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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 ...

Hollywood loves stories about crusading lawyers. For as long as there have been movies, there have been courtroom dramas and, although attorneys may be regarded with skepticism in the real world, they are more often than not heroic on-screen. Althoug...

There's no nudity whatsoever in James Cox's Wonderland, which is ironic, since it's about events from the life of the first big-time porn star, John Holmes (Val Kilmer). Unlike Boogie Nights, which was loosely based on the rise and fall of Holmes d...

For his directorial debut, Idris Elba has elected to work in a genre he’s comfortable with – the crime thriller. The actor-turned-director is not, however, content merely to regurgitate bits and pieces of productions in which he has appear...