Can a man write an Ann Landers or Dear Abby column with sensitivity and panache? When the film Good Advice begins, stockbroker Ryan Turner (played by Charlie Sheen) provides stock tips to clients around the world, but the advice is so bad that his boss fires him. Subsequently, he is investigated for insider trading; although he is not indicted, he loses […]

    Thanks to a revision of the U.S. copyright law, novels of the Gilded Age become part of public domain fifty years after the death of the writer. Accordingly, a surge can be observed in cinemas today. The Golden Bowl, the latest contribution, is based on the 1904 novel of the same title by Henry

Glamour, directed and written by Frigyes Gödros, portrays three generations of a Hungarian Jewish family, so comparisons with last year’s Sunshine are inevitable. The film consists of episodes, often quite unpleasant and slow-moving, but the common thread is how the family survived the twentieth century. When the film begins, a family is at seder dinner, and the

Starting with a quotation from Thomas Wolfe that loneliness is the “inevitable fact of human existence,” the film God’s Lonely Man traces in a very tedious manner the life of Ernest Rackman (played by Michael Wyle), whose character resembles Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976). Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when blue laws once closed the town to the

The Girl, directed by Sande Zeig, is a film noir narrated by Laura (played by Agathe de la Boulaye), with more cinematography, music, lovemaking, and voiceovers than dialog. Laura is taking art lessons in Paris in the mornings. In the afternoons, she walks quietly along the Seine. In the evenings, she goes to a nightclub,

The premise for Evolution, directed by Ivan Reitman, is not new. An asteroid lands on earth, as witnessed by firefighter candidate Wayne Green (played by Seann William Scott). Two groovy scientists, biologist Ira Kane (played by David Duchovny) and geologist Harry Block (played by Orlando Jones), put a specimen in their lab at Glen Canyon Community

Driven, a story about competition car racing, is directed by Renny Harlin. Beau Brandenberg (played by Til Schweiger), the reigning champ, is challenged by a rookie, Jimmy Bly (played by Kip Pardue). The rivalry is both on and off the track, involving Lucretia Clan (played by Stacy Edwards). Carl Henry (played by Burt Reynolds) hires

The sexual age of consent in most states of the United States is eighteen. Sex with someone below the age of consent is considered statutory rape. What happens when a fifteen-year-old boy truly loves a man nearly twice his age? In Eban and Charley, writer-director James Bolton sensitively focuses on both sides of such a relationship.

In Romancing the Stone (1984), Michael Douglas plays the part of someone seeking a valuable gem while making love to a beautiful woman in a tropical setting. In Don’t Say a Word, Dr. Nathan Conrad (played by Michael Douglas) searches for a gem in New York City as the ransom to save the life of his daughter Jessie

The Deep End is a retake of the classic film The Reckless Moment (1949), starring James Mason and Joan Bennett; both are based on the novel The Blank Wall (1949) by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. But in The Deep End the mother is trying to protect her son, not her daughter. The title for the film The Deep End, directed by Scott McGehee and