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For one reason or another, there have been few quality movies made about 9/11. Maybe it's because the event is too recent and the wound too fresh. Or perhaps it's because filmmakers are keenly aware that a misstep could lead to charges of exploitat...

Several years ago, I recall reading an interview with British novelist P.D. James (the author of the Adam Dalgliesh mystery series) in which she was asked why it took her an average of three to four years to write a new book when other writers work...

Welcome to the world of Charles Bukowski - poet, author, skid row denizen, alcoholic, and hero to millions (most of them in Europe). Factotum is director Bent Hamer’s attempt to bring a version of Bukowski’s novel to the screen. This isn’t ...

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the cinematic YA flame burned hot and bright but, like many such fires, it quickly exhausted its fuel and was snuffed out by fatigued and uninterested audiences. Although YA novels continue to generate health...

While it might be a stretch to claim that Fantastic Mr. Fox is "fantastic," it's easily among the year's best animated features. If there's an argument against the film (and, admittedly, it's not much of an argument), it's that the movie may not b...

Far from the Madding Crowd, based on Thomas Hardy's fourth novel (and the first to have widespread success), is precisely what one would expect from a big budget adaptation of a Victorian classic: stately, beautifully photographed, impeccably act...

Farewell My Concubine spans fifty-three years, presenting the lives of two men against the historical backdrop of a country in upheaval. Initially banned in China but shown to international acclaim, Chen Kaige's film is one of the year's true mast...

It's too bad the title The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was already taken, because it would have been the perfect moniker for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Terry Gilliam's adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's book (emphasis on "the bad and the ugly"...

Feast of July, which arrives under the Merchant/Ivory umbrella (Ismail Merchant having served as executive producer), is much like a big screen version of a double-length Masterpiece Theater episode. By turns tragic and beautiful, but always atmos...

I will be surprised if this film does well in New York City. Yankees fans, accustomed to success, are still smarting from last year's humiliating debacle, and a romantic comedy that capitalizes on the Red Sox's triumph is unlikely to pack theaters ...