If you enjoy being smothered to death with a pillow, then Traitor is the movie for you. Ostensibly a thriller about an American Muslim who has gone deep undercover into an Islamic terrorist cell, it turns into a case study for the failure of good intentions.
 
The film follows Samir (Don Cheadle), a vagabond […]

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Man On Wire is the exhilarating re-telling of Philippe Petit’s high-wire walk between the two towers of the newly constructed World Trade Center in 1974. Carefully constructed from interviews, archive footage, and Errol Morris worthy re-creations, director James Marsh weaves a dazzling narrative that inspires awe, amazement, and wonder.
Frenchman Philippe Petit is a hyperactive Frenchman […]

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By Aaron Shay
Today is that day, gentle reader.  Today is the day I write of my cinematic disappointment.
Stoner films have a proud history, though not a credited or cultured one.  Cheech and Chong are the collective Orson Welles of marijuana films, giving one an idea of the quality stoner films aspire […]

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Never Go Full-Retard: A Review of Tropic Thunder
By Aaron J. Shay
My history with Ben Stiller is as follows:

Being exposed repeatedly to “Keeping the Faith” at Jewish Sunday school when they didn’t have anything for us to learn.  Decent movie, at least for the first […]

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When it comes to the movies, is there such a thing as too big? With the inflation of expectations and ticket prices, audiences are demanding more from their movies than ever before. We want spectacle and quality; we want to be dazzled by the fantastic and touched with real emotion; we want movies to make […]

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It’s rare when a second film in any given franchise is superior to the original.

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The New Yorker’s back-up film critic has just published a surprising review of Hancock that is an unqualified rave.
If critics were cars, Denby would be a Ford Taurus. His writing is clear and logical, and almost as exciting as a tan-colored, four-door sedan. He not only lacks the flamboyance and savage wit of Anthony Lane, […]

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Wanted.
What did I want from it?
It’s easier to ask what I expected from it. Let’s go down the list. One, Angelina Jolie showing off her finely-toned posterior: check. Two, the most heavily enhanced CGI gunfights since… Shoot ‘Em Up, I suppose. Double check on that one. Three: heavy-handed social commentary. […]

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