Flicks w/ The Film Snob

Elizabeth, the Golden Age is a film of pageant and spectacle, tinged with a bit of darkness, and what it lacks in depth is compensated by a witty script and fine acting.

Eastern Promises is a film of accomplished, deliberate artistry, with a sense of compassion that is earned through a passage through the darkest of nights.

A new Swiss film called Vitus, directed by Fredi Murer, tells the story of a young boy of that name, a piano prodigy at the age of 6, whose brilliance raises expectations in his parents and isolates him from other kids

To the list of remarkable documentaries about Iraq, you can add an excellent new film by Charles Ferguson called No End in Sight.

James Mangold, who had a hit last year with the Johnny Cash film Walk the Line, has now directed a remake of a sturdy western from 1957 called 3:10 to Yuma, and I'm happy to say that he's done well

Sissako's method of placing this highly charged rhetorical event in the middle of what amounts to a village atmosphere creates a compelling and realistic link between oratory and ordinary life

This movie is like a sweet and wistful lesson in the heart's language, the language of music

Overshadowed by the French New Wave of the late 50s and early 60s, England had its own cinematic revival during the same period. One marvelous example is the 1963 film Billy Liar.

Sunshine concerns a time in Earth's future when the sun is dying, and a spaceship is sent on a mission to detonate a huge bomb in the sun in order to reignite it

Like all Pixar movies, it's flashy and sometimes loud, but it's also the smartest and kindest animated film you could ask for

This week I pause to pay tribute to one of the world's greatest filmmakers, who died recently at the age of 89. I'm referring, of course to Swedish director Ingmar Bergman.

Danish director Lars von Trier has been taking a confrontational approach to cinema for the last thirty years

This movie is about the act of storytelling itself, the self-creation of a people's culture. Ten Canoes is a remarkable, spellbinding achievement.

Loktev's rigorous style creates the kind of nerve-wracking suspense you don't normally see in a conventional film, where drama and distance allow a certain space between audience and character

In many ways this is Moore's best film, because he doesn't go off on tangents. The movie stays focused on its subject, and the people affected by the crisis, with an anecdotal style that is both informative and entertaining.