POSTED // Sep 6,2007 - Daniel Auteuil is probably France’s pre-eminent actor, but he’s never made a splash on this side of the ocean. And he probably never will; his talents are distinctly French, from his decidedly unintimidating appearance to his fascinating face,...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - Hirokazu Kore-eda wants to hurt you. The Japanese director of Maborosi and After Life explores universal themes in wandering human dramas that always seem to be on the verge of ending horribly, even when his characters are couched in placid settings such...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - In the grand tradition of nonalcoholic beer, four-cylinder sports cars, the Spice Channel and sky diving with an instructor clinging to your back like a remora, Cursed is the latest entry in a burgeoning subgenre: horror movies that aren’t scary,...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - If ever a movie seemed immune to criticism, it’s Born Into Brothels, the Best Documentary winner at last month’s Oscars. To a Western audience, it’s about the saddest people in one of the saddest places on Earth: the children of sex...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - We’re just about at the point where everybody wants to kill Sean Penn, aren’t we? Every once in a while, actors climb to an apex of ego, ripening at a cultural saturation point where they just can no longer be tolerated. They become so engorged...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - The previous 12 months featured many more great characters than they did Great Performances. Whether it was Imelda Staunton’s staunch work in Vera Drake or Virginia Madsen’s stirring supporting role in Sideways, we got a bunch of fine work...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - Afew aspects of The Woodsman are nearly overwhelming upon first viewing, which is a trick that American films hardly ever pull off any more. Specifically, it’s impossible to make a snap judgment on how to feel about Walter, the protagonist played...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - It might be some sort of twisted paternal instinct, a latent dream to be a talent agent with $2,000 suits and four cell phones, or it might just be stark-raving manimal lust. But something really makes me want to help Jennifer Garner. I realize it’s...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - The beauty in House of Flying Daggers isn’t much more than skin-deep. But Lord, what skin it has. Just two years after uncorking a virtuoso interpretation of martial arts action films with Jet Li’s Hero (which only came to the United States...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - Acres of ironically perishing trees have been felled in recent years to print up the diatribes of aging former social activists lamenting the lack of similar convictions in the next generation. Today’s kids don’t get it, and even when we do,...