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M. Night Shyamalan has always been something of an illusionist. Even at his best, he succeeds not because he's a masterful storyteller but because he's an expert at sleight-of-hand and pulling rabbits out of his hat. With The Lady in the Water, S...

Anyone who saw Todd Solondz's breakthrough feature film, Welcome to the Dollhouse, has the kernel of an idea about what to expect from the director's latest effort, the ironically-titled Happiness. Welcome to the Dollhouse is a dark comedy tha...

Mike Leigh has often been referred to as a prince of misery. His films, grounded in working class reality, are often downbeat. It's hard to argue with their quality or authenticity, but one typically doesn't walk out of a Mike Leigh film with a r...

“These aren’t the Muppets,” director Brian Henson might remind us, but his smile and wink would hint at what he really thinks. The son of Muppets creator Jim Henson and the man who filled his dad’s shoes directing The Muppet Christmas C...

All through its production and into the early days of its initial, aborted pre-release publicity, Hard Rain bore the appropriate moniker of The Flood. Ultimately, however, Paramount Pictures, nervous that this movie would be confused with 1996's o...

I’m pretty sure that I once saw this movie on Cinemax’s “Fridays After Dark” program (back in the day when the pay channel was affectionately known as “Skin-a-max.”) Even if it was never featured, it might as well have been. Alongside ...

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay exists because it was cheap to make and has a devoted core audience, not because its predecessor, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, was a blockbuster. The filmmakers, understanding what made the first...

The Hate U Give is a coming-of-age story – an unconventional one, to be sure, but a coming-of-age story nonetheless. It’s also an exploration of race in America. In an of itself, there’s nothing unique about that but this movie, directed...

Hell Ride is pretty much what a viewer would expect from a movie of that name. The film is chock full of motorcycles, cheesy dialogue, naked women, and over-the-top acting. It's part homage and part parody and works best when seen as an unabashe...

The temptation is to remark that if Hellboy was the appetizer, then Hellboy II: The Golden Army is the main course. To an extent, that's true. The second film is more assured, better paced, and has a stronger emotional component. It takes chances...