Half Potions
Two years ago I observed that there are many different ways to make a Harry Potter movie, thanks to all the different directors who've...
The Ring
James Kelley Young - who prefers to be addressed by his middle name - was born on an Air Force base in Tokyo, but...
Denis the Menaced
For years I detested Chris Columbus, the Hollywood director who spent the 1990s turning out sanitized, highly profitable family farces (Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire)...
Kvetch
"If you're stupid enough to want a feel-good movie, go get yourself a foot massage," says Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David) to the camera early...
G-Mann
Michael Mann's latest film, Public Enemies, is based on Bryan Burrough's voluminous history of the early days of the FBI, when the fledgling bureau...
Go, ‘Bots
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a sequel to a movie based on a cartoon based on a toyline. Dubious source material to some...
A Season With Verona
Away We Go is directed by Sam Mendes, but you'd never guess that this scruffy comedy was by the same guy whose previous dramas...
Marital Tate
The Proposal makes an instructive contract with Management, the film that opened and promptly closed last month. Both movies are about the romantic...
Cowardly Custard
Wildly popular in their own time, Noël Coward's stage comedies fell from favor in the 1960s and have been struggling ever since. His pieces...
Turn Out the Lights?
Are music corporations, with their emphasis on repetitive, easy-to-swallow sounds, quashing musical innovation? Are listeners demanding dumbed-down music? Is good music dead?
Several years ago,...
