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Tom and Viv is culture. From the opening credits to the closing caption, this is never in doubt. Not designed for mass consumption, the examination of T.S. Eliot's tragic first marriage has all the marks of a "typical" British art film (or an...

During the Spring of 1990, I remember being transfixed in front of the television set for an hour each Sunday night over a period of five weeks. The occasion was the "Masterpiece Theater" presentation of the British mini-series "Traffik", a comple...

Traitor is an uncommonly intelligent espionage thriller that explores the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by agents who go deep undercover in the service of their country. For movies that revolve around terrorist organizations and acts, there a...

Pardon me for wondering if director Michael Winterbottom is obsessed with cock (with or without the bull). Maybe I'm just saying that because I have been unfortunate enough to see his previous outing, 9 Songs, which avoided showing up behind the c...

Two of the most enjoyable disaster films I have seen in the past half-dozen years have emerged not from the powerhouse studios in Hollywood but from Norway. The first was the 2015 tsunami movie, The Wave, and the second was released in 2019 (b...

As movie-goers, we expect different things from big-budget summer blockbusters than we do from "normal" films. Considerations of theme and character become secondary to action and mind- numbing excitement. The plot is expected to be very basic...

Welcome to film noir, Soderbergh-style. For his latest effort (and fourth feature), the talented director who made the dialogue-and-character-rich sex, lies, and videotape turns his attention to this talky update of 1949's Criss Cross. Focus...

The problem with War Dogs isn’t the dark humor nor is it the cynically accurate deconstruction of military procurement and corruption. The lack of dynamism and depth in the characters is what hamstrings this production. There’s little dou...

When one thinks of a Martin Scorsese film, the first images that come to mind are dark, violent, serious ones. His most celebrated movies are Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and The Departed - all intense, uncompromising samples of cinema at ...