when he was young, before the Parkinson's diagnosis, the painting bad words in his own poop, the fading...

The Secret of My Success

1987 PG-13

The last half of the 80s couldn't have been better to Michael J. Fox, even as his most iconic role — Marty McFly — more than epitomized the bullied, car-less,...

The Seven Year Itch

1955 not rated

From "Sunset Boulevard" to "Double Indemnity" to "Ace in the Hole," every time I see something written and directed by Billy Wilder, I feel like I have to...

The Skulls

2000 PG-13

The lost pilot to "Coach." What "The Skulls" was going for was handsome, scary mystique. Admire the beautiful, rich Ivy League boys and their secret, powerful...

The Social Network

2010 PG-13

If you love Facebook, find yourself wondering how it became, in many ways, a more useful tool than e-mail, class reunions, parties and exchanging numbers at...

The Trip

2010 not rated

First off, everyone who doesn't like British comedy can leave the room. As well as those of you not fond of improvisation, mockumentaries, and watching two...

The Troubadors / Went to Coney Island On a Mission From God, Be Back By 5

There's a part in "The Troubadors" (2007, unrated) where a character who makes a living mechanically inseminating pigs explains what keeps him in business....

The U.S. vs. John Lennon

2006 PG-13

Kurt Cobain once sang that just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you. This is sometimes true. However, it is also sometimes, perhaps even...

The Yes Men Fix the World

2009 unrated

“This is my friend Andy and my name is Mike. Today I am holding the camera. Andy is about to go on live television in front of 300 million people. They’re...

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

2006 NC-17

Montaigne said it best: "It's a spiny business — more so than it seems — to follow a movement as vagabond as that of our spirit, to penetrate the opaque...

Timer

2009 R

Ten years ago, it wasn't too uncommon to have not bought a cell phone yet. Even those of us with the ugly things spent most of the time shouting, waving them...

Tron: Legacy

2010 PG

"If you've seen one consumer electronics show, you've seen 'em all." OK, that's not a fair quote from the 1982 version of "Tron" to start an essay on its...

Tropic Thunder

2008 R

Let's get this out of the way first. No, not the Robert Downey Jr. in blackface aspect of "Tropic Thunder." People seem to appreciate that that device was...

True Grit

2010 PG-13

"True Grit"'s end — there's a flash forward — was the most irritating, movie-ruining gimmick I've seen since "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." It was...

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

2010 R

A fact: When searching IMDb.com for "Tucker and Dale vs. Evil," another result comes up, for a "related" 1988 film called "Vampiros Sexos." Wait. It has an...

Twilight

2008 PG-13

In "Twilight," Kristen Stewart shows she can cross over into big budget, serial, A-list territory. Too bad "Twilight" is mostly unbearable to think about.

Visioneers

2008 not rated

"Welcome to the Jeffers Corporation," murmurs a soothing voice, over a company logo — one that looks exactly like someone flipping the bird. We move to a gray,...

W

2008 PG-13

In "W.," Oliver Stone again pairs up with writer Stanley Weiser, with whom he co-wrote 1987's "Wall Street." If Stone and Weiser took anything from their...

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story / Johnny Suede

Steve Martin's psychological flaw in the superb 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' was his Hulk-like fury upon hearing the words 'cleaning woman,' which would incite...

Waltz With Bashir / Internet Dating

Dogs, 26 of them, snarl and pant down the street, animated embodiments of blood lust, their eyeballs the urine color of the sky. (They're even angrier than...

War, Inc

2008 R

In "War, Inc.," Brand Hauser (played by John Cusack) is a jaded killer whose vices are nostalgia for his murdered wife and kidnapped daughter ... and little...

What Just Happened?

2008 R

If you could build a town out of the foolish wishes of everyone who thought they could obtain "World of pilules," "Gorgeous diva drunk!" and "Become liaison...

Whatever Works

2009 PG-13

There's a not-quite-joke going around that starts like this: "Hey, have you seen that Morgan Freeman movie where he's all wise and godlike?" The next person...

Where the Sidewalk Ends

1950 not rated

Det. Dixon (Dana Andrews) isn't just late for the promotion ceremony of Lt. Thomas (Karl Malden) — he's late to be chewed out and warned one last time that...

Which Way Home

2009 unrated

A local film crew this past weekend let me hang about this last weekend on location just off N.M. 180, the two-lane highway in between Deming and Silver City,...

Withnail & I

1987 R

For some reason, when I was a teenager in Arizona, I was out at Bookman's, buying Procol Harum on vinyl. But when my parents raved about "Withnail & I,"...

Witness to the Mob

2008 R

It's too bad for "Witness to the Mob" now. The two-disc made-for-TV movie stars nearly the entire cast of the HBO show that, starting the year after...

World's Greatest Dad

2009 R

If Bobcat Goldthwait's "Shakes the Clown" was the "Citizen Kane" of alcoholic clown movies — as the Boston Globe has said — then his "World's Greatest Dad" is...

X: A Night of Vengeance

2011 not rated

There’s a buddy cop movie cliché that when a movie starts with an officer who’s just announced his well-earned retirement, he’s just about to take on his last...

Year One

2009 R

Dr. Egon Spengler was a man of many talents — parapsychology, spore-collecting, amateur surgery and battle with Stay-Puft Marshmallow Men chief among them.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

2010 R

There's more than a good story about the fundamental compromises people make to be happy in "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger ." There's the story about the...

Your Past Is Showing

1957 not rated

Do I have to give a spoiler alert about a film that came out in 1957? "I never should have gone panty-less in that mini skirt!" Because "Your Past Is Showing"...

Zombie Strippers

2008 R

You might not get the American adaptation of Rhinocéros, that mid-century French play about the absurdity of life and how conformity contributes to the horror...