Reviewed at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival

Morgan Spurlock has always been an entertainer first and a documentarian second, taking special care to make his films primarily accessible and funny, and then worrying about educating or informing. That's his prerogative, and God knows we've got enough serious-minded nonfiction filmmakers carefully laying out theses statements and supporting arguments and putting everybody to sleep. But as he's getting more ubiquitous and more prolific (this is his third feature in the past year or so, in addition to his A Day in the Life series for Hulu), it's a quality that is getting further out of his control. Mansome, his latest effort, is his funniest film to date. ...Read the entire review

So many films overstay their welcome, it's rare to come across a movie that should, legitimately, be about twice as long as it is. Such is the case with Great Directors, but that's not entirely a compliment; director Angela Ismailos profiles ten of our greatest living directors in about 89 minutes, so you do the math. With those kind of time restraints, some folks are bound to get short shrift--Richard Linklater is barely glimpsed until well past the halfway mark; John Sayles disappears so early that by the time he was included in a film-ending montage, I'd forgotten he was even one of the subjects. Add in Ismailos, a filmmaker who clearly enjoys being on-screen herself, and you begin to get a pretty clear summary of the picture's problems.

This is not to say that ...Read the entire review

Harry hasn't heard from Kelley in something like thirty years, and when he does, the guy's literally calling from his deathbed. "Do you remember the night we almost killed Kagan?" he asks. Harry does. "I'm going to hell for it," Kelly tells him. Harry's pretty sure he is too. But Kelley's guilt and fear gets Harry thinking, and he decides maybe it's time to deal with what happened that night, all those many years ago.

It's an intriguing set-up--the return of sins from the past is a venerable construct. Bette Gordon's Handsome Harry takes that notion into some fairly familiar areas, but does so in a skillful manner. The script is problematic, to be sure, but the sturdy performers (Gordon has assembled some of the best character actors in the business) and the sure-handed direction manage to ride those bumps out with grace.

Harry (Jamey Sheridan) is divorcee, living in upstate New...Read the entire review

Back in 2003, not enough people saw a wonderful, heartfelt drama called Moonlight Mile, in which Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon played grieving parents who develop a relationship with the lover (Jake Gyllenhaal) of their deceased child. It didn't make much money, but a few critics liked it, and apparently Sarandon did too, because now she's gone and done a gender-swap remake. Shana Feste's The Greatest doesn't match the quiet elegance or emotional impact of the earlier picture, but it has its moments--mainly thanks to the fine performances at its core.

It starts with a wallop, giving us a shock open in which Bennett Brewer (Aaron Johnson) and his girlfriend Rose (Carey Mulligan)'s lovey-dovey dialogue is interrupted by a freak car accident that kills Bennett. His family--father Allen (Pierce Br...Read the entire review