“I was 100 percent driven by emotion,” director Amy Berg says of her new documentary, “West of Memphis,” which opens Friday. “Art should be driven by emotion....

Friday brings “Hansel and Gretal: Witch Hunters,” in which Jeremy Renner fights witches and pays his mortgage. Though the film may not be anything like what the Brothers G...

I walked into Michael Haneke’s “Amour” expecting to walk out an emotional wreck. The film — which screened in D.C. last week and, probably thanks to its Oscar nominati...

In “Mama,” opening Friday, a couple has to raise young nieces who had been living alone in a forest for five years. There are benefits to fresh air, but more often in movi...

Whenever rapper-actor Common speaks to children and teens, whether he’s greeting fans or at an official event, the pressure is on. “I feel like, ‘Let me say something th...

The Academy Award nominations were announced Thursday, meaning we can now all pretend we’re not in the middle of this horrible, desolate, bad-movie wasteland by talking abou...

“A Haunted House,” the latest parody in the vein of “Scary Movie,” opens Friday. We haven’t seen it (it opened cold), but we suspect it’s about a haunted house —...

Most major-studio movies that come out in January are, well, not great. After the year-end Oscar push, January is when studios release films that wouldn’t do well against co...

If you start a band in a movie, the following things will happen: You’ll have to replace someone early on. You’ll practice cover songs in someone’s parents’ basement o...

The first time Steven Van Zandt worked with “Sopranos” creator David Chase, it was on the HBO drama, where he played Silvio Dante, consigliere — top adviser and counsel ...

Judging from the movies, New Jersey is just New York City’s backyard, where the alluring skyline of the Big Apple is visible from every window. That longing to leave the Gar...

  I bet you weren’t expecting the best moment of your life. Bet your worst caught you off guard, too. Life’s surprises are what the extraordinary “Rust and Bone” ...

Christmas is a time when families come together and remember why they don’t come together very often. Multigenerational tensions abound in “Parental Guidance,” out Tuesd...

German actress Nina Hoss seems to specialize in playing resilient women in harsh situations. In “Barbara,” opening Friday, she’s the title character, an East German doc...

“The Hobbit” has some flaws. There are a lot of flashbacks, some of which serve no real purpose, and there is a lot of silent glowering, all of which serves no real purpos...