The Hustler The Hustler has always stood out as not just a great movie about the con game, but as a great movie, period. Paul Newman’s study of a pool hustler who goes through the highest highs and the lowest lows is so dazzling that an hour will go by before you look at the […]
Zus & Zo It’s cute and quaint, a Hannah and Her Sisters done up Euro-style, which invariably means these days that someone is gay. Sure enough, our gay fella is getting married, and his three sisters will stop at nothing to end the travesty because an inheritance is at stake. Regardless, it’s not terribly clear
Zero Focus The year is 1961, and in a wintry Tokyo train station, a young newlywed named Teiko bids farewell to her handsome new husband, Kenichi. Kenichi is concluding some business in the northern city of Kanazawa, promising a return on December 12, at which point the couple will begin their new life together. But,
Zentropa Lars von Trier has never been known for making movies that are on the nose. In general, you’re left to your own devices when it comes to figuring out what the hell is going on in The Kingdom or The Element of Crime. Zentropa is no exception, an inspired but devilishly confusing look at
Z When one thinks of political assassinations, a couple of guys driving by a raconteur standing amidst a crowd then hitting him over the head with a pipe before driving away doesn’t exactly leap to mind. And yet Costa-Gravas had the presence of mind to turn the tepid story of thinly-veiled police corruption in 1963
Young Sherlock Holmes Want to see the origins of the Harry Potter movies? Check out Barry Levinson’s enchanting Young Sherlock Holmes, believe it or not. Written by Chris Columbus (who’d later go on to direct the first two Potters), our titular hero (Nicholas Rowe) displays incredible intelligence and wit as he muddles his way through
El Mariachi After its release, Austin-bred Director Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi is still the subject of Texas-sized legend. People who have never seen the film still know about the circumstances of its production. They know about the borrowed camera. They’ve heard rumors about the director raising money by guinea-pigging himself out for bizarre medical experiments.
Election Talk about redemption. After starring in some of favorite movies ever, Matthew Broderick had to go and make Godzilla. Election proves that once again he should stick with comedy, with this little gem easily ranking as one of the top comedies in recent memory, and the best thing to ever come out of MTV’s
The Element of Crime Before he decided camera trickery was actually a bad thing (in re his Dogme 95 movement), Lars von Trier couldn’t get enough of it as is evident in his first English language feature, The Element of Crime. A twisted tale of a cop who undergoes a hypnotic treatment in order to
Elephant Gus Van Sant has made an eclectic career out of portraying vastly different avenues that adolescents use to focus the anxieties they grapple with. From the strangely compelling My Own Private Idaho to the more mainstream Good Will Hunting, he remains consciously aware of the often erratic motives of youth while creating an effective
