Movies starring Mia Wasikowska

I love the beginning – the sense of time and place. Part of this has to do with the introductory voiceover narration (provided by the writer of the novel, Donald Ray Pollock, whose intonation has all the right qualities for this job). Part o...

At some point during its development, Blackbird, an English-language re-imagining of the 2014 Danish movie Silent Heart, was probably envisioned as Oscar bait. That’s the inevitable result of putting together a cast comprised of A-list actor...

"There are eight million stories in the naked city. This [is] one of them." That iconic closing line from the TV series Naked City is one of the things I thought of at the beginning of Nicolas Pesce’s Piercing, which shows an art deco versio...

Alice through the Looking Glass may represent Disney’s first big-budget failure in quite some time. More likely to inspire thoughts of Michael Bay than Lewis Carroll, this sequel to Tim Burton’s 2010 Alice in Wonderland borrows sparingly ...

Crimson Peak works as an homage to 19th century gothic literature. Beyond that mission statement, however, it has trouble gaining traction. Although the film may hold a certain appeal for those who have spent long hours thumbing through the pages of ...

Stoker is deliciously demented, and that's a good thing. This twisted coming-of-age tale takes us into Carrie territory without the supernatural element. It wends its way along an unpredictable narrative trajectory with a warped sensibility that of...

If you take away Albert Nobbs' twist, all that's left is a project that would have been at home on Masterpiece Theater during its heyday. It's the "downstairs" portion of Upstairs, Downstairs - a tale of servants and service during the twilight of ...

The most surprising thing about Restless, the latest film from indie director Gus Van Sant, is how conventional it is. Of course, this is not the first time Van Sant, whose penchant is for offbeat productions with little widespread appeal, has ente...

Jane Eyre is like Hamlet: a version arrives every few years without regard to whether a new adaptation is wanted or needed. It's not only a classic, but a staple as well, and many serious directors are itching to put their imprint upon it. The 2011...

The kids may be all right, but the adults aren't. That's the underlying premise of Lisa Cholodenko's unconventional family drama - a motion picture that uses wry humor and uncommon sensitivity to underscore some of the difficulties inherent in any...