Dogtooth: The Ultimate Brainwash

Photo: Feelgood Entertainment In January 2011, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced to his cabinet that Dogtooth had just been nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, going on…

Driving Miss Daisy: The Burden of an Oscar

Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy. Photo: Warner When people list the movies they feel did not deserve to win a Best Picture Oscar, this one often comes up. I agree.…

Beasts of the Southern Wild

A huge storm is headed straight toward a Louisiana bayou community… and a five-year-old and her sick dad (Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry). Director Benh Zeitlin's first feature film became a…

Amour: In Sickness and in Health

Photo: Les Films du Losange Welcome to the ever-fascinating journey of the cinema of Michael Haneke. When I started writing this review I began by comparing the film with others…

It’s a Wonderful Life: Wing and a Prayer

Photo: RKO This Christmas I decided to catch Frank Capra's last masterpiece again. Having seen it several times before, I knew what to expect. It's a great story and I…

Argo: The Great Escape

Photo: Warner In my reviews of Persepolis (2007) and A Separation (2011), I wrote that those films offer a well-needed opportunity to understand Iran. Argo, however, is not that type…

The Girl

Former model Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) is thrilled to learn that Alfred Hitchcock (Toby Jones) is choosing her to star in his next movie… but the professional relationship quickly turns…

North and South: Book II 

When we meet the Mains and Hazards again, the Northern and Southern families are pitted against each other as the Civil War unfolds; the miniseries takes us through it. Elaborate,…

The Right Stuff: Touching the Sky

Photo: Warner I have never understood those who have no interest in space. That’s like showing no interest in the questions that have occupied scientists and philosophers ever since mankind…

Tristana: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Catherine Deneuve. Photo: Época Films When Luis Buñuel wanted to turn Benito Pérez Galdós's novel "Tristana" into a movie in 1962, his and Julio Alejandro's script was rejected. The same…