Lives of Others: Fly on the Wall

Martina Gedeck and Sebastian Koch. Photo: Sony Pictures Classics It’s a day like many others. A group of Stasi agents have discreetly broken into an apartment and bugged it. It…

Flight 93 

A TV movie that had the misfortune of airing the same year as the vastly superior feature film United 93 opened in theaters. Both movies detailed the events that took…

Rocky Balboa 

Aging champ Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) decides to come out of retirement for one final fight against the reigning champion, Mason Dixon (Antonio Tarver). That’s the predictable, simple story for…

A Beautiful Mind: The Brain as Friend and Foe

Russell Crowe. Photo: Universal They said the screenplay had little to do with the brilliant mathematician John Nash’s real life. They said director Ron Howard had made the film too…

World Trade Center

Conservatives seemed genuinely surprised to see Oliver Stone make such a patriotic and moving film about 9/11. They must have taken him for a simple political pundit when in fact…

All the King’s Men 

As the populist Willie Stark (Sean Penn) wins the Louisiana governorship in the 1950s, a reporter (Jude Law) finds himself doing the dirty work for “the people’s governor”. A surprisingly…

Walk the Line: How Cash Got His Act Together

Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. Photo: 20th Century Fox It’s impossible to see this movie and not think of last year’s Ray. Both films tell the story of a supremely…

Spartacus: Looking for Freedom

Kirk Douglas. Photo: Universal This is a story about freedom. Our hero was born without it and died without it. It is easy to see what Dalton Trumbo saw in…

Flashdance 

18-year-old Pittsburgh welder Alex Owens (Jennifer Beals) also works as a dancer at a nightclub; she wants to be accepted into a prestigious dance academy, but will she make it?…