Magnificent Ambersons, The (1942)

What is honor? Blackhawk Down will tell you (without using the word) but in this movie it gets all mixed up with racial tolerance.

At one point in Best Laid Plans, written by Ted Griffin and directed by Mike Barker, two recent college graduates have an intellectual conversation as they to the Tropico Recycling plant, where Nick (Alessandro Nivola) works, apparently to dispose of the body of a woman Nick killed. This he had done on behalf of his…

A rare success among many attempts to make a movie which has the heroic heft of epic verse

The 12 year-old eponymous hero of Stephen Daldry’s Billy Elliot, played by Jamie Bell, is made to say more than once that “just ‘cause I like ballet it doesn’t mean I’m a poof.” Sounds reasonable to me. But the film itself has a different story to tell. Both the introduction of Billy’s cross-dressing schoolboy friend,…

Che Guevera is still a political rock star here in the land he despised — so what if he killed Cuban “class enemies” and helped impose on those who survived exile, oppession and poverty?

Face/Off by John Woo offers what is perhaps the most preposterous plot ever for an action movie, and that is saying something. Most postmodern action thrillers—see, for instance, Speed 2 and Con Air—aspire to nothing higher than nudging you in the ribs from time to time to remind you that you are watching a movie….