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The battle lines surrounding The Magdalene Sisters were drawn long before it reached its limited North American theatrical distribution on August 1, 2003. The film, which shines a light into the shadowy recesses of religious/sexual repression in I...

The Man Who Invented Christmas conflates the biography of Charles Dickens (at least until 1843) with the events of one of his seminal works, A Christmas Carol. Watching the film leads one to the conclusion that, although the story might have w...

Let me start with a few brief editorial comments about Lars von Trier. Key to understanding my views about Manderlay is my disclosure of a belief that in order to be able to criticize something, you have to have first-hand familiarity with it. Vo...

For more than 30 years, one of the great mysteries of journalism and politics was the identity of Woodward & Bernstein’s key Watergate source, “Deep Throat.” Between Deep Throat’s period of contribution (1972-73) and his voluntary unma...

I have never been a Raymond Chandler fan nor am I enamored with the pulp detective genre that was oh-so-popular during the early decades of the 20th century. Consequently, my only exposure to Philip Marlowe (Chandler’s most popular character) ha...

It's not hard to be enthusiastic about The Matador, an uncommon buddy film starring Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear. The movie has a nicely modulated mix of comedy and pathos, but succeeds as much because of the two lead performances as Richard She...

The production notes trumpet The Matchmaker as "a romantic comedy for people who hate romantic comedies." This statement implies that the film has something exceptionally original or daring to offer those who are tired of screen love affairs that ...