reviews

Now, this is what history should be, full of passion and intrigue and drama! Lush in every possible way — visually, emotionally, even musically — this British TV production, which aired on PBS’s Masterpiece Theater in the U.S., is an absolutely riveting retelling of the reign of the most famous daughter of Henry VIII. Anne-Marie … more…

Aptly named. Like Ben Stein’s deadpan homeroom roll call — “Bueller? Bueller?” — signifying the original slacker’s absence from school, Matthew Broderick (The Producers) is strikingly absent from this new edition of his defining movie. Oh, sure, there are a bunch of new extras that were not on the original DVD release — behind-the-scenes footage … more…

There’s supposed to be an enticingly seedy quality to everything happening in this “high-tech” thriller, but don’t be fooled: it’s nothing but the artistic pretensions of writer-director Michael Almereyda at play, and they’re really goofy. A teenage girl’s (Liane Balaban: World Traveler) search for her missing sister leads her to David Arquette’s (It’s a Very … more…

Naughty and nice, this TV documentary is little more than an excuse to have the lovely Kim Cattrall (Ice Princess) chat coquettishly to the camera about all things sexual. But there’s a lively playfulness to this exploration of desire and attraction that ensures it’s never lurid, always charming. Explorations of the depiction of phalluses in … more…

Perhaps if this Sundance Film Festival selection weren’t so intent on establishing its indie bona fides, it could relax enough to be truly engaging. But the self-conscious quirkiness of both the script — by David L. Paterson, based on his play Finger Painting in a Murphy Bed — and the direction, by Adrienne Weiss, puts … more…

Sure, Robert Louis Stevenson’s unforgettable tale of David Balfour’s adventurous coming of age takes place at a specific — and much storied — time and place, but this sublime, riveting 2005 British TV adaptation brings to the screen a grand sense of timelessness that makes the novel such an enduring classic. The high seas of … more…

This made-for-TV update of the classic Broadway show may be the original fractured fairy tale: The Princess and the Pea gets a kooky, musical, feminist spin that is just as fun and fresh today as it must have been when it made its Broadway debut in 1959. Comic queen Carol Burnett reigns as the royal … more…

Burt Munro’s Big Adventure So, this is like Chariots of Fire, right, but set on the subcontinent, and one guy’s a Hindu and his rival is a Muslim? No? Oh, then this is surely about that one Apache warrior who went over to the other side to become a legendary Western Union telegram delivery guy … more…