It’s tough for a filmmaker to get a reaction from people when there’s not a lot going on up on the screen. For some people, deadpan and wistful might translate to unfunny and boring. Nebraska is one of those movies that will divide people into two camps — those who get what it’s all about and those […]

Victors of the previous year’s games find anything but the peace they were promised in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. I need to point out right up front that I never read any of the incredibly successful books behind the films. As such, I can’t really speak to the faithfulness of the story from book […]

An aging father and his newly concerned son reconnect during an impromptu road trip in Nebraska. Director Alexander Payne has been at the helm of three films I absolutely loved: The Descendents, Sideways and Election. He also headed About Schmidt — a solidly regarded Jack Nicholson film that I barely managed to stay awake through. All […]

Part of the attraction of foreign films is that they introduce new locations and subjects to audiences that take them away from familiar territory. In some cases, you don’t have to leave American shores to have similar experiences. There are many examples of American films that take place in subcultures and feel foreign. Some of […]

A Texas cowboy has to confront the risks of his devil-may-care lifestyle when he contracts HIV in Dallas Buyers Club. The genesis of HIV and AIDS awareness represented one of the ugliest chapters of our recent history. It sprang onto the national spotlight around 1984 and was so misunderstood that it was originally stigmatized with […]

World War II Germany is seen through the innocent eyes of a young girl with a fascination for books in The Book Thief. From the very first shot, I was captivated by this film. In an odd twist, it’s narrated by not one of the main characters but by Death himself, who laments how busy he was […]

We’re now in the midst of a glut of movies based on Marvel superheroes and other characters, and there’s no sign of it letting up. For comic book fanboys, this is great; for the rest of moviegoers, it may not be so exciting. I’ll cross my fingers that things don’t decline to the point that there’s […]

Four lifelong friends come together for a bachelor party bash and a chance to cure lingering wounds in Last Vegas. Billy (Michael Douglas), Paddy (Robert De Niro), Archie (Morgan Freeman) and Sam (Kevin Kline) spent their childhood as inseparable friends. They knew how to have a great time. The streets of Brooklyn stood in for […]

The most successful world heavyweight boxing champion of all time faces his biggest challenger — the United States government — in the HBO film Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight. In late February of 1964, a brash and recently unimpressive young boxer predicted — quite emphatically — that he was going to not only beat the current rock of a heavyweight champion, Sonny […]

An inquisitive high school junior struggles to find her own sexual identity in Blue is the Warmest Color. Our high school years are rife with lessons to be learned. The biggest, of course, are those learned outside the classroom, and those often include the most vexing challenges of our lives to that point. For those […]

Every year brings at least one new coming-of-age story. My favorite from this year is The Way, Way Back. Plots about sexual awakening are perhaps rarer, and when they do appear, they usually focus on a male’s perspective. It’s a challenge to successfully combine the two types of films in a single experience and center […]

A young boy is chosen to be a top military strategist in a battle to save the future of Earth from the onslaught of an alien race in Ender’s Game. Orson Scott Card‘s beloved sci-fi best seller is brought to the big screen for the first time. It’s the story of young Ender Wiggin (Asa […]