Search for 2

Beirut is, without a doubt, an imperfect thriller. The narrative is at times too dense, some aspects of the ending are too pat, and there are some internal inconsistencies the movie never explains. But, damn, is it good to watch a movie that e...

If the goal of Bel Ami was to capture a fleeting flavor of Dangerous Liaisons, the intention should be deemed a failure. Based on Guy de Maupassant's 1885 novel, Bel Ami is the meandering, unfocused tale of the rise of an unprincipled opportunist i...

There have been dozens of movies made about Ireland’s The Troubles. Most are hard-hitting and gut-wrenching and some are as powerful as any made about civil war and religion. With Belfast, writer/director Kenneth Branagh, now far-removed fro...

When one speaks of cultural relevance, some movies capture it in the moment (oftentimes dating the production in the process). Others grasp it as if looking in a rearview mirror. But there’s a small group, either through clairvoyance or happenst...

"Belle Epoque is the story of Paradise: too good to last. It's about the discovery of life, but the real one, I mean: freedom, art, love, sex, friendship...all the things that make life interesting. It's an oasis... Maybe it's too idealistic, b...

One of the criteria I often use to determine whether a documentary biography is “good” (as opposed to “mediocre”) is whether it provides something beyond what I could find by perusing the Wikipedia article about the subject. In the cas...

Ben is Back is one-half of an awards-worthy exploration of the impacts of addiction on the victim and his family and one-half of a muddled quasi-thriller that undercuts the power of the rest of the movie. This review will contain some limited ...

If one thing is certain, it’s that director Timur Bekmambetov’s remake of Lew Wallace’s Ben-Hur isn’t going to make anyone forget the 1959 Charlton Heston classic. An amateurish effort that boasts direct-to-video characteristi...

A wedding. Cross-cultural clashes. A young woman getting a makeover and finding herself. But there's no Windex and this isn't My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In fact, it's not My Big Fat Indian Wedding, either. However, it is a feel-good comedy that...

Deep within the cloistered confines of a convent, a young nun becomes embroiled in an intensely erotic lesbian affair while using her wiles to advance and maintain her position. While this might easily be the synopsis of a porn movie, octogenarian...