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Lately I’ve been a bit vexed by the phrase “action movie.” Of all the genres into which films are categorized, it might be the most nebulous and perhaps most likely to disappoint those who seek it. What exactly defines an action flick? A cynic might say that an action picture is one that uses violence [...]

When I saw Adam Resurrected at the Telluride Film Festival in 2008, I thought Jeff Goldblum would finally receive some accolades for his acting – at least a Best Actor nomination. Instead, nothing. This strange, riveting and powerful film received almost no theatrical release, and no critical acclaim to speak of. Let’s give it its [...]

The latest film from Polish director Andrzej Wajda, Katyn, recalls the horrific event of the Soviet-led massacre in the Katyn forest (Circa 1940). This is a dark movie and justifiably so, for in my opinion, there is no other place in this world with a history as violent and gritty as Eastern Europe’s. Katyn is [...]

I don’t know a whole lot about poetry, aside from the fact that some of it rhymes. But I do know that The Edge of Love, essentially a small slice of the life of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas molded into a cigarette smoke-choked wartime soap opera starring Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller, is one gorgeous-looking [...]

Though I admit it’s not a film I’ve revisited often, Sidney Lumet’s 1957 masterpiece 12 Angry Men has had a significant impact on my world-view. I first saw it at the tender age of 14 or so when my 9th Grade Civics teacher, Mr. Pomranka, showed it to us in class. Something of a Ben [...]

To simply say that Waltz with Bashir is just another war documentary would be an understatement of sizzler-sized proportions. Writer, director, and fellow interviewer Ari Folman’s roto-scoped documentary (think A Scanner Darkly) examines painful yet sometimes beautiful accounts of the Lebanese invasion of 1982. The interviews held are all proposed by Folman in his attempt [...]

Defiance is the story of the Bielski brothers, who after fleeing the Gestapo Death Squads, build a community of Jews hiding in the forests of Russia. Based on a true story, the film stars Daniel Craig as Tuvia Bielski, the oldest brother, with Liev Schrieber, Jamie Bell and relative newcomer George MacKay as his younger [...]

When one stops to think of exactly how many films in the last sixty-odd years have been made about World War II, it boggles the mind. An encyclopedia that listed each of them, alphabetically, would run thousands of pages, and would still need to be updated every month. Today, we will open that book and [...]

What happens when you merge the following: Russia’s greatest living director, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich’s widow (a legendary soprano in her own right), and the ghost of John Ford? Master director Alexander Sokurov’s Alexandra, that’s what.
Sokurov (Russian Ark) here tells the seemingly simple story of a Russian widow visiting her beloved grandson, a Russian Army captain [...]

The latest in a long line of Holocaust dramas, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is dark, intense, and entertaining throughout its story of a concentration camp commandant’s son and his newfound friend, a Jewish boy on the other side of the fence. This being said, in the end, I felt like I needed more [...]