POSTED // Feb 10,2012 - Woo-hoo, it’s CIA action porn when Safe House finally gets going, all mysterious black SUVs and “kill the surveillance cameras” and stoic badassery all around.

POSTED // Feb 3,2012 - It has taken 15 years of attending, but I think I’m finally able to acknowledge a difficult truth: I don’t really know what makes any given Sundance Film Festival a “good” festival.

POSTED // Feb 3,2012 - Movies about addiction of any kind often avoid the risk of not taking the subject seriously enough by taking the subject far too seriously.

POSTED // Jan 27,2012 - Every once in a while, it feels as though the entire movie industry is trying to make somebody happen, despite a resolute lack of enthusiasm from audiences about that individual actually happening.

POSTED // Jan 27,2012 - Coverage of Albert Nobbs has been full of stories about Glenn Close’s decades-long effort to bring the story from her original stage performance to the screen.

POSTED // Jan 20,2012 - Michel Hazanavicius’ effervescent The Artist seems to be staking out a curious territory during the 2011-12 film awards season.

POSTED // Jan 20,2012 - We’ve seen this movie before: Secret agent/gun for hire/covert badass gets burned. Who did it? The bad guys? The colleagues? The boss? Our Hero has to work hard and fast to pull his own ass out of a fire

POSTED // Jan 13,2012 - Resolved: Meryl Streep can become anyone. Do I have any takers for the “con” position? Thought not.

POSTED // Jan 13,2012 - I’ve got to admit to a bit of puzzlement when I learned that Disney’s Beauty & the Beast would be re-released in 3D. In my mind, it has ever been thus.

POSTED // Jan 6,2012 - I haven’t read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John le Carré’s iconic novel of Cold War espionage and—if this sleek, elegant film has it right—repressed male emotion.