Any review of Mchael Haneke’s “Amour” should start by noting what a moving story it tells. Did I cry during “Amour”? Two-ply tissues. “Amour” gives a gentle but chilling view into the final months of a woman’s life, and the frustration of a husband who must care for his loved one as she slowly passes away. However I approach “Amour” with two minds. As a touching depiction of life struggling toward an end, “Amour” is a beautifully

“Cloud Atlas,” the latest effort from the Wachowskis, wraps a half-dozen stories, settings, and groups of characters into one film. But it doesn’t matter how many stories they do, their song remains the same. The “Matrix” helmers have hit the same point for a while now. Liberty is the freedom from illusions that are perpetrated by relationships of power. Bravery is the willingness to fight these illusions, and fighting these illusions takes the coll-

Whatever happened to misbegotten youth? Don’t you long for the old days, when young misfits were French, ran everywhere and stole things? What happened to the old days, when a good American movie character could look forward to a life of crime on screen? Nowadays they take medication. And moan about not being popular. And make mix tapes and try to get people to feel sorry for them. Has American youth taken a turn for the

To properly discuss David Cronenberg’s “Cosmopolis,” we need to discuss something that film reviews rarely touch: the relationship between film and literature, in a general and historical sense. The challenge that cinema placed upon the primacy of literature in the last century has resulted in marketplace rivalry. Like any good products, the two began to differentiate. Film became the reserve of action, plot, emo-

We’ve been struck by an invasion of Zoes. Of owl-eyed ingénues with perky, quirky, life-embracing formulas for living. Whose sole purpose is to brighten the lives of pasty young men who could use sunshine in both body and soul. The Zoe in question in "Ruby Sparks" is Zoe Kazan, not only the star, but the writer of the script. In a strange round of metafictional Twister, she has written a story about a writer who writes a novel

If “Inception“ found Christopher Nolan debating whether to surrender, Tarkovsky-like, the real world for the deepest levels of imagination, “The Dark Knight” Rises finds him already having taken the plunge. Where would you rather be as a musclebound cross between Darth Vader and Lord Humongous, Warrior of the Wasteland sinks Gotham into a nuclear-tipped French Revolution? When peasant kangaroo courts manned by maniacs

Rock of Ages, this week’s hair metal spandex singalong, asks a basic question: what’s the point of a musical? More specifically, it asks a pair of underlying questions about musicals: is enjoyment a worthy artistic goal? Is sentimental simplification acceptable in the name of fantasy and fun? On one level Rock of Ages does to the metal years of the late eighties no more or less than what Singin' in the Rain did to the twenties or Grease to the

Wes Anderson’s "Moonrise Kingdom" is not only a story of the power of first love but also the way that children create the mythology of adulthood through the fabric of stories. The world approaches us first wrapped as tales, and we handle its mysteries with imagination. The largest part of reality, even as we age, remains a contradictory act of abstraction. This has been a quietly placed theme in the films of Terrence Malick, including

Could there be a better week for Sacha Baron Cohen to release a film called “The Dictator”? A few days ago, Cohen parked a camel in Cannes, in what seemed like the first act of a cult of personality. Pairing a touch of showmanship, a frisky film, and the spotlight of the festival, the star of “Borat” all but declared himself the worldwide ruler of comedy. Like many public rituals under totalitarians, “The Dictator” is long on stagecraft but a little

When Nicholas Stoller and Jason Segel introduced Forgetting Sarah Marshall in 2008, it represented the low point for the Apatow factory, during the phase when it produced any old comedy premise that could fit on the back of a bank receipt. The filmmakers probably didn’t go in thinking, “We’re going to make a stalker fantasy laughfest,” but that’s what came out the other side. That’s why it’s so encouraging to see the same group produce The