The Girl On The Train
BB.5 (out of 5) After her alcoholism destroys her marriage, Emily Blunt continues her downward spiral while on her daily commute, staring out the window of her train and into the home of… Continue reading
Tag Archive: Ann Roth
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The Day Of The Locust
BBB (out of 5) William Atherton begins to work as an art director at a movie studio during the Golden Age of Hollywood, taking up residence at a crummy apartment complex. The San… Continue reading
Only When I Laugh
BBBB (out of 5) Stunning characterizations highlight this excellent drama, one of the richest examples of Neil Simon’s writing ever adapted to the screen. Marsha Mason is fantastic as a Broadway actress who has… Continue reading
Ricki And The Flash
BB (out of 5) Years after she walked out on her husband and three kids to pursue a career as a rock star, Meryl Streep is playing dive bars in Tarzana and about to… Continue reading
While We’re Young
BBBB (out of 5) Ben Stiller is a documentary filmmaker who has been working on the same unfinished project for a decade, earning a living by teaching a class on the subject. His wife… Continue reading
Guarding Tess
BBB (out of 5) Secret Service Agent Nicolas Cage is given his worst nightmare of an assignment when he is instructed to keep a close eye on a former president’s wife (Shirley MacLaine) who… Continue reading
The Out-Of-Towners
BB.5 (out of 5) Remarkably unremarkable comedy that should have been better considering the talent involved; on the other hand, Neil Simon’s original script didn’t exactly turn heads when it was first filmed… Continue reading
Last Night (2010)
B.5 (out of 5) Well, who wouldn’t want to sit through the troubled love story of an overwrought lollipop and an untalented troll? Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington make a horrendous onscreen pair as a… Continue reading
The Village
B (out of 5) This chapter in M. Night Shyamalan’s trove of scary tales is one of the most pretentiously idiotic pieces of tripe that you’ll ever see. It takes place in the… Continue reading
Signs
BBB.5 (out of 5) Farmer and former priest Mel Gibson is startled awake one morning to find mysteriously-shaped crop circles in the cornfields adjoining his house. He is further disturbed by news reports that… Continue reading
Doubt
BBBB (out of 5) Tradition clashes with modern thinking at a Catholic school run by nuns in 1960s New York City. Priest Philip Seymour Hoffman gives sermons that capture and stir the emotions… Continue reading
Sweet Dreams
BBBB (out of 5) This is a wonderful, captivating film biography of the greatest country singer of all time, Patsy Cline. Obviously made to cash in on the success of Coal Miner’s Daughter,… Continue reading
The January Man
BB (out of 5) An all-star cast can’t save this incredibly dull mystery-comedy. Kevin Kline, who can never manage to save bad material, plays an ex-cop who was pushed off the force thanks… Continue reading
In & Out
BBBB (out of 5) Pointedly funny comedy by Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey, Addams Family Values) about a shy, mild-mannered high school teacher (Kevin Kline) whose life is thrown into a frenzy when a former… Continue reading
The Stepford Wives (2004)
BB.5 (out of 5) Updating a novel written in the sixties that was a satiric examination of America’s response to the new feminism might seem as pointless as Guy Ritchie’s modernizing Lina Wertmuller’s… Continue reading
Murder By Death
BBBB (out of 5) This film and The Cheap Detective make for a terrific pair of mystery spoofs, both filled with hilarious situations and spot-on imitations of the genres they are parodying. In… Continue reading
Rabbit Hole
BBBB (out of 5) This delicately beautiful film begins with married couple Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart bereaved by a personal loss and seeking comfort in group therapy. Their tragedy, it turns out, is the… Continue reading
School Ties
BB.5 (out of 5) In this hybrid of Gentleman’s Agreement and Beverly Hills, 90210, Brendan Fraser plays a high school student whose exceptional scholastic achievements have earned him entrance into a high-ranking prep school. To… Continue reading
Mamma Mia!
BB.5 (out of 5) The stage show that took audiences by storm around the world now hits the big screen as a musical vehicle for the marvelous Meryl Streep. She plays Donna, a… Continue reading
Evening
BB.5 (out of 5) Vanessa Redgrave lies in palliative care awaiting the end, her mind a sea of emotions and memories that neither she nor her two devoted daughters (Natasha Richardson, Redgrave’s real-life… Continue reading
The World Of Henry Orient
BBBB (out of 5) Peter Sellers takes a back seat in this mini-adventure that tells the story of two young girls growing up in broken homes in New York City. One is the daughter… Continue reading
Marathon Man
BBBB (out of 5) John Schlesinger’s thriller about paranoia and fear is a great way to entertain yourself: at the same time gripping and yet also ridiculous, it’s a taut action thriller with… Continue reading
Pacific Heights
BBB (out of 5) Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine finally get to purchase their dream home atop a gorgeous San Francisco hill, but with the expense of the house comes the need for a tenant.… Continue reading
Cold Mountain
BBB (out of 5) During the civil war, a soldier (Jude Law) reads a letter from the woman waiting for him (Nicole Kidman) back home and decides to leave the battlefield and head… Continue reading
Changing Lanes
BBBB (out of 5) Compelling Hollywood thriller with Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson as random strangers thrown together by destiny when their cars collide on a New York Freeway. Jackson is on… Continue reading
Just Cause
BB.5 (out of 5) Sean Connery is a long-in-the-tooth law professor who decides to help out a death row inmate (Blair Underwood) on trial for murder because something tells him that the guy is… Continue reading
The Mambo Kings
BBBB (out of 5) Sturdy, enjoyable adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is best remembered for its introducing sexy Spanish heartthrob Antonio Banderas to English-speaking cinema. He and Armand Assante play Cuban musicians living… Continue reading
Sabrina (1995)
BB (out of 5) Remaking Billy Wilder’s 1954 comedy classic starring Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart was a bad idea in the first place, but considering the cast you’d think it could still… Continue reading
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being
BBBB (out of 5) Milan Kundera’s supposedly “unfilmable” novel reaches the screen with outstanding results, another jewel in Philip Kaufman’s crown after his fascinating The Right Stuff. Daniel Day-Lewis is delicious as a Prague… Continue reading
Hope Springs
B.5 (out of 5) The reunion of Meryl Streep with her Devil Wears Prada director would be expected to result in nothing but perfection, but everything fizzles with this completely uninspiring and only… Continue reading
Hair
BBBB (out of 5) The energy is tangible in this exciting adaptation of the groundbreaking, taboo-smashing Broadway musical. Sadly, the film took so long to get to the screen that the subject was… Continue reading
Julie & Julia
BBB.5 (out of 5) In 1950s Paris, happily married Julia Child (Meryl Streep) accompanies her diplomat husband (Stanley Tucci) to his new posting in the City Of Lights, and finds herself desirous of… Continue reading
Dressed To Kill
BBB.5 (out of 5) Of all the films that Brian DeHitchcock has made as tribute to the master of suspense, this one is the most enjoyable and also probably the scariest as well.… Continue reading
The Good Shepherd
BB (out of 5) Talky, boring, ridiculously long political drama, director Robert De Niro’s three hour epic on the creation of the CIA labours under the monotony of quiet conversations. Matt Damon is a… Continue reading
Before And After
BB (out of 5) Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson small-town parents who threaten to tear apart when their delinquent son (Edward Furlong) is a suspect in the murder of his trashy girlfriend (Alison Folland).… Continue reading
Hush
BB.5 (out of 5) Unapologetically corny, this is a melodrama so ridiculous it is enjoyable for its own reasons. Jessica Lange is the personification of evil with a smile as the domineering mother-in-law to… Continue reading
Regarding Henry
BBB.5 (out of 5) Recreating the charm of Frank Capra classics is attempted in this enjoyable heartwarmer by Mike Nichols. He even casts it perfectly by putting Harrison Ford, the modern-day Gary Cooper,… Continue reading
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
B (out of 5) Extremely annoyed is how you’ll feel from the opening of this execrable movie, a false and cloying attempt at feel-good post-9/11 drama that is surprisingly made by the director… Continue reading
The Reader
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Ralph Fiennes is recently divorced and is having trouble relating to his daughter; when he finally reflects on the reasons for his emotional disconnect, he flashes back to when… Continue reading
Silkwood
BBBB (out of 5) Meryl Streep proved that elegant period pieces weren’t the only thing she could shine in when she appeared in this devastating, fact-based drama. She plays real-life Karen Silkwood, an… Continue reading
Dennis The Menace
BBB (out of 5) The rambunctious little tyke of the famous comic strip makes his way to the big screen in this very funny comedy. Mason Gamble is perfectly cast as the title character,… Continue reading
The Talented Mr. Ripley
BBBBB (out of 5) Fantastic tribute to Alfred Hitchcock movies features a letter-perfect performance from Matt Damon as the titular villain, a man whose loneliness and poverty render him useless among 1950s American aristocracy, therefore… Continue reading
The Hours
BBBBB (out of 5) The feat of simply deciding to turn Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel into a film is reason enough to praise this effort, which could not have been a small… Continue reading
Places In The Heart
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Sally Field won her second Academy Award for her strong performance in this rural drama. After her sheriff husband is accidentally shot by a young boy playing with a gun in… Continue reading
Margot At The Wedding
BBBB (out of 5) Nicole Kidman gives a layered perforamnce as a successful writer returning to her childhood home to reconnect with her estranged sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh). The two of them haven’t spoken… Continue reading
Coming Home
BBB.5 (out of 5) Moving film that, along with The Deer Hunter the same year, initiated the popularity of Vietnam-angst films. Jane Fonda plays a nurse in a hospital for veterans of the war who… Continue reading
The English Patient
BBBBB (out of 5) Gorgeous and intelligent adaptation of Michael Ondaatje’s more internal novel, perfectly directed by Anthony Minghella and featuring one of the best casts of the year. Originally to be produced… Continue reading
Maxie
BB.5 (out of 5) Glenn Close has a marvelous time clowning around in this forgettable comedy. She and her husband (Mandy Patinkin) move into an apartment once owned by an aspiring silent film actress… Continue reading