Film Reviews

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year is a once-over-lightly evocation of a slate of classic films unmatched before or since. In a year permitting 10 Best Picture nominees, the final cut included Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Dark Victory, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, Love Affair. Shut out: The Roaring '20s, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Intermezzo, Destry Rides Again, Idiot's Delight, Young Mr. Lincoln, Gunga Din. This hour-long film finds room to acknowledge a few of these non-starters, but its brevity means a lot gets left out. This includes the absence of anything that doesn't celebrate the studio system, including the practices of the shrewd tyrants who ran them, seen in brief archival footage.

A portrait of five St. Petersburgians and their connection to The Hermitage.

In the city of Santiago, four characters struggle to reach their goals: a psychologist who wants to help other women and save their lives, a hairdresser who wants to buy a car, a musician who wants to play in a philharmonic orchestra, and a young woman who simply survives in the city, but each of them obtains something unexpected and different from what they wanted.

A vivacious actress needing work becomes a housekeeper for a crusty retired politician, and gives his life the shaking-up that it needs.

A slacker hatches a million-dollar idea. But, in order to see it through, he has to learn to trust his attractive corporate counterpart. Based on Max Barry's novel.

Young writer Sam has a crush on Birdie, the cute and quirky barista at his local coffee shop. When his conventional attempts to woo her crash and burn, he takes his efforts online, creating an Internet profile embellished with all of the details that would make him Birdie’s dream guy. When the harebrained scheme is a surprise success and Birdie falls for his exaggerated alter ego, Sam must keep up the act or lose his dream girl forever.

An artist and an environmentalist go through an up and down relationship over the years. They get married in an early fling, she gets pregnant as they celebrate their divorce together, they deal with his nude artwork and her tempermental situation as they learn about her strict upbringing and her fear of commitment based on her father's unflinching attitudes.

Alejandro is an elderly writer, and is driving back to the small costal village where he was born and raised...

Mason is a man down on his luck with nothing to lose when he's approached to lead a group of wealthy hunters on an expedition in the Pacific Northwest. But things get really twisted when Mason discovers the group isn't after wild animals -- they're after him.

The teenager Christina, her younger brother Bobby, and their father James Tarling moves to a rented house in a small town in Washington to be close to Christina's mother Joanne, who is interned in an asylum. The house is being repaired by Howie Rhodes and Christina has a boy friend, the bad boy Eddy Duncan. While in the house, Christina hears noises and has a permanent feeling that another person lives there, but her father believes it is the structure being settled. When two teenagers vanishes, the weird sheriff Mark Sklar visits the Tarling family, since the last place the teenagers were seen alive was nearby their home. When a dead body is found in a river close to the house, the sheriff investigates the place, trying to find the guilty for the crime

Comedian John Mulaney recently released his debut one-hour Comedy Central stand-up special, New In Town, on DVD. New In Town was filmed over the course of two nights at the Skirball Theater in New York City.New In Town definitely brings the funny. Mulaney has a knack for self-deprecating humor, while sharing stories from throughout his life. He speaks of being bullied as a kid, tells an amazing tale about a high school party thrown by his teacher's son and why it's one of the reasons he doesn't drink anymore, and talks about how adults find joy in doing nothing

An epic love story centered around an older man who reads aloud to a woman with Alzheimer's. From a faded notebook, the old man's words bring to life the story about a couple who is separated by World War II, and is then passionately reunited, seven years later, after they have taken different paths.

With World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Russian Civil War as backdrop, it's an old-fashioned, blood-and-guts narrative, filled with earthly humor and a wealth of colorful characters. The story concerns the fluctuating fortunes of Grigory Melekhov, a young Cossack who is both a hero and a victim of the uprising.

A boy who lives at a country club where his father works decides to make some extra money by selling composted horse manure as fertilizer, and has his three sisters (two of which are older) join him in the enterprise. As their sales increase, they draw increased scrutiny from the IRS and state tax board, as well as the large scale competitor who seeks to put them out of business at any cost.

A young woman makes a surprising discovery about the husband of her late best friend.