The Ghost Writer, starring Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan and Olivia Williams, is Roman Polanski’s latest film, and – while nowhere near his best (see Rosemary’s Baby or The Ninth Gate) – it has all the Polanski hallmarks:  A brooding, haunted tone, beautiful and engaging scenes, and a plot that is a little too obvious for […]

The Kids Are All Right, starring Annette Benning, Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore and directed by Lisa Cholodenko, is your very average family comedy dressed up like a sensitive 21st century drama.  Think of, oh…I don’t know.  How about The Brady Bunch crossed with Weeds: “Here’s the story of two dykes with babies / Whose […]

I rarely finish watching a movie once I start, so when I watch two films within a week of each other and don’t care to finish either one, that’s something of an event in my life.  A movie has to fall into a certain well-defined stratum for me not to watch it front start to finish:  […]

Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page, and crafted by the best director in the business – one Christopher Nolan – is a visually stunning and thoroughly enjoyable film that has the staying power of any great mind-bending whodunit.  What makes Inception so good is how well it mixes the scifi / action genre with […]

A review of the 2006 film, “The Fall.”