Category: Film

  • Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010)

    It would have been easy for Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work to take a by-the-numbers approach to its subject. Among the true pioneers of edgy stand-up comedy (she joked about having sex and abortions long before such topics became fodder for Amy Schumer and her ilk), Joan Rivers was instrumental in paving the way…

  • Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

    With a knockout of a premise and an ample supply of firepower, Assault on Precinct 13 heralded the arrival of a promising, workmanlike genre director in John Carpenter. The action-thriller slipped in an out of U.S. theaters in 1976 with little fanfare, but quickly achieved cult status across the Atlantic and helped set the stage for Carpenter’s…

  • Akeelah and the Bee (2006)

    Eleven-year-old Akeelah Anderson wants to be like other girls, but blending into anonymity isn’t easy when you’re brilliant. She shrinks when she makes perfect grades and is mortified when labeled a “brainiac.” Despite all her efforts, Akeelah is unable to fit in. The girl can’t help it; she’s smart. Her chief talent is a gift…

  • 2 Days in the Valley (1996)

    Too many moviegoers and critics initially dismissed 2 Days in the Valley as a Pulp Fiction knockoff, and today the movie might best be remembered for Charlize Theron in her big-screen debut as a statuesque gun moll. But this flick deserves better. Writer-director John Herzfeld‘s modest comic thriller bears a passing resemblance to Pulp Fiction,…

  • Eastern Promises (2007)

    Throughout most of his career, David Cronenberg twisted moviegoers into knots by exploring their fears of losing control, particularly when it came to one’s body. Such shenanigans spawned masterpieces of the macabre, from the exploding heads of Scanners to an even-creepier-than-usual Jeff Goldblum in The Fly, but too often, Cronenberg’s thematic obsessions overwhelmed his storytelling.…

  • Crazy Love (2007)

    Boy meets girl. Boy loves girl. Boy loses girl. Girl meets someone else. Boy commits despicable act of spite and jealousy. Boy resolves to win girl back … once he serves out his prison sentence, that is. The riveting documentary Crazy Love packs all the thrills, poignancy and dark humor of the most enthralling work…

  • Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

    Breaking up is hard to do, as an old song once cautioned us, but that’s hardly a newsflash for anyone who has endured the agony of being dumped. Untold millions of books, movies and songs have commemorated the hell of being kicked to the proverbial curb and the subsequent tears, depression, drinking, vomiting, rebound, stalking…

  • Chloe (2009)

    Chloe wants to be an erotic thriller. At least, that’s what I think it aims to be. It’s difficult to know for sure, what with its eroticism steeped in so much fussy pretensions. The movie is particularly disappointing coming from Atom Egoyan, the director behind the critically acclaimed Exotica (1994) and The Sweet Hereafter (1997).…