Film & TV

“If you are great, El Topo is a great film. If you are limited, El Topo is limited,” director Alejandro Jodorowsky said of his epic spaghetti-western, whose wide-scale distribution is owed largely to the efforts of John Lennon.
February 26, 2009 at 1:16 am

In Gomorrah, director Matteo Garrone offers a refreshingly meditative take on the crime movie.
February 26, 2009 at 1:14 am

Cherry blossoms are traditionally known for their brevity. They bloom during one season and make audiences wait another year for the pleasure of their company.
February 26, 2009 at 1:04 am

Nominated, but robbed: 1. Citizen Kane (1941) Lost to: How Green Was My Valley 2.
February 18, 2009 at 11:06 pm

Hell, yeah! The Best Picture is awarded to the movie that has mastered all of the individual elements of film-making — musical score, direction, casting, script, acting and more — making them work together to produce a real piece of motion picture art.
February 18, 2009 at 11:04 pm

How would the Academy have received Witness minus Harrison Ford and all that murder mystery stuff?
February 18, 2009 at 11:01 pm

Not to knock the Oscars or anything, but it’s been 81 years — we think it’s about time the Academy got a little more innovative with its categories.
February 18, 2009 at 10:57 pm

Looks like bank failure isn't the only thing to worry about in the financial world. In The International, one of the world's most successful banks gets its dough from the small arms trade, prompting Interpol agent Clive Owen, doing his normal shtick as the rugged, intense hero, and Manhattan ADA Naomi Watts, foregoing her natural Aussie accent, to go after the bad guys (do the filmmakers really expect us to think that forces from completely different jurisdictions would work so well together?). Thankfully, for the first time in recent movie history, our two leads do not hook up, but they do kick some serious ass.
February 15, 2009 at 9:30 pm

The critical darling of last year’s Cannes Film Festival, The Class snuck in under the radar and screened on the last night of the competition, surprising many and deservedly taking home the illustrious Palme d’Or.
February 12, 2009 at 12:08 am

Director Stanley Donen is remembered, when he’s remembered, for films like Singing in the Rain and Arabesque, big-budget musicals designed to be instantaneous crowd pleasers.
February 12, 2009 at 12:05 am

A recent headline from The New York Times read: "Stocks Slide as New Bailout Disappoints." Okay, so the economy is at an all-time low.
February 12, 2009 at 12:04 am

It’s tough to think of people other than your love du jour over Valentine's Day. But if you prefer the Peace Corp to petunias, check out this week’s selections from the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.
February 12, 2009 at 12:02 am

We've all heard the adage “if you don't have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” So instead of bashing The Pink Panther 2, a film whose very existence should make one question the sanity of movie execs (no one liked the first one, guys), I'm going to try to extol its few-and-far-between merits.
February 4, 2009 at 10:45 pm

The film adaptation of Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo’s bestselling book attempts to be a treasure trove of relationship wisdom, but the title, He’s Just Not That Into You, is really the only advice it provides.
February 4, 2009 at 10:43 pm

Shakespeare + the two Step Up boys + some sick soccer skills = pure joy. Starring Amanda Bynes as a cross-dressing, soccer-loving teenager, it also features Channing Tatum and Robert Hoffman, both of Step Up fame.
February 4, 2009 at 10:40 pm

January movies are generally amusing films that tend to lack-in content. Push, a January movie released in February, is entertaining but not worth 10 economically devalued U.S.
February 4, 2009 at 10:38 pm

Going to a movie is much like going on JDate. We scope out the leading men, assess their talents and qualifications and ultimately decide whether they’d function as good first husbands.
February 4, 2009 at 10:31 pm

Street: Tell me about how Ciao came into being. Yen Tan: The idea came about because [actor] Alessandro [Calza] wrote me an email in 2003 to tell me how much he loved my first film, Happy Birthday, and then we just started corresponding.
February 2, 2009 at 1:44 pm

It’s that time of the year again, when studios seem to empty out their trashcans onto multiplexes around the country.
January 28, 2009 at 11:48 pm

The premise of Ciao — a film in which two strangers from different parts of the world develop a deep, unexpected friendship — could have led to a laughably bad movie.
January 28, 2009 at 11:45 pm