I've just sat down dutifully and read the reviews for the new 3-D rehashes of Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night, as well as the treacly-sounding One Day, and realized once again there is no reason to make my way to the multiplex this weekend. Just where are all the...

Like so many comedy film fanatics, I love Woody Allen's early films, by which I mean mostly the classic comedies he did in the early-mid seventies (Bananas, Sleeper, Love and Death) as well as two masterpieces made at the close of that...

Several weeks ago, I was sitting at lunch opposite my twenty-eight-year-old second cousin once removed, with a host of other family members. It being a reunion of sorts, the mood was jolly.

I have always liked my cousin -- she is smart, brassy, funny -- extremely well spoken and well...

Judging by what I've seen recently, I think the answer is "yes." Yet even so, some of our (supposedly) finest critics still find reasons to celebrate.

Truth be told, I have a bone to pick with New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis -- a big one.

In her maddening write-up...

To feed my all-consuming, ongoing obsession with great movies, I asked myself the following question: which Hollywood director actually made the most great movies?

It's astonishing to me that my answer will likely have lots of people scratching their heads.

In the Alsace area of Germany, on the...

At first, I had high hopes for Larry Crowne.

Finally, finally -- amidst all the comic book fare, Hollywood was giving us a movie for and about adults.

And though I've never understood all the fuss about Julia Roberts -- like a few other current female stars...

What triggered this piece was opening a friend's email the other day and clicking on a link to a TV segment where Bill Maher and Jane Lynch do a verbatim reading of Anthony Weiner and one of his female contacts talking dirty to each other via Twitter.

I'd heard something...

With today heralding the official arrival of summer, I'm thinking about those great movies that reflect the heat, transition and sheer release of the season in exciting, unexpected ways.

Yet when I did a Google search of top summer movies to inspire me, I actually found a lot of...

This was the not the first title I had in mind for this piece. But when I dug into Clint Eastwood's life and career, it seemed particularly apt -- and not even close to an overstatement.

Just consider this:

Over a career spanning over half a century, he's been involved...

Let me simply lead off with the sobering statistic that inspired this piece:

While mindless dreck or kiddie fare like Thor, The Hangover - Part 2 or the latest Pirates Of The Caribbean installment all opened on around four thousand screens across the...

This piece is aimed not only at buffs who already recognize the genius of Albert Finney in the full context of a fifty-plus year career (!), but also at those (likely younger) movie fans who know him best as the father in Sidney Lumet's final film, Before The...

Imagine if in It's A Wonderful Life, Mr. Potter had actually prevailed and George Bailey, a ruined man, had to relocate.

That couldn't happen in a Frank Capra movie, of course, but sadly it can and did happen in real life, at Carnegie Hall, and without...

This is not a happy time to be a movie fan who no longer gets carded in bars.

Take this weekend's opening of Thor on four thousand screens -- a release which reflects the industry's increasing reliance on that forbidden joy of my childhood -- the comic book...

I read just the other day that Jeremy Renner may take the lead role in a Steve McQueen biopic.

Now this should be interesting.

Personally, if it goes forward, I will be very interested to see the end product, but let me say upfront I would...

The sad truth is: Yes.

While Hollywood continues to dominate the global film industry in both dollar and distribution terms, it is increasingly evident that they no longer make the best movies -- that is, if you happen to be a reasonably well-educated adult.

Tinseltown still rules when it comes...

Note: the following piece was first drafted in late 2006, after the actor Seymour Cassel visited the Avon Theatre in Stamford, a landmark cinema I helped revive, for a special screening of "Faces, the critically acclaimed John Cassavetes feature that earned Cassel an Oscar nod. To say Cassel was and...

We have lost another legend today. Sidney Lumet, one of the finest and most prolific film directors of our time, is dead at 86.

Though diminutive in stature, he was a giant in his field, a director who always sought to make intelligent films that had the ring of truth.

Last week, I happened to find a rare television interview from the late '80s, with David Letterman interviewing Sir Alec Guinness, one of my screen idols, whose birthday fell this past Saturday.

The term "class act" seems overused at a time when there are fewer examples of it around, but...

Those interested in this thorny question should read Brent Lang's revealing article (which appeared yesterday in TheWrap.com) about this year's CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas, the trade show where the major studios come to thank their exhibitors, discuss mutual needs and challenges, and (increasingly) reassure them about a highly uncertain...

Today, we have lost a national treasure.

As a kid, I remember vividly Life Magazine's 1972 cover of Elizabeth Taylor turning 40, and glimpsing what glamour really meant.

For those who remember her only from those endless stories on her health problems, fluctuating weight, unlikely friendship with Michael Jackson,...