Midway through Sam Mendes's Skyfall, James Bond is stuck in a familiar situation. He's tied to chair, smirking as a peculiar-looking man lectures him on...
Lincoln is why Hollywood should exist. Steven Spielberg's wonderful film about our 16th president isn't a war epic or a maudlin biography. The film only...
If there's anything worth praising in Cloud Atlas, the colossal adaptation of David Mitchell's nesting doll of a novel, it's the spectacle. Directors Tom Tykwer,...
I don't have to tell you that How to Survive a Plague is an important film. Nor do I have to tell you that it...
There's no such thing as time travel without plot holes. As characters jump backward and forward in a timeline, technical complexities multiply. Laws of physics...
The Paperboy is a hot mess. ''Hot'' because it contrives to get Zac Efron out of his clothes as often as possible. ''Mess'' because it's...
We've all been there. Those moments -- almost always among friends -- when everything fits together in a fit of transcendental bliss. They're fleeting, of...
The Master is a magnum opus of conflict. No man, attitude, sight or sound is immune to its discord. Paul Thomas Anderson uses every millimeter...
Let's just get this out of the way: Leslye Headland's Bachelorette is not a Bridesmaids rip-off. Yes, both films revolve around women misbehaving at weddings,...
This much is obvious about comedian Mike Birbiglia: The guy knows how to brush off trauma. After taking a leap through a second-story window of...
Eight years ago, director John Hillcoat and artist Nick Cave made a brilliant movie called The Proposition. Set amid a battle between a gang of...
What's a gay man doing directing the female equivalent of a bromance? ''I don't speak for all gay men when I say this,'' says For...
Socially inept boy meets cute, oddball girl. Boy woos girl. Despite his self-absorbed neuroses, girl loves boy just the way he is. Girl doesn't change,...
I've never been to Louisiana. Not New Orleans, not Baton Rouge, not Grand Isle, not any of it. I can't begin to grasp what it's...
Myths are a special kind of story. They're always changing, adding new colors and flavors to time-tested formulas. No two versions need be the same,...