Manderlay 

After leaving Dogville, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard) passes a Southern plantation where the owner still keeps slaves and decides to teach everyone there a lesson about democracy. Lars von Trier's…

Pearl Harbor 

Hawaii, 1941; the attack on Pearl Harbor is coming, and two fighter pilots (Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett) are at odds over an attractive nurse (Kate Beckinsale). This was meant to…

Gandhi: The Smiling Revolution

Ben Kingsley. Photo: Columbia Richard Attenborough knows his epics and I bet he's watched Lawrence of Arabia (1962) more than once. In similar fashion, this film opens with Mahatma Gandhi's…

Slumdog Millionaire: Lucrative Life Lessons

Dev Patel and Freida Pinto. Photo: Searchlight Pictures A mass of energy. That's what screenwriter Simon Beaufoy claims to have picked up from his meetings with street children in India,…

A Swedish Love Story: Celebrating Youth

Ann-Sofie Kylin and Rolf Sohlman. Photo: Europa Film A few minutes into Roy Andersson’s lauded, now classic film debut, there’s a distinct Bo Widerberg touch. In the late 1960s, Andersson…

Frost/Nixon: A President’s Disgrace

Michael Sheen and Frank Langella. Photo: Universal Ladies and gentleman, welcome to a bout not easily forgotten. In one corner we have David Frost, a TV presenter looking to enter…

Patton: Worrisome Warrior

George C. Scott. Photo: 20th Century Fox When I mentioned on Facebook the other day that I had been watching Patton, a friend of mine at work said that he…

I, Claudius: Fool, Biographer, Emperor

Derek Jacobi. Photo: BBC One thing is certain. The years may fly by in this adaptation of Robert Graves's books on the first four Julio-Claudian emperors, but when 77 years…

John Adams: The Reluctant VP

Laura Linney and Paul Giamatti. Photo: HBO Sometimes there are discrepancies between filmmakers and the people hired to market their work. The tagline of this ambitious HBO miniseries has nothing…