State of Play is one of those movies that has a perfect balance of intelligent, thought provoking story, and outright entertainment.  From the first 10 minutes of the movie I was hooked, and although it is over 2 hours long, the pacing was intense enough to keep my interest the entire way.
The movie actually reminded […]

Chris’ Rating:  9.5 / 10
Lorie’s Rating:  9 / 10

I have a prediction:  if you don’t rent Sunshine Cleaning, at some point in the near future, somebody is going to recommend it to you.  It’s a guaranteed word-of-mouth sleeper hit.

The movie has that perfect balance of clever comedy and a really moving dramatic […]

I give the creative crew for this film credit, they had a tough job, and I think they worked wonders.  Telling a story like this on film must have been torture, considering the events surrounding Marc Lepine’s murder of 14 women at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique. 

Despite the fact that the film, naturally, must […]

There's no denying that Charlie Kaufman is a talented and creative filmmaker.  His work, however, can be an acquired taste, and more often than not, is a bit hit-or-miss.  Synecdoche New York is fairly representative of much of his other work, although this story tends to be a bit more bleak than something like "Eternal […]

Cadillac Records is a kind of ensemble biopic that focuses on the story of Leonard Chess, founder of Chess Records, and the iconic musicians that entered into recording contracts with him.  Chess Records was one of the first labels to give black musicians an opportunity to have careers, and became one of the premier blues labels […]

How exactly a film of this caliber slips off the radar and goes completely unnoticed is beyond me.  I had heard absolutely nothing about this movie, and aside from a few glowing reviews I found online, it might as well not exist, which is a shame.
Where “Schindler’s List” tells an epic Holocaust story, this film […]

I thought this was an exceptionally well done film.  I’d say it’s one of the more thought provoking movies I’ve seen all year.  It’s not one that would inspire me to say “I just loved that movie”.  Star Wars is a movie you love.  Towelhead tackles some pretty dark themes, and isn’t easy to watch […]

It would be easy to argue that “Blindness” is a horrible movie.  It can be pretty grim at times, and carries the message that the human race has few redeeming traits.  You could argue that the source material, a novel by Jose Saramago, is too difficult to adapt for the screen.  A quick glance at […]

In a recent editorial in Entertainment Weekly, columnist Mark Harris discussed the fact that one of his favorite films of the year, "Wendy and Lucy", would almost certainly fail to garner an Oscar nomination for one simple reason:  money.  It is an independent film that has received a great deal of praise at various film festivals, […]

Director Ridley Scott usually delivers well crafted movies that mix great acting with powerful action scenes.  Whatever his intentions for “Body of Lies”, the film is bogged down by a mediocre story and a sketchy performance by Russell Crowe.  At times, Crowe seems like he’s performing an SNL sketch parody of sitcom fathers, rather than […]