I did not want to see “21 Jump Street.” The screening was at the end of a long day in the middle of an even longer week, but I had to see it because I was going to be inte...

In “Shakespeare in Love,” Judi Dench needed only eight minutes of screen time to create a nuanced, powerful character and give a performance that would win her an Oscar. S...

“Undefeated,” which won the Oscar for best documentary last Sunday and opens locally Friday, is the kind of documentary I recommend to people who don’t particularly like...

The danger in predicting anything, especially horse races and awards shows, is balancing what you want to happen with what you think will happen. This year’s Oscar race seem...

So the Oscars are Sunday, which means I will again wonder why I get paid to write about movies when I am truly terrible at predicting the winners. But I do love the Academy Aw...

Reese Witherspoon, why do you do this to me? I do not understand. I mean, I get that you have a mortgage and some kids, and that everyone likes money, but you seem to have for...

In “W.E,” out Friday, two story lines compete to see which can be more boring. Remarkably, they both win! The dual tales are those of Wallis Simpson (Andrea Riseborough, w...

I did not walk out of the press screening of “The Woman in Black,” opening Friday, because it was too scary (even though I don’t like scary movies). I left because its s...

When the Oscar nominations were announced this week, the most controversial was the inclusion of “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” among the nine movies up for Best ...

“Red Tails,” out Friday, proves what writing can do. It can take a great story — in this case, the Tuskegee Airmen’s — and turn it into a horrible script. The first ...

I certainly hope I appear cool when I interview celebrities. Because, trust me, I am not. This week I got a few hours’ notice that I would be interviewing Angelina Jolie. In...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Viola Davis will take home the Best Actress Oscar for her work in “The Help.” Though I had my problems with the movie, I have n...

I came down hard on 3-D in a previous column. I wrote about how this unnecessary gimmick gave me headaches and made me motion sick. I confessed that I always forgot to return ...

There’s no science to favoritism. At least not one I’m familiar with. So I can’t justify my list of favorite films of 2011 with any sort of methodology. These are simply...

It’s easier to convince people you’re smart if you don’t like stuff. If you like something and recommend it to people and they don’t like it, they wonder about your in...