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Samuel Goldwyn Films
Isabel Coixet's film follows a refined formula — acclaimed actors, source material by Philip Roth, a classy soundtrack. But the gentility of tone masks, when it might contrast, a brute of a protagonist.Web Extra: Watch Clips
Critic Nathan Lee calls the greasy biker tribute a witless sleazefest — grindhouse without soul.
The documentary says it's time to remember the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center differently.
August 5, 2008 · With its bleak landscape and bleaker plot, Courtney Hunt's directorial debut — a Sundance festival favorite — provides a moving portrait of two women's desperation in a Canadian border town.Web Extra: Watch Clips
August 7, 2008 · Death, car crashes and serious run-ins with the law. Sounds like the plot of The Dark Knight. But you could also be talking about what happened to actors who appeared in this summer's mega-blockbuster. If the new Batman film is cursed, it wouldn't be the first time movies — or stage productions — have been jinxed.
August 2, 2008 · Scott Simon talks to film critic Desson Thomson about movie archetypes and how they're portrayed in two very different films: the latest Batman flick, The Dark Knight, and American Teen, a documentary about teenagers and the roles they play, or try to escape, in their small-town high school.
August 1, 2008 · The latest Mummy-franchise flick moves from the Nile Delta to the Yellow River Basin. If it makes a hash of history, it's an engaging homage to Chinese movies that earlier plundered the Qin emperor's grave.Web Extra: Watch Clips
August 1, 2008 · The Judd Apatow comedy team has turned every stoner's worst nightmare — our ganja-connoisseur heroes must flee a corrupt cop and a ruthless druglord — into a surprisingly artful comedy.Web Extra: Watch Clips
July 31, 2008 · Just in time for the political conventions: a morally muddled attempt to pay Capra-esque tribute to America's democracy. Kevin Costner plays a 50-something buffoon with arrested development.Web Extra: Watch Clips
July 31, 2008 · In a summer of forward-looking superhero films and sci-fi flicks, Transsiberian revives the Russian crime drama. This cool thriller offers it all: seedy mobsters, stunning snowscapes and even a suitcase full of babushka dolls.
July 31, 2008 · The Pineapple Express star often portrays less successful members of society — but he's hardly one of them. The actor and screenwriter has four Hollywood projects out this summer.Web Extra: Watch clips from 'Pineapple Express'
July 31, 2008 · While the special effects in movies like The Matrix and Transformers caused more than a few jaws to drop, Peter Hartlaub, a film reviewer for The San Francisco Chronicle, wonders whether studios have gone too far. He says movies have become an "all-you-can-eat buffet" and action scenes now "feel like an assault."
July 30, 2008 · Twitchy undertaker, cubicle fiend, sassy convenience-store clerk — Rainn Wilson has long gravitated toward eccentric characters. But is The Office actor attempting the leap to sex symbol through his titular role in The Rocker? Given the hair-metal coif and the still-goofy humor, probably not.
July 29, 2008 · In the new PBS documentary, "Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North," producer Katrina Browne follows her family's journey as they learn their ancestors were among the nation's biggest slave traders. Browne and her co-producer Juanita Brown talk about the film and how it changed a New England family's perception of their past.Web Extra: Read A Family Member's Account of the Experience
July 25, 2008 · Purists, fear not: The new film of the Evelyn Waugh novel is visually sumptuous and largely stays true to its source. And Bob Mondello says this two-hour take on the classic tale provides new insights on character.Web Extra: Watch Clips
