Email Author Melissa Levine

2005 Stories by Melissa Levine

• Springtime for Mel

  published December 22, 2005

  In 1968 it was a movie. In 2001 it became a musical. Now it's a movie again? Yep, and there's actually pretty good reason to return The... More >>

• Heath in Heat

  published December 22, 2005

  For your Heath Ledger holiday-movie options, you have a) a cowboy in love with another man and b) history's most infamous womanizer. Since the... More >>

• SuperSore

  published December 1, 2005

  With nearly 9 percent of the U.S. retail market to itself and $288 billion in annual sales, Wal-Mart takes in more revenue than most countries.... More >>

• Spent

  published November 24, 2005

  Ever since its Broadway debut in 1996, Rent has generated a loyal, almost cult-like following. Showered with praise, the Pulitzer... More >>

• Spell It Out

  published November 17, 2005

  Richard Gere? That's the first thought that came to mind upon learning that Mr. Salt-and-Pepper-Sexy-Buddhist-Wasp had been cast as Saul Naumann... More >>

• Wild, Then Crazy

  published November 3, 2005

  Does Steve Martin have multiple personality disorder, or is he just brilliantly in tune with some things and wildly out of touch with others?... More >>

• Strange Brew

  published October 27, 2005

  When watching Where the Truth Lies, a film noir about a young celebrity journalist's obsession with a comedy duo from the 1950s, a single... More >>

• Moore's The Pity

  published October 13, 2005

  It’s always hard to pan an earnest film, especially one by a first-time director. And The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, a plucky striver i... More >>

• Something Missing

  published October 6, 2005

  In 2001, Jonathan Safran Foer made an astounding literary debut. "A Very Rigid Search," published by The New Yorker, was his hilarious,... More >>

• Say Cheese

  published October 6, 2005

  Ah, Wallace and Gromit. Who doesn't get a little lift at the sound of those names? Who doesn't feel the edges of her mouth begin to tickle toward... More >>

• The Opposite of Suck

  published September 29, 2005

  About once a year--twice, if we're lucky--a first-time director shows up with something original, electrifying and humane, a film that shows us a... More >>

• Drift Wood

  published September 1, 2005

  The problem with making black-lacquered high school satire is this: Heathers came out in 1989, and it pretty much did the trick. There's... More >>

• Low Yield

  published September 1, 2005

  At the opening of The Constant Gardener, Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' adaptation of the novel by John le Carré, we... More >>

• Girls Interrupted

  published June 23, 2005

  Not many people saw Lost and Delirious, the 2001 boarding-school drama about two girls in obsessive love, and that was probably for the... More >>

• Club Life

  published May 12, 2005

  It won't ruin anyone's experience of 3-Iron, the new film by Korean writer-director Kim Ki-duk, to reveal that it closes with a... More >>

• Woody and Woody...

  published March 31, 2005

  Does the world really need a new film from Woody Allen every single year? Yes, he is one of America's great auteurs. Yes, he's responsible for... More >>

• The Camera's Weeping Eye

  published February 24, 2005

  Toward the end of Born Into Brothels, a superb and piercing documentary by directors Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, a 12-year-old... More >>

• Pooch Kicks

  published February 17, 2005

  It's hard to know what to expect from Wayne Wang. The Hong Kong-raised director has made one gorgeous mood movie (Chinese Box) and two... More >>

• Gracias a la Muerte

  published February 3, 2005

  The Sea Inside, the new right-to-die drama from Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar (The Others), is a flawed film... More >>

• Searching for Shylock

  published January 27, 2005

  When was the last time you lost yourself in a Shakespeare film? It's a testament to the success of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of... More >>

• Suddenly This Summer

  published January 27, 2005

  In her first stab at narrative drama, writer-director Shainee Gabel has managed to assemble a superstar cast and a seasoned technical team. She... More >>

• Is It Over Yet?

  published January 20, 2005

  "Twenty-four hours. 350 miles. His girlfriend's kids. What could possibly go wrong?" In the case of Are We There Yet?, here's the... More >>

• Misdirected

  published January 13, 2005

  Bad Education, the new film by the flamboyant Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, opens on a man sitting at a table, poring... More >>

• In the Cut

  published January 13, 2005

  It's not easy to pull off a good morality tale. Too often, movies with a message, or about a movement, reduce characters and events to types. They... More >>