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Emergency, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award winner at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, gives viewers things to think about, which is an infinitely preferable alternative to the kind of film where it’s possible to sense the mass demise of brain...

I have occasionally wondered what Showgirls might be like if it was made by a female director. Perhaps Hustlers offers a glimpse of the tantalizing possibility. Existing close to the nexus of the oft-derided Paul Verhoeven film and Martin Scor...

At first glance, Brave seems much like an old-fashioned animated Disney princess film done using new-fangled technology. Most of the elements are in place: the plucky heroine, the faithful animal companion, a mysterious wizard, and a character-buil...

Someone could write a compelling thesis about humanity's obsession with the apocalypse. Over the years, the cinema has exploited this affinity, most often in disaster movies. Lately, however, there has been a trend toward end-of-the-world films tha...

It's interesting to note that two of the best films I've seen theatrically in 1996 weren't made this year. In fact, they weren't even made this decade. The first, Martin Scorsese's classic, Taxi Driver, is celebrating its twentieth anniversary. ...

Reckless is a Christmas story for all of us who like our holiday fare spiced with bizarre characters and strange plot twists. This black comedy, directed by Norman Rene (Longtime Companion, Prelude to a Kiss) and written by his frequent colla...

It's strange how the concept of two people wandering around a city at night falling in love has come of age in 2008. First, there was In Search of a Midnight Kiss. Now there's Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. Of course, Richard Linklater can c...

Prelude to a Kiss convinced me that Meg Ryan possesses the acting chops to be in more than light romantic fare - a distinction that her best-known movie at the time (When Harry Met Sally) had not claimed. In fact, her performance in this 1992 prod...

After taking a break to become involved in the production of the small coming-of-age drama Outside Providence, the Farrelly Brothers are at it again. Their 1998 hit, There's Something About Mary, will forever be known for breaking the semen barrie...

"Hamlet" meets The Jungle Book - that's what The Lion King is - adding, of course, a few special touches all its own. Disney's 32nd animated feature film is its darkest since The Black Cauldron, and, in many ways, a departure from the light-hearte...