Fox Searchlight Pictures

“The East” might have the most intriguing premise of any film I’ve seen so far this year. Breaking down genre barriers while not overtly attempting to revolutionize any of them, director Zal Batmanglij, who co-wrote the film with its star Brit Marling, approaches divisive subjects like the environment, religion and capitalism from an unusually off-kilter perspective. There’s a […]

(This review originally appeared at Reel Film News on March 15, 2013.) Director Park Chan-Wook has never been one to shy away from the darker side of the human psyche, as his cinematic output in his native Korea so readily shows. The most-known of his films to Western audiences, Oldboy, was based on a Japanese […]

(This review was originally published on October 26, 2012 at Reel Film News) “The Sessions” is a thoughtful, emotionally intricate film that celebrates the strength of the human intellect and separates, quite distinctly and with an organic temperament, the differences between intimacy, sexuality and love. The story is based on the article ‘On Seeking a […]

(This review was originally published on July 25, 2012 at Reel Film News) I was unaware before seeing “Ruby Sparks” that co-stars Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan are a real-life item. That explains a lot though; underneath some genuinely fine acting exists an undeniable chemistry between the two. I’m not talking about the traits of […]

(This review was originally published on November 18, 2011 at The Rogers Revue) Alexander Payne has an affinity for bringing complex literary characters to life in situations of conflict, compromise and absurdity. This was best exemplified in 2004′s “Sideways”, a snarky little gem that effectively walked the line between comedy and tragedy.  His first film in […]

(This review was originally published on October 28, 2011 at The Rogers Revue) “Martha Marcy May Marlene” begins as a quiet, unsettling psychological thriller that plants a seed of apprehension within its eerie first minutes and patiently grows into something considerably more terrifying. We see a young woman emerge from a cabin with a backpack, seemingly in […]