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Garden State
Garden State is about as good “indie” cinema gets these days. I use the term “indie” to mean those movies not financed by the big-budget divisions of the majors. It’s basically a superfluous term now...
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The River
I was lucky enough to see a pristine print right off the 3-strip Technicolor elements of The River on the big screen. It was the first time I saw it, and I’m so glad I waited for just this occasion to...
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Sky High
From start to finish, this one’s pure fun. Sky High has no pretensions to being anything more than what it is: a silly, kitschy send-up of superhero culture grafted onto the teen romance/high school...
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Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
The bar has been set so low in mainstream Hollywood movies that it’s not even worth seriously analyzing this stuff. Lucas’ franchise is a cultural event and that, more than the movie, is cause for...
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Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole
For its rapturous imagery and mythical sensibilities, director Zack Snyder’s “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” aspires to something akin to “Avatar” or the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy....
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A Better Life
In “A Better Life,” an illegal Mexican immigrant named Carlos struggles to make ends meet as a gardener in modern-day Los Angeles. His son Luis, alienated and adrift, is a high-school misfit, a thug...
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Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
Straight out of Hollywood’s assembly line comes its latest, typically assaultive attempt at kiddie entertainment, “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” a 3D sequel to 2001’s “Cats &...
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Finding Nemo
From its dazzling opening scene to its last, “Finding Nemo” is the crown jewel in Pixar’s 8-year association with Disney. Ever since “Toy Story” in 1995, Pixar has consistently pushed the boundries of...
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Hugo
There are two intertwined stories in Hugo, Martin Scorsese’s inaugural foray into family-friendly cinema. The first — and less interesting — story is about an orphaned boy who lives in a Paris railway...
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Nebraska
In Nebraska, Alexander Payne paints a deceptively simple portrait of a complex character who’s become a withdrawn shell of a human being by a combination of senility, drink and disillusionment. Filmed...
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