Movies starring Kelly Macdonald

Although unintentional, Puzzle is what its name implies. Despite an Oscar-caliber performance from Kelly Macdonald, the film is hampered by sluggish pacing and a sterile mood that sucks the life out of various emotionally-charged situations. T...

When reading the Winnie the Pooh books as a child, I remember being amazed by the revelation that Christopher Robin was a “real” boy. That caused me to wonder whether all the animals were real, too. Goodbye Christopher Robin tells the sto...

Like Frankenstein and Hamlet, Anna Karenina is a literary touchstone that filmmakers return to on a regular basis. The first filmed version of the book was a 1910 German silent which has long since been lost to the ages. It was released shortly bef...

At first glance, Brave seems much like an old-fashioned animated Disney princess film done using new-fangled technology. Most of the elements are in place: the plucky heroine, the faithful animal companion, a mysterious wizard, and a character-buil...

The Merry Gentleman, which represents the feature directorial debut of actor Michael Keaton, is a meditation on loneliness and about the things we do to fill up those big, empty gaps in life. Anchoring the film, which is driven more by characters ...

Next to Independence Day, Trainspotting may be the most hyped motion picture of the summer. Miramax Films, the distributor that saturated the market with ads for The Crying Game in 1992- 93 and Pulp Fiction in '94, has struck again. Trainspotti...

Expecting normalcy from a Coen Brothers production is a pointless endeavor, but anticipating brilliance isn't outlandish. Their latest feature, which has about zero box office potential, provides plenty of the latter and a little of the former. It�...

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...

Pardon me for wondering if director Michael Winterbottom is obsessed with cock (with or without the bull). Maybe I'm just saying that because I have been unfortunate enough to see his previous outing, 9 Songs, which avoided showing up behind the c...

If it's Disney (or its subsidiary, Miramax), it must be "inspired by true events." Or maybe it just seems that way. Those words, which appear in a caption at the beginning, are chose with care (more care than the similar preface to Hidalgo). Fin...