The discordant assembly of images in "Shutter Island" are haunting and distressing. At first sight you believe that the film will take place entirely on an island that lodges the criminally insane, circa 1954....(more)

The road, one must assume, has got to be a great and exciting place for a musician. But when you’re 57 and travelling on the road, and alone… well it is just that....(more)

The reason why "The Lovely Bones" as a film connects emotionally with you is because of actress Saoirse Ronan as young teen Susie Salmon. And this occurs in a film studded with other well-known actors such as Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci who himself does his first non-clichéd performance in at least a decade ....(more)

"Up in the Air" is another winner for George Clooney, the consummate movie star who brings his usual top-flight brand of intelligence to every project he chooses. Clooney stars as Ryan Bingham, a downsizing specialist that corporations hire to conduct clean, preventive-retaliation layoffs....(more)

"Brothers" strains for an accessible way to teach the audience something about PTSD, that disorder that plagues soldiers coming home from Iraq. The main crux of the movie is a carefully positioned moral crisis....(more)

As a master of playing characters with a good and evil duality, Viggo Mortensen is the only actor in the world that could have played the father in “The Road.” Although the father isn’t exactly evil, he is a good man that has disposed his better virtues because he believes it is better for his son’s and his own chances for survival....(more)

Hard to recommend a movie where the protagonist is damned in hopelessness, but there must be reason to justify "Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire." Simply put, it is one of the great artistic achievements of the year....(more)

Following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Nicolas Cage’s Terence McDonagh goes into a serious tailspin of drug abuse, not to mention corruption, in "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans." His most intimate relationship is with Eva Mendes as Frankie, a prostitute who still has her looks even though she snorts along with Terence....(more)