A Soldier's Girl is based on a tragic true story, about the affair between a soldier, Pvt. Barry Winchell, falling for a "local girl" who is a transgender nightclub singer named Calpernia Addams.…
I love guy movies. I love onscreen explosions. What's not to love about Backdraft? I spent the entire movie working on that question, and finally realized that it has no soul. It's just a didactic, me…
Like the Southern home cooking featured so prominently in the film, Fried Green Tomatoes sticks to your ribs. Its characters take up residence in your mind and stay with you for years to come. Now, wi…
Who'da thought that they'd be making movies based on underground comics? Following the critical success of movies like Ghost World (based on a "graphic novel") and Crumb (a documentary about a freaky …
The first time I saw Arizona Dream, I was smitten. I had been waiting to see the movie for three years by the time I stumbled into the video, and when I finally watched it, it just took my breath awa…
Now, one of the things I love about going to film festivals is seeing movies "cold"... i.e. glancing over the schedule, eyeing the cast of a film, for instance, and circling it, saying to yourself, "S…
Diane Lane, in a Golden Globe-nominated performance, plays Connie, a suburban housewife who has a perfectly nice home, a perfectly nice son, and most importantly, a perfectly nice marriage with Edward…
One of my favorite things about getting the chance to see movies before they open theatrically is being able to watch a film with virgin eyes. To see it unspoiled, before hundreds of critics and dozen…
It's not often these days in movies when you can genuinely say, "Well, I've never seen THAT before!" The Fast Runner, the first major film shot entirely in the Inuit language (that would be north, nor…
I think Rosa Maria Sardà has been in perhaps every Spanish movie ever made in recent years, probably most visibly in Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother, playing Penelope Cruz's mom. But this is the…
Where is our society headed technologically? How will that technology affect our lives? Is artificial life possible? What role will it play in our ongoing evolution? Is advancing technology truly brin…
One of the most enduring images of Hugh Grant in Bridget Jones's Diary is when his character first emerges from an elevator, with a smirk on his face and his eyes darting back and forth on the prowl. …
