ReelViews for R movies

With The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Judd Apatow succeeded in an endeavor that foiled many of the more accomplished directors to precede him: the merging of the romantic comedy, a quintessential "female genre," with the raunchy comedy, a quintessential "ma...

In many ways, The Forgiven feels like a CliffsNotes version of a longer, more complex narrative. But, even considering that numerous subplots might benefit from a mini-series approach to the material, the transformation of the central character is...

As one might deduce from its cheeky title, The Forty-Year-Old Version, Radha Blank’s feature debut, isn’t afraid to challenge sacred cows along the way to making its point and, more importantly, telling a story. The film works on two level...

Four Rooms, a four-segment anthology directed by independent film darlings Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino, has to be one of 1995's major disappointments. Perhaps it's the format itself -- twenty minutes...

The simplest and most honest expression of praise that I can offer Mike Newell's latest movie is that it represents two hours of solid movie magic. Four Weddings and a Funeral possesses the rare ability to make an audience laugh (and laugh hard) a...

Like Raging Bull, Foxcatcher is a dark drama masquerading as a sports movie. Also like Raging Bull, Foxcatcher is based on a true story. Although such comparisons risk overselling Bennett Miller's new movie, Foxcatcher isn't afraid of venturing int...

Fracture is refreshingly different from the average mystery thriller in that it does not bombard the audience with "shocking" twists and "surprise" turns. This is a good thing, since those kinds of gimmicky plot elements more often than not derail...

Most directors have their obsessions and many of them, when realized, disappoint on one level or another, oftentimes because the filmmaker lacks distance. They have crafted the movie so lovingly in their minds over the years—visualizing every sh...

Blumhouse has an uncanny ability to identify projects that sound compelling on paper but are less attractive when watched on-screen. Freaky is the latest of these. Originally dubbed Freaky Friday the 13th, the movie weds traditional slasher fi...

Before I embark upon an extended streak of name-calling and Tom Green-bashing, let me say a few words about the subjective nature of comedy. Everyone has a different opinion of exactly what constitutes good humor. For some people, it's Victor Bor...