Search for Paul

Vacancy is a nicely compact, tense thriller that loses a little of its punch as a result of a rushed, generic ending. For the most part, the English-language debut of Nimrod Atal (Kontroll) offers a strong sense of atmosphere and escalating suspen...

Suicide. Despite its growing prevalence in modern society, few filmmakers tackle this issue, at least not in a serious fashion. The Valley, set in California’s tech-heavy Silicon Valley, examines the impact of a young woman’s suicide on tho...

It’s amazing that, two years in a row, a movie with the name “Frankenstein” in the title will claim a spot of dishonor on my “Turkeys of the Year” list. In many ways, 2015’s Victor Frankenstein is an even worse mov...

It would be grossly unfair to criticize W. as a hatchet job - it's too clumsy for such a description to apply. This movie frequently feels like the shotgun marriage of Nightline and Saturday Night Live. Superficial, uninformative, and inert, this...

It would be fair to characterize writer/director Paul Schrader as someone who's fascinated by the seamier side of human nature. Some of his best known screenplays, including Taxi Driver and Raging Bull for Martin Scorsese, have plumbed the depths ...

When We Were Kings, a documentary about the Muhammad Ali/George Forman heavyweight "Rumble in the Jungle" boxing match, is a wonderfully nostalgic, and occasionally insightful, window into an event nearing its 50th anniversary. By nature, ho...

Welcome to the lurid world of Atom Egoyan, B-grade schlock filmmaker. Until seeing Where the Truth Lies, I never would have considered applying this title to Egoyan, the eclectic filmmaker of some of the '90s most compelling features (Exotica and T...

When attempting what is often deemed the most unnecessary of cinematic projects, the remake, a filmmaker can adopt a nearly identical plot but still generate an inferior product. Such is the case with Neil LaBute and The Wicker Man. LaBute isn't ...

The Wicker Man is an early '70s British export that criss-crosses genres as easily as it confounds audience expectations. A film that defies categorization, The Wicker Man can be considered to be a horror film, a psychological thriller, a musical,...

Damian Harris’ The Wilde Wedding is a delightfully loopy comedy about the hijinks that occur when families collide and intermingle at the fourth wedding of international film star Eve Wilde (Glenn Close). Weddings are, of course, beloved by ...