ReelViews for R movies

One of the great action movie staples is the story of a grim survivor bonding with and becoming the protector of a child. This adoptive parent/child relationship, if handled with a degree of finesse, can add a layer of depth to high-caliber set pi...

It's a rare thing when an individual performance defines an entire film, but it happens once or twice per year. Such is the case with Sherrybaby, the feature debut of Laurie Collyer. A simple tale of one woman's attempts to re-connect with her yo...

The Shining is a curious motion picture. On the one hand, as a ghost story and adaptation of the Stephen King novel, it's largely a failure. On the other hand, as an example of directorial bravura and as a study of madness and the unreliable narr...

Ever since people saw him in a tuxedo in Croupier, Clive Owen was considered the likely successor to Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. It remains unclear whether the producers passed over Owen in favor of the lesser known Daniel Craig or whether (as s...

We live in a world in which conspiracy theories abound, so it comes as no surprise that many thrillers incorporate governmental backstabbing, double-dealing, and cover-ups into the fabric of their story. In a time when paranoia and distrust of the...

Shopgirl, directed by Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie) from a screenplay by Steve Martin (adapting his novella), ventures into Lost in Translation territory. Although the relationships in this film are overtly romantic and sexual (as opposed to wha...

Employing his usual delicate touch to craft a uniquely compelling drama, Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda has provided a splash of freshness to a stale 2018 movie slate. By turns uplifting and poignant, Shoplifters explores one of Kore-eda�...

Helicopters thunder through the air over Los Angeles, raining malathion on the city in an attempt to end the dreaded Medfly invasion. Below, in each house and apartment, an individual drama is being played out. As in any human settlement at...

It's so easy to go wrong with a film like this. So easy to tart it up with sentiment, to turn up the mawkishness to an "11." For an example of how badly wrong this sort of thing can go, just think Patch Adams, where the manipulation never stopped c...

Although Shortcomings features as its central character an intolerable lout and the storyline is episodic, the directorial debut of actor/writer Randall Park shines in its sly observances about Asian American cultural idiosyncrasies and its charac...