The story of the first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk is also the story of one man making a difference and living his conviction of equality out loud. Sean Penn as Harvey Milk is completely believable as we follow this charismatic, remarkable man from early political ambitions to San Francisco's City Hall. Director Gus Van Sant and writer Dustin Lance Black work with an even, sure hand while not demonizing, moralizing or going...
From Lawrence of Arabia to the Godfather saga, from Gone with the Wind to The Right Stuff, epic movies can make the big screen experience well worth our time and money. In Baz Luhrmann's story of Australia circa 1939, we meet a visiting English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) determined to keep her land outside of Darwin. She enlists help from a rough and tumble cattle driver (Hugh Jackman.) Together they fight local political...
2006's Casino Royale jump-started the James Bond franchise back into relevance, excitement and fun. Almost everyone agreed that Daniel Craig is the best Bond this side of Connery. He still is. It's this movie that is a disappointment. We start with a thrilling car chase through the mountains of Northern Italy, but this is one of the film's few highlights. Director Marc Forster (Monster's Ball, Finding...
They are calling this multi-layered tale of a young Indian orphan's rise to fame and riches a "Dickensian epic for the 21st century." It's certainly as harsh and sad as anything Dickens wrote. Raised in the worst poverty and fear imaginable in the slums of Mumbai, Jamal (Dev Patel) is just one question away from winning staggering riches on the popular national TV show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" The police do...
From The Diary of Anne Frank to Schindler's List, movies have long been able to put a human face on the horrific tragedy of the Holocaust. This time we are taken to a normal world of a lovely neighborhood in Berlin..children playing, families gathered..until we catch a glimpse of swaztikas and brownshirts. Happy 8-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield) is suddenly taken from all he knows to live in the country while his Nazi Officer father (David...
