POSTED // Jan 6,2012 - Director/writer/editor/star Takeshi Kitano first made an impact on these shores with a remarkable series of gangster films (most notably 1993’s Sonatine and 1997’s Fireworks)

POSTED // Dec 29,2011 - Welcome to 2011 at the movies—where the only thing certain about the best movies was their uncertainty.People, as a rule, don’t particularly like ambiguity. A much-talked-about university

POSTED // Dec 21,2011 - At first, it might seem like an absurd question: Though he’s been part of the American pop-culture consciousness for more than 35 years, and is arguably the most successful director in the history of the medium, do we really know who Steven Spielberg is as a filmmaker?

POSTED // Dec 21,2011 - The riveting, propulsive opening credits of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo conveys everything that director David Fincher could bring to the English-language adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s uber-best-seller.

POSTED // Dec 16,2011 - When Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes raked in more than $200 million at the box office in 2009, it was only elementary that Hollywood would use its powers of deduction to realize that a sequel was inevitable.

POSTED // Dec 16,2011 - Yes, there’s some irony here: The Juno screenwriter who was both lauded (with an Oscar) and reviled (by those who groaned at the slanguage) for wallowing in high-school hipness decided to skewer people who can’t quite grow up.

POSTED // Dec 9,2011 - Because New Year’s Eve is a unique movie experience—or at least as unique as you can get from director Garry Marshall and screenwriter Katherine Fugate,

POSTED // Dec 9,2011 - For more than 25 years, Pedro Almodóvar’s penchant for lurid melodramatic plot twists and kinky sexuality has generally been softened by a frisky sense of humor

POSTED // Dec 2,2011 - Whatever else you might want to say about Lars von Trier—and it’s hard to imagine that it hasn’t been said before, in tones ranging from befuddlement to outrage

POSTED // Nov 23,2011 - Since so much of The Descendants is about coming to terms with what parts of the past to hold on to and which parts to let go of, here’s a little personal grieving