Life among poorly educated Dominicans in the Washington Heights section of New York City is depicted in the independent film Manito, directed by Eric Eason. The film begins and ends at dawn on a subway platform. The humor provided from time to time in the movie is overwhelmed by the tragic circumstances of the characters. Manuel […]

“Being Italian is living in denial” is the most quotable line of the silly Canadian film Mambo Italiano, directed by Émile Gaudreault. Two themes are mixed together. One is the experience of growing up Italian within a family, including father Gino (played by Paul Sorvino) and mother María (played by Ginette Reno), who migrated from Italy

Lucía, Lucía, directed by Antonio Serrano, is based on a novel by Rosa Montero, La Hija del Caníbal. The film begins at the México City airport, where Lucía (played by Cecilia Roth), an author of children’s books, and her spouse Ramón (played by José Elías Moreno), a Treasury Department official, are about to take a flight

A travelogue of Hollywood’s touristic points of interest (along with Beverly Hills, San Pedro, Santa Monica, and Venice) is a bonus in Hollywood Homicide, directed by Ron Shelton. We even get to see Hollywood’s Honorary Mayor Johnny Grant officiating at a ceremony in which Robert Wagner is about to put his handprints in a cement bloc

Holes, directed by Andrew Davis, is so named because young juvenile delinquent boys assigned to Camp Green Lake, Texas, are supposed to spend the day digging a hole as big as they are tall. (The actual film location is the Mojave Desert.) They are to report if they find anything to the authorities, notably the

When Gloomy Sunday (Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod) begins, a German enters a restaurant in Budapest with his wife of fifty years, orders rouladen, admires a photograph of a woman on display, and dies when a certain song is played. Why does he go to that restaurant? Who is the woman? Why does he die when

The Hero: Love Story of a Spy, directed by Anil Sharma, takes nearly three hours to explain why Arun Khanna (played by Sunny Deol) receives an award in Toronto at the beginning of the film. The film then goes back to the time when, as an intelligence officer in the Indian army, he is posted

The success of La cage aux folles (1978) preoccupies some of those who make gay-oriented films. A second recurring theme involves parents visiting their grown-up children who have yet not disclosed that they are gay. Friends and Family, directed by Kristen Coury, falls into both traps, with some twists, but at least has enough clever lines to redeem

The Fog of War, directed by Errol Morris, is subtitled Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. The documentary raises important questions, provides information that will be new to many filmviewers, and the answers are extremely troubling. Propaganda documentaries present a single side of an issue and thus often fail to persuade. Former Defense

Exactly how did the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado, occur, leaving 13 dead and 23 wounded? The film Elephant, directed by openly gay Gus Van Sant, attempts to recreate something similar to that unhappy day by depicting the various victims at a suburban high school, who just happened to be in the wrong