The first thing we need to do is acknowledge that Denzel Washington is a national treasure. He is one of the all-time great film actors, arguably the first black actor to truly transcend race and he can make really lousy movies like “Virtuosity” and “Dé... [More]

  In the past 12 months, I’ve seen two independent films that dealt explicitly and graphically with sex. The first was “Shame,” a torturous movie where Michael Fassbender played a sex-addict and we, the audience, were given a front-row seat to the emotional devastation the p... [More]

  Sometimes a movie is just plain nice. It’s not particularly groundbreaking or all that compelling. Nor is it poorly conceived or sloppily executed. It’s not earth shattering or mind numbing and it never tries to be something it is not. It is simply nice. “Chasing Maveric... [More]

          “Cloud Atlas” is a big, bold novel by David Mitchell that tells six different stories in six distinct styles set in six different time frames with each story loosely connected to the others. I enjoyed the book for its innovative structure, overarching... [More]

“Les Miserables” is one of the most beloved musicals of the past 25 years for many reasons. Much is to be found in the source material, Victor Hugo’s sprawling novel of love, loss, redemption and revolution set against the backdrop of 19th Century France. But the real emotional gu... [More]

  When it comes to illness it is easy to feel helpless. We surrender ourselves to health care professionals with the trust and faith they have the power and the will to help us get better. Imagine then how depressingly terrifying it must be to contract a mysterious and terminal illness that t... [More]

  The thing about psychopaths is they are often unpredictable. Following that logic, if you pack a movie to the brim with psychopaths there’s no telling where the thing will end up. This is part of the fun of the strange, hilarious and (intentionally?) uneven film “Seven Psych... [More]

  The pre-“Star Wars” 1970s is considered a golden age of film by most cinephiles (read: movie nerds). It is remembered that in those days Hollywood favored gritty realism over the flash and boom of summer blockbusters. Brilliant directors and gifted actors with bad hair cranked o... [More]

  Part of me adored the new coming-of-age drama “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” and part of me couldn’t muster up the energy to care about anyone or anything in the entire movie. I’m still not entirely sure if my negative takeaway is my fault or the movie’s, b... [More]

  In 1984, a young director named Tim Burton got his big break and was hired by Walt Disney Studios to make a live-action short. Given complete creative control, Burton produced “Frankenweenie,” an odd little movie where a boy uses “mad science” to reanimate the fam... [More]