Polar Express is a kids action movie that parents will also warm to
By Luke Y. Thompson,
November 11, 2004
Most articles written about The Polar Express have focused on its groundbreaking technology, which takes the process used to create Gollum in The... More>>
Salma's shorts get top billing in an otherwise unwatchable caper
By Bill Gallo,
November 11, 2004
The witless inanity of After the Sunset is so numbing that the sole reason for any living creature to sit through it--man, woman or household... More>>
A bitter wine freak makes an adorable hero in Sideways
By Melissa Levine,
November 04, 2004
When was the last time you saw Paul Giamatti? And when the film ended, did you realize how much you would miss him? It was just last year that... More>>
Jude Law's Alfie puts a pretty face on what was an ugly story
By Robert Wilonsky,
November 04, 2004
Writer-director Charles Shyer's Alfie is less a remake of the 1966 film that made Michael Caine a star than it is a retooling that softens the... More>>
Laura Linney shines as a divorcée who goes for Topher
By Melissa Levine,
November 04, 2004
Throughout p.s. , a thoughtful, self-possessed film from director Dylan Kidd (Roger Dodger), there is a sense of the disaster it could have been.... More>>
As Ray Charles, Jamie Foxx turns an ordinary bio into an extraordinary one
By Robert Wilonsky,
October 28, 2004
Ray, director Taylor Hackford's 15-years-in-the-making biography of Ray Charles, begins as you might hope: with 1959's "What'd I Say (Part 1)"... More>>
Bukowski gets his in a touching, terrifying documentary
By Robert Wilonsky,
October 28, 2004
"Whadyawant, motherfuck?" They're the first words Charles Bukowski speaks in John Dullaghan's documentary about the poet and novelist, famous for... More>>
In Mike Leigh's new film, motherhood is a very tricky business
By Melissa Levine,
October 21, 2004
How does Mike Leigh do it? The years pass; film fashions come and go; Hollywood churns its commercial pap. Careers sparkle; others fizz; whom the... More>>
Jonathan Caouette's tumultuous life story spills out over 90 minutes
By Melissa Levine,
October 21, 2004
Whatever else can be said about Tarnation--and there is plenty to say--there is no denying this: It is a very brave movie. Rarely is the subject... More>>
Billy Crudup goes girly in the witty Shakespearean world of Stage Beauty
By Gregory Weinkauf,
October 21, 2004
Let's just get the term out of the way up front. The term is "fag hag"--and a thousand pardons, sensitive readers, but there is no PC equivalent.... More>>
The ghosts of Takashi Shimizu's Ju-On series return--again--in The Grudge
By Gregory Weinkauf,
October 21, 2004
The Grudge bears the imprimatur of Sam Raimi but, alas, neither his sense of fun nor his smarts. The wunderkind director behind the Spider-Man... More>>
Gere and J. Lo Dance, and there's nothing dirty about it
By Robert Wilonsky,
October 14, 2004
It would be so easy to titter and scoff at Shall We Dance?, a Miramaxed-out version of the 1996 Japanese film of the same name, which told of a... More>>
Six years in, the Deep Ellum Film Festival has become the cagey vet
By Robert Wilonsky,
October 14, 2004
Most film festivals--at least ones not in Toronto, Manhattan, Cannes or Park City, Utah--have no rhyme or reason to their schedules, no more than... More>>
Friday Night Lights goes deep, rare for a movie about football
By Robert Wilonsky,
October 07, 2004
There are at least three movies contained within the covers of H.G. Bissinger's best-selling 1990 non-fiction book Friday Night Lights. One is... More>>
Searching for the meaning of life in a movie that barely exists
By Robert Wilonsky,
October 07, 2004
Maybe it's the mark of a great film that it can affect an audience member even when he sleeps through the entire thing. Such was the case with my... More>>
Motorcycle Diaries explores Ché Guevara's formative years
By Gregory Weinkauf,
September 30, 2004
Revolutionary idolatry is an odd business. Just ask unruly pop singer Stew, of the unruly pop group the Negro Problem. On his Naked Dutch Painter... More>>
Shark Tale is an animated film, though after you see it you might wonder whether the term is intended as oxymoronic. Put simply, it has no life... More>>
