Tag: Drama

  • The Great Debaters (2007)

    Among the many intellectual exercises connected to competitive debate is the ability to defend stances that, at first blush, might seem indefensible. I know; I debated in high school and remember many a contest assailing the evils of seatbelts and motorcycle helmets. Judging by The Great Debaters, however, you wouldn’t think that debate requires much…

  • 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

    4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a starkly told tale of abortion and rape in the waning years of Romania under the oppressive Ceauşescu regime. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, it is all the more brutally effective because it is so quotidian, chronicling a day in the…

  • The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005)

    If it didn’t happen to be true, you might dismiss it as feel-good fantasy. But part of what makes The Greatest Game Ever Played so appealing is that this is a real-life Cinderella story tailor-made for classic drama. Based on the 2002 book by Mark Frost (who also wrote the screenplay adaptation), the film details…

  • Before Midnight (2013)

    In Before Midnight, the third and final installment of director Richard Linklater’s odes to romance, there’s a sly bit that reflects the personal baggage that fans of this trilogy brought to this film. Jesse (Ethan Hawke), the writer we’ve watched meet, fall for and settle down with Celine (Julie Delpy), tells some colleagues about a…

  • Frost/Nixon (2008)

    When Richard Nixon sought to repair his reputation with television interviews in 1977, his aides selected an interviewer they were confident would be a pushover. David Frost, a lightweight British TV talk-show host with a taste for the good life, was more accustomed to interviewing the Bee Gees than disgraced world leaders. As the riveting…

  • Doubt (2008)

    Doubt came to the big screen with some seriously formidable talent behind it, but don’t be lulled into expecting pretentious High Art. Forget for a moment that it’s an adaptation of a Pulitzer- and Tony-Award winning stage play. Forget that it stars two heavyweight master thespians in Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Forget that…

  • All the King’s Men (1949)

    All the King’s Men catapulted Broderick Crawford from character actor to movie stardom, and rightly so. As fire-breathing demagogue Willie Stark, the indelible performance earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor.  His portrayal dominates the film. Adapted from Robert Penn Warren‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 novel and loosely based on the life of legendarily corrupt Louisiana…

  • Ask the Dust (2006)

    Lest you forget that there is no sure thing, we direct your attention to Ask the Dust.  The project must have looked irresistible on paper. Its pedigree is impeccable. After all, the film is based on the 1939 quasi-autobiographical novel by John Fante, whose rabid cult following included Charles Bukowski. Ask the Dust is written and directed by…