Movies with music written by Howard Shore

The filmmakers responsible for Pieces of a Woman tout its honest, life-affirming qualities. While no one would debate the former, it’s necessary to come through the narrative’s gauntlet to achieve the latter. This is an emotionally wrenchi...

It’s strangely refreshing to watch a courtroom drama where theatricality doesn’t trump meticulous examination and cross-examination. Most movies about law & order, regardless of the factual basis (or lack thereof) of their source mate...

Spotlight is a Valentine to investigative journalism and a stark reminder of where we’re headed now that this brand of writing has become an endangered species. The film is unique in that it focuses almost entirely on the process. The character...

In 2005, genre fans were able to celebrate the day when the entire six-film Star Wars saga was available for public consumption. Nine and one-half years later, the same can be said of Peter Jackson's Middle Earth epic. As George Lucas learned, th...

Jon Stewart takes the true story of Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari, who was held captive and subjected to deprivation and interrogation in Iran for 118 days during 2009, and injects elements of wit and humor into an otherwise brutal tale. By det...

Special effects have always played an important role in Peter Jackson's adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's books but, with The Desolation of Smaug, the middle chapter of The Hobbit movie trilogy, they take center stage. This isn't necessarily a positi...

Sometimes, even a little gratuitous nudity can't save a movie. This is one of those occasions. Cosmopolis easily trumps To Rome with Love as the biggest disappointment of 2012 from an established director. How can characters talk for so long an...

Reduced to its essence, David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method is little more than an historical romantic tragedy. Since the film's three principals were pioneers in the field of psychotherapy, it goes without saying there's a lot of dialogue about ...

With Hugo, Martin Scorsese has accomplished what few in Hollywood are willing to try: make a movie for adults that arrives without sex, violence, or profanity and earns a PG-rating. It's a fairy tale for mature viewers, but the airy exterior hides ...

Note: An argument can be made that this review contains spoilers for Eclipse. For those who have read the book, there is no spoilage. For those who have watched the trailer, there is no spoilage. For those who don't fit into either of those cate...