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Sideways is from Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt), whose films simultaneously satirize and observe life in America. Unlike David Lynch, who uses saws and butcher knives to dissect the American dream, Payne prefers a scalpel. Lynch often ri...

It's not hard to argue that Edward Zwick is one of the best Hollywood film makers toiling in obscurity. Although the average movie-goer recognizes the names of directors like Scorsese, Spielberg, Zemeckis, and Stone, Zwick is relatively unknown. ...

Edmond Rostand doesn’t get an “official” credit for “story by” but anyone claiming familiarity with Cyrano de Bergerac will immediately recognize where screenwriter Lindsey Beer drew her inspiration. It’s not unusual for a modern-da...

The Signal ends up as a completely different movie than it is at the start. This pretty much guarantees that, although the astute viewer might intuit some of the twists and turns, at least some surprises will remain. In fact, although the movie pro...

To say that The Signal has major tone problems is to understate the problem. While it's possible for a movie to function simultaneously as a horror movie and a parody of the genre, it's not the easiest trick to pull off and first-time feature dire...

When The Silence of the Lambs took the Academy Awards ceremony by storm in 1992, winning in five major categories (Best Picture, Best Director - Jonathan Demme, Best Actor - Anthony Hopkins, Best Actress - Jodie Foster, and Best Adapted Screenplay ...

When it comes to movies based on computer games, Silent Hill is not the Holy Grail, but it's a step in the right direction. The film is overlong, with too many unnecessary scenes (a lot of the movie seems like pointless running around), but it pac...

For about 50 minutes, Silent House represents one of the most intense, unsettling horror movies I have recently viewed. This is Halloween territory, where the tension is so thick as to be almost unbearable. It's the kind of experience hard-core hor...

John Woo directing a revenge-themed thriller…what could be more perfect? After all, Woo is a living legend for his acclaimed action films, The Killer and Hard Boiled, even if his English-language movies haven’t been on quite the same level. St...

John Sayles has always made political films; they are his bread-and-butter. Yet none, not even Matewan or City of Hope, has been more openly partisan than Silver City, which rips into the anti-environmental policies of the current administration, ...