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Out of the Furnace Packs a Predictable Punch
Christian Bale in Out of the Furnace. More bitter, bleak lives of American mill workers without a compass and no place to go if they had one are showcased in the pessimistic drama Out of the Furnace....
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A Career Cut Short: Fast and Furious Star Paul Walker Died in a Tragic Car...
Paul Walker in Hours. Talk about bad timing. In the wake of the disturbing news about the death of actor Paul Walker in a flaming Porsche (shades of James Dean!), along comes the posthumous release of...
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Grand Illusion: American Hustle Is an Essay on the Brilliance of Corruption
Left to right: Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle. We’re all con artists, see. Everyone is conning someone else in order to survive....
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Big Bad Wolf: Martin Scorsese’s Latest Is a Showpiece of Wicked Cinematic...
Big macher. The Wolf of Wall Street has been awarded a nose-thumbing Bronx cheer by some critics as noisy, vulgar, flashy, disgusting and over the top— the same reasons they adored the talented but...
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A Death in the Family: August: Osage County Stumbles on the Silver Screen
Meryl Streep, center, as Violet, the domineering Weston family matriarch. Like a general loaded with medals in a ticker tape parade, the Broadway play August: Osage County arrives on the screen with...
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What the Dickens? The Invisible Woman Explores a Scandalous Victorian Affair
An affair to remember. The holiday season—when some version of A Christmas Carol crowds the TV schedule daily, turning Scrooge into as popular a household name as Santa—seems like a perfect time for a...
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A Home of Their Own: Labor Day Is a Sensitive Adaptation of Joyce Maynard’s...
Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet are lovers in Labor Day. Leave it to Kate Winslet’s warmth, intelligence and sincerity to bring us out of the winter doldrums of January leftovers with Jason Reitman’s...
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Sentimental Education: Powerful Performances From Andy Garcia and Vera...
Vera Farmiga and Andy Garcia in At Middleton. This satisfying debut feature by Adam Rodgers, who co-wrote the smart screenplay with Glenn German, is not exactly flawless, but entertaining dialogue and...
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Half Past Dead: The Wait Is Cinematic Purgatory
The Wait indisputably falls into the category of Valium torpor. The Wait is 96 minutes of surrealistic gibberish about … well, absolutely nothing. At least nothing discernible by the naked eye or...
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Trading Places: The Pretty One Takes on the Good Twin/Bad Twin Conceit
Zoe Kazan had the dual chore of playing a pair of twin sisters in The Pretty One, starring Jake Johnson. A tale of identical twins so laconic it practically dozes off right in front of you, The Pretty...
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Crime Spree: Everything and Nothing Happens in The Outsider
The Outsider is an underground crawl through the seedier sections of Hollywood. Another contrived programmer for which Jason Statham was apparently unavailable, The Outsider stars his stand-in, Craig...
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Francophobia: ‘Maladies’ Is a Sickening Display of Cinematic Ineptitude
James Franco in Maladies. Overrated, overexposed and overindulgent, James Franco is all over the place, like cow chips in the abandoned pasture of a derelict farm. With nine movies currently in release...
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Bad Cop: ‘McCanick’ Features Cory Monteith in His Last Film Role
David Morse as a worn-out Philadelphia cop named McCanick. The only reason to suffer through a grim wack job called McCanick is to see the late Cory Monteith in his last film role. Because of his...
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A Vibrant Catherine Deneuve Stars in Long and Winding Road-trip Flick
Catherine Deneuve in On My Way. Disappointingly tedious, On My Way is a contrived vehicle for Gallic icon Catherine Deneuve. At 70, she’s still the embodiment of placid ripeness we know and love, but...
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‘The Two Faces of January’ Is a Tense Adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith...
Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst. Carefully directed and gorgeous to look at, with haunting performances and maximum suspense, The Two Faces of January is an exemplary thriller about murder and sex in...
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Liev Schreiber Gives Knockout Performance in ‘Chuck,’ the Story of a...
'Chuck' is another in a long line of boxing films about losers who just don’t know when to stay down for the count.
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Goldie Hawn Is Wasted Alongside Amy Schumer in Grotesque ‘Snatched’
Goldie Hawn makes a comeback, but a mess called 'Snatched' is the wrong movie to do it in.
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Diane Lane Elevates ‘Paris Can Wait’ From Middling to Sublime
Diane Lane has plenty of charms and uses them wisely in 'Paris Can Wait,' elevating an otherwise mild film to heights of enchantment.
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‘Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe’ Is a Destination Drama for Literary Loyalists
Maria Schrader positions Stefan Zweig at the center of her melancholy, gorgeous biopic, 'Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe.'
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‘Wakefield,’ Starring Bryan Cranston, Is an Unforgettable Experience
'Wakefield' is a terrific movie, with a devastatingly bravura performance by Bryan Cranston that seizes and grips attention from first scene to last.
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