This is it, kids. Absolutely, positively the end of the Harry Potter series. I feel good about that, knowing I will never have to sit through another installment. The franchise that started 10 years ago and seems more like 10 lifetimes ago has at last written an ultimate “The End.” I’ve outgrown Lilliputian witches and Read More
Monday: The Bachelorette
We justify watching this show by pretending to be engaged in a sociological experiment: Why is it just so much more weird and squirmy when it’s the woman who has to choose from a bunch of dudes as opposed to some blockhead picking among a gaggle of silicone? We haven’t figured Read More
Like the rest of you, we’ll be watching The Watchmen next weekend, though, truth be told, the whole experience is starting to feel a bit like homework.
The early reviews have been split down the middle, with the fanboys drooling (spoiler alert: Harry Knowles loved it!) and the real critics meeting the film Read More
The Reader
Running time 123 minutes
Written by David Hare
Directed by Stephen Daldry
Starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Lena Olin, Bruno Ganz, David Kross
Stephen Daldry’s The Reader, from a screenplay by David Hare, based on the semi-autobiographical novel The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink, has lost much of the emotional power of the Read More
The Reader
Running time 123 minutes
Written by David Hare
Directed by Stephen Daldry
Starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Lena Olin, Bruno Ganz, David Kross
The turkey’s in the soup, the retailers are praying for a Merry Christmas, and the year-end movie countdown is in full swing. I’ve still got a Read More
The Duchess
110 MINUTES
WRITTEN BY Jeffrey Hatcher and Anders Thomas Jensen
DIRECTED BY Saul Dibb
STARRING Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Charlotte Rampling, Hayley Atwell, Dominic Cooper
In true and dubious movie fashion, The Duchess transforms a serious, carefully researched biography of historical significance by best-selling British writer Read More
IN BRUGES
Running Time 107 minutes
Written and Directed by Martin McDonagh
Starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes
Noted playwright Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges, from his own screenplay, is set and literally immersed in the well-preserved medieval Belgian city described as the “Venice of the North,” a title once Read More
IN BRUGES
Running Time 91 minute
Written by Martin McDonagh
Directed by Martin McDonagh
Starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes
You know the movie business is in trouble when producers hire theatrical playwrights who know nothing about movies to write original screenplays and then pay them extra to Read More
Ralph’s Director Responds
To the Editor:
What was the purpose of Sara Vilkomerson’s piece on Ralph Fiennes [“After His Tony Loss, How Fiennes Is Ralph?”, June 19, 2006], devoted largely to a prurient rehashing of gossip about his personal life? When Ms. Vilkomerson did bother to discuss his work, she chose to focus Read More
Either I’m getting soft in the heart or I’m getting long in the tooth. Probably both. Anyway, I’m getting used to Keanu Reeves. He can’t act, but his blank-blackboard expressions and his narcoleptic demeanor while mumbling lines in his sleep have become as so-what routine as Madonna’s push-ahead self-promotion. And speaking of routine, his shared Read More
