Search for Light

Slumdog Millionaire comes from director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, who fashion what is at heart a romance into a mystery and a thriller with Dickensian undertones. It's tough not to think of David Copperfield when we see the "orph...

Spotlight is a Valentine to investigative journalism and a stark reminder of where we’re headed now that this brand of writing has become an endangered species. The film is unique in that it focuses almost entirely on the process. The character...

What do you call a character study with shallow, sketchily-drawn characters, but a gorgeous setting? A scenery study, perhaps. Or an atmosphere study. Either would be appropriate for Stealing Beauty, a stylish, sensual motion picture that's holl...

Stoker is deliciously demented, and that's a good thing. This twisted coming-of-age tale takes us into Carrie territory without the supernatural element. It wends its way along an unpredictable narrative trajectory with a warped sensibility that of...

Street Kings has the look and feel of an '80s cop thriller. Despite the predictability of the overall story arc, there's suspense and tension to be found between the credit sequences, but the movie is saddled with an ending that is both improbable...

In recent years, "science fiction" has become synonymous with titles like Star Wars, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica. And, while there's nothing wrong with these movies and TV shows (in fact, they're predominately entertaining), they should be...

17 years in the making…was it worth the wait? I suppose that depends what the wait was for. Super Troopers 2, the crowdfunded sequel to 2001’s Super Troopers, appears to have been designed predominantly for those who contributed to its bud...

Thank You for Smoking is the feature debut of Jason (son of Ivan) Reitman, who has assembled an impressive cast. In addition to Aaron Eckhart, who has the lead, the credit list includes the following names: Katie Holmes, Cameron Bright, Sam Elliot,...

The Roses is not a remake of the 1989 film The War of the Roses, which starred Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito (and was directed by DeVito), although both movies draw from the same source material: Warren Adler’s novel. Di...

Sometimes, I wonder how the human races survives it. By "it," I am referring to that seemingly insurmountable time of life when body chemistry and societal pressures conspire to make every day seem like a titanic struggle - the teenage years. Eve...