Best On DVD
-
Caryn James1 commentlike0tweet0
The Conspirator on DVD: Robert Redford and James McAvoy Breathe New Life Into History
Robert Redford’s taut, atmospheric drama The Conspirator arrives on DVD and VOD today, offering a second chance to discover a film that is far more than a disguised history lesson about the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln.
Read More » -
Caryn James0 commentslike0tweet0
Javier Bardem's Oscar-Nominated Role: Biutiful on DVD
No one actually expected Javier Bardem (or anyone other than Colin Firth) to win the Oscar for Best Actor, but Bardem’s nomination for Biutiful was an unlikely, supremely deserved triumph anyway. In what may be his best performance to date (that’s saying a lot) he is extraordinarily subtle and movi...
Read More » -
Caryn James0 commentslike0tweet0
DVD: Sofia Coppola's Lovely "Somewhere," One of 2010's Best
Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere won the Golden Lion, the main prize, at the Venice Film Festival in September, but when it was released in December the small-scale film seemed to get lost in the flood of louder, more crowd-pleasing awards-bait movies. This Hollywood story of an actor getting to know his 1...
Read More » -
Caryn James0 commentslike0tweet0
DVD: Kevin Spacey At His Best as Corrupt, High-Flying Lobbyist
In Casino Jack, Kevin Spacey gives the kind of performance few actors can: he's both satiric and believable as Jack Abramoff, the D.C. lobbyist who befriended and bought off Congressmen, duped Indian casino-owners, and eventually landed in prison. The film, directed by George Hickenlooper (who died ...
Read More » -
Caryn James0 commentslike0tweet0
DVD: "Upstairs, Downstairs," the Series Everyone Steals From
Before there was Gosford Park or the recent hit series Downton Abbey, there was Upstairs, Downstairs, the 1970’s series that created the template for masters and servants mingling on screen, wearing fussy Edwardian clothes, getting into all sorts of scandalous adventures, from a servant with dirty ...
Read More » -
Caryn James0 commentslike0tweet0
Best Fairy Tale Films For Grownups
Fairy tales for grownups are everywhere, fraught with love, sex and menace. Catherine Hardwicke’s Red Riding Hood, wonderfully cast with Amanda Seyfried and Gary Oldman, arrives next week. Catherine Breillat's smart revision of Sleeping Beauty opens in July. (Here's my review from the French film f...
Read More » -
Caryn James0 commentslike0tweet0
"Kings of Pastry": Hegedus and Pennebaker In a Different Kind of War Room
The great documentary team of Chris Hedegus and D A Pennebaker have made enormously influential films like The War Room, which changed the way we see political theater. But they also have a taste for lively, entertaining docs like their latest, Kings Of Pastry, a delightful bon-bon of a film which s...
Read More » -
Caryn James0 commentslike0tweet0
The Oscar Gem on the "Fish Tank" DVD
Andrea Arnold’s Oscar-winning short, Wasp, is every bit as accomplished and harrowing as her amazing feature, Fish Tank, and takes the same gritty, realistic approach to its working-class characters.
Read More » -
Caryn James0 commentslike0tweet0
On DVD: Never Let Me Go, 2010's Most Underappreciated Film
Months ago, by sheer coincidence, I saw Never Let Me Go and Black Swan at back-to-back screenings – a lot of intensity for one day. (And between Keira Knightley and Natalie Portman the most anorexic-looking double bill ever, but that’s another story.) I left the screening room thinking it would be a...
Read More » -
Caryn James0 commentslike0tweet0
Howl on DVD: We're Not in Franco Overload Yet
You may think you’re already in James Franco overload, and he hasn’t even hosted the Oscars yet. And here’s a link to what he just told Entertainment Weekly about his plans for directing Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Those ambitious projects might seem a stretch, bu...
Read More »
fresh from the blogs
-
Hollywood: Let There Be Light (Please?)Criticwire
-
Gareth Evans Is Action Director On 'The Night Comes ...The Playlist
-
Gabrielle Union Will Be Chris Rock's Reality TV Star ...Shadow and Act
-
Cannes Fest Diary: Le Weekend, from Compelling 'Jimmy ...Thompson on Hollywood
-
Ellen Destroys Abercrombie & Fitch CEO's Comments on ...Women and Hollywood
-
CANNES 2013: Images: Part 2Press Play
-
Good Night, Lost Boy(s)The Lost Boys
-
In Search Of ‘The Searchers’Leonard Maltin
on 
