Public Enemy, The

Did you know that gossip can be vicious and destructive—especially when false rumors are deliberately planted by idle and amoral youths just to see what happens? No? Then Gossip, directed by Davis Guggenheim and written by Gregory Poirier, is definitely the movie for you. Even if you did know these things but have a glossy-magazine…

Like David Lynch in The Straight Story, Mike Leigh apparently thought it was time to surprise us with Topsy-Turvy. Instead of his usual dark and sardonic and implicitly political look at present- day Britain, he offers us an ostensibly sunny period-piece about, of all things, the collaboration of W.S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) and Sir Arthur…

As a rule, I think I have as good an eye for “gaggingly mawkish supernatural kitsch” as the next critic, but I found I couldn’t agree with this description by Stephen Holden, the critic for the New York Times, of The Sixth Sense. For some reason more or less obscure to me — perhaps it…

A funny and well-observed chick-flick that, nevertheless, never quite gets us beyond the recognition that it’s hell being a woman.

Kissed by the young Canadian, Lynne Stopkewich, is one of those made-on-a-shoestring, parents-helping-out, credit-cards-maxed-out sort of films which are so often touted in the press these days. Ms Stopkewich’s parents, at least, can be proud of their daughter’s commercial savvy, since they are certain to get their money back. Visa, too, can breathe a sigh…

Based on real people and real events which took place in 1994, The Straight Story, directed by David Lynch and written by John Roach and Mary Sweeney, is bad in the way that the old Disney movies were bad instead of being bad in the way that the new Disney movies are bad — which…