Search for 2005

A film of uncommon depth, intelligence, and sensitivity, Munich defies easy labeling. Watching the movie is like reading a top-notch espionage thriller by Le Carre or Deighton. Yet, at the same time, this is a visual experience. The moral and ethic...

As a tale of human courage and personal triumph, Murderball works. As a sports documentary, it falls short of the mark. Fortunately, Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro's crowd-pleasing movie (it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at ...

Must Love Dogs is a product - a pre-packaged, easily-digestible motion picture designed with one particular audience in mind. You know the kind of film. You have seen it before, usually with names like Nancy Myers or Nora & Delia Ephron involved....

Nanny McPhee is an excellent movie… if you're a seven-year old girl. That's less a negative evaluation than it is a statement of fact. This isn't a "family film;" it's a "children's film." What's more, it's for girls who are old enough to unde...

When last we encountered Pocahontas in movie-land, she had been Disney-fied to allow children to experience a sanitized version of her adventures. While there's nothing wrong with Pocahontas (except the history, that is), Terrence Malick is going fo...

What's the point? If I wanted to spend 12 minutes watching someone pushing a cart around a grocery store, I'd go to the local A&P, not sit in a movie theater. At least then I could get the week's shopping done. Nine Lives is a failed experiment...

In the tradition of Norma Rae and Silkwood, North Country is the story of one woman's struggle against an inflexible corporation. Despite some third-act flaws that weaken the conclusion, North Country does what it sets out to do: inspire and uplif...

The Notorious Bettie Page is one good looking movie about one good looking dame. It tells of the career of '50s pin-up queen Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol), who was the object of countless masturbatory fantasies in the pre-Playboy era. Despite being a ...

You know there's a problem when the most interesting character in a film called Oliver Twist is a supporting woman named Nancy. Technically sound and surprisingly faithful to its source material, Roman Polanski's version of Oliver Twist comes acro...

Perhaps I am unduly harsh on motion pictures that waste a promising premise. One Last Thing is a case in point - the underlying concept is rich with possibilities, yet director Alex Steyermark (Prey for Rock 'n Roll) and writer Barry Stringfellow ...