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Few would debate that the story of Edward Snowden’s life is as compelling as it is controversial. Based on Oliver Stone’s biopic, Snowden, it would also seem to be inherently non-cinematic. By opting to go with a straightforward account o...

Sound of Metal, a 2019 Belgian-American drama from director Darius Marder, achieves its life-affirming aim in such a way that it never feels cloying or preachy. Featuring a forceful central performance by Riz Ahmed (best-known as either one of...

Spider-Man: Homecoming is two movies for the price of one. The first is about a socially awkward high school sophomore navigating the difficulties of being a teenager while trying to hold onto his “internship”. The second is about one of M...

The Spirit is an example of what can happen to a comic book-inspired movie when the sense of style becomes so pervasive that it overwhelms everything else, including an unremarkable superhero adventure. Unfortunately, the eye candy quickly grows st...

One of the great benefits of a strong worldwide communication web is the ability to explore corners of the cinematic universe previously unavailable. Despite having a recognizable international cast, a well-known director, and a story that wou...

The trailer for Splice might lead a viewer to expect a low-budget retread of Species crossed with Aliens. However, although the film does indeed pilfer a scene directly from the latter movie, the trailer misrepresents its source. Splice is as muc...

The Square is an indicator that not only Hollywood blockbusters can be afflicted with bloat. At nearly 2 1/2 hours in length, this production takes what could have been a lean, incisive satire of art, commerce, and altruism and turns it into a...

There was a time when it was considered "daring" or "risky" to make a comedy-tinged war movie. In the early 1950s, with the scabs from World War II still in evidence and the United States enmeshed in Korea, war didn't seem to be a lighthearte...

The passage of time has labeled 1983’s Staying Alive as a turkey, but the contemporaneous view (at least to Paramount’s bean counters) was somewhat different. Although critics lambasted the movie upon its release, with Roger Ebert giving an es...

David Lynch's body of work is surely one of the most recognizable of any living director. From the nightmarishness of his debut, Eraserhead, to the bleakness of Blue Velvet to the bizarrely compelling quality of his TV series, "Twin Peaks," Lynch ...