Magnificent Ambersons, The (1942)

Here’s a good example of what happens when talented and amusing people get together to air their prejudices without bothering about what those who are opposed to them really think

Celebrity is the first good film Woody Allen has made since Husbands and Wives, though it’s still not all that great. It is about celebrity, which is a subject of major concern to the postmodernist sensibility, and it makes use of a central postmodern joke. That is, the celebrity director known as “Woody Allen,” does…

This silly and mindless remake of an American classic is a huge disappointment

Citizen Ruth by Alexander Payne is not so good a movie as it ought to be, given its materials and the good idea of its conception (you should pardon the term). Ruth Stoops (Laura Dern) is a feckless dopehead living on the margins of lower middle class Omaha. The film begins with a scene of…

Jodie Foster is mad and she isn’t going to take it anymore. Fortunately for her, she can kill people and still be the victim herself

A cop-on-the-edge turns out to be more interesting for his marriage than as a romantic loner — another smashing two-star movie from Down Under.