Movies starring Virginia Madsen

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 has been several years since I've read a book by John Grisham (I believe the last one was The Client). After three or four of Grisham's novels, I grew tired of the predictable repetitiveness and contrived suspense of the narratives. As a resul...

"To dream the impossible dream… This is my quest, to follow that star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far… To reach the unreachable star." Perhaps no sentiment better expresses what The Astronaut Farmer conveys than those lyrics by Jo...

February thrillers often get a bad rap, and deservedly so. Most of them are plodding retreads with little star power and less plot. So it's a surprise to see something as (relatively) well-crafted as Firewall showing up in theaters this month. Th...

Director David O. Russell doesn’t believe in resting on his laurels. Despite bringing back cast members Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and Robert DeNiro, Joy isn’t an attempt to remake Silver Linings Playbook. In fact, the two films a...

A Prairie Home Companion is proof that age has not caused director Robert Altman to turn toward conventional, crowd-pleasing forms of cinema. Despite a folksy, low-key appeal, this movie is likely to primarily interest fans of Garrison Keillor's p...

Since this is a thriller, there must be a twist. One goes into a movie like The Number 23 with this expectation. However, not only is the twist telegraphed early but it is presented in a clumsy and unconvincing manner. Other films have employed ...

At least the werewolves in Red Riding Hood have teeth and, when in human form, they don't parade around shirtless. Alas, wearing the PG-13 like a Scarlet Letter, the movie advertises an absence of true horror. Even Lon Cheney Jr.'s Wolfman was scar...

Every once in a while, someone gets the bright idea of making an apocalyptic horror film. The Omen series is probably the best-known example of this sub-genre, but it's not the only one. Now, The Prophecy, with its tale of warring angels and lost...

Sometimes I wonder why I bother with PG-13 horror films. They're a dime a dozen and most of them aren't worth the celluloid the projector's light passes through. For every pleasant surprise like The Uninvited, there are about ten lifeless regurgi...