Movies starring Amy Ryan

There can be a lot of power in stories about addiction: the power to dishearten, the power to frustrate, and (on rare occasions) the power to uplift. Regardless of the substance at the core of the disease, movies about addiction follow a famil...

Birdman (subtitled Or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is an ensemble film about theater life that occasionally takes time away from its dramatic/comedic narrative to skewer the pop culture sensibilities that have given rise to the so-called "mo...

With names like Spielberg, Hanks, and the Coen Brothers, it's hard not to be excited about a project like Bridge of Spies. Yet, although the workmanlike production is solidly engaging, it falls short of the loftiest expectations. It's worth s...

Capote tells two stories, presenting both without hiccups. The first is an exposé of how the title author's In Cold Blood was written. The second shows the emotional and psychic dissolution of the man who starts out the film as a brilliant eccentr...

Spoiler Note: The review reveals the name of a couple of high profile actors who make cameo appearances. I think these are supposed to be surprises, although they’re inconsequential. Nevertheless, if you don’t want to know, don’t re...

Escape Plan can best be viewed through glasses with nostalgia-tinted lenses. It's a Valentine to the '80s starring two of the decade's larger-than-life action stars in a plot that would have been at home during the Reagan years. Some thirty years l...

Gone Baby Gone is powerful stuff - a movie that derives its plot twists from moral conundrums rather than from narrative sleight of hand. The best mystery novels are the ones that use the genre as a stepping-off point for developing characters and...

At a guess, I'd say that Goosebumps will satisfy its core audience - fans of R.L. Stine's popular children's books - and bore pretty much everyone else. The film, which captures the feel if not the full charm of the written stories, comes...

When the invasion of Iraq transpired in 2003, assurances came down from on high that this act was necessary to remove the clear and present danger represented by Sadaam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (this is when the acronym WMD entered the...

The story told by The Infiltrator - an undercover cop begins to confuse his true identity with that of the “character” he plays - may be familiar but the film’s tone is not. As directed by Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer), this movi...