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If, like me, you are a fan of absorbing storytelling, gorgeous visuals, and an elegant and subtle camera, then you’ll love Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces.
It’s amazing to me how such an accomplished visual storyteller can also create such intricate, precise scripts, packed with verbal exposition, yet matched by visual [...]

Disney makes a much-heralded return to its 2D hand-drawn animation roots with The Princess and the Frog. The return to a medium considered dead (at least in the eyes of dimwitted studio execs) is historic enough. But it also marks the debut of Disney’s first black princess, Tiana. The setting for the [...]

Brief Encounter (England/1945)
Before David Lean started making “David Lean” movies (i.e. Lawrence of Arabia & Dr. Zhivago) he made lovely, intimate dramas like this one. A bittersweet, troubled love story set in postwar London. It has influenced great directors for decades and it deserves a look from you today. – [imdb]

I liked Juno, I liked Thank You for Smoking, therefore I liked Jason Reitman. I had decided he was a director who I would always look for on DVD, and I did. From now on I’ll be going to the theater, because Up in the Air is a game-changer.

Now that the awards shows are over, the tally shows us that Precious has won 2 Oscars, 65 other awards, and has had 55 additional nominations. The film cleaned up at the Independent Spirit Awards, taking top honors.
But somehow, in this maelstrom of accolades, I wasn’t all that wowed. This movie is absolutely, positively worth [...]

THE MANHATTAN PROJECT (1986)
This is a nifty, intelligent and not-too-serious thriller from 1986 about a bright teenager (Christopher Collett) who builds his own atomic bomb. It was directed and co-written by Marshall Brickman, who co-wrote Annie Hall and, coincidentally, Manhattan.

First of all, anyone worried about this film staying true to the art of the original should know that author Maurice Sendak gave his full approval to director Spike Jonze, writer Dave Eggers, and their conceptual interpretation of his classic of childrens’ literature Where the Wild Things Are. This is not the Sendak book I [...]

Anybody reading this who knows the name Hayao Miyazaki probably won’t need any convincing from me to check out his latest film Ponyo. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Japanese master animator, he is widely and ever-increasingly recognized as one of the greatest filmmakers working today, and you owe it to yourself [...]

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
Even if you have never played a video game in your life, you’ll be surprised how much you might get drawn into this entertaining real-life underdog story. It’s a depiction of the peculiar competitive arcade-game subculture and its smug patriarch, Billy Mitchell, who is amusing and compelling. [...]

Although a certain esteemed colleague of mine would vehemently disagree with my opinion, I think my favorite character in The Informant! would probably have to be the hilariously Laugh-In inspired, assorted Americana-flavored score by national treasure/composer Marvin Hamlisch. I found the music served to keep a consistently absurdist tone throughout what might otherwise have been [...]