First Position An inspirational and first-rate documentary about young aspiring dancers, director Bess Kargman’s First Position chronicles a handful of incredible hopefuls at the Youth America Grand Prix—a ballet competition that narrows 5,000 semi-finalists to 300 finalists and awards scholarships and medals to only a few dozen dancers ages 9-19. Continue reading »
A Little Bit of Heaven While the concept sounds hellish—Marley (Kate Hudson), who is dying from colon cancer, finds love with her Jewish Mexican doctor (Gael Garcia Bernal) and makes peace with her family and friends—A Little Bit of Heaven is a pleasant, little, life affirming romantic comedy-drama. Sure, the Continue reading »
Free Men In the engaging WWII drama Free Men, director/co-writer Ismaël Ferroukhi reveals how the Paris mosque, founded and run by Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit (Michael Lonsdale), served as a hiding place for Jews. Ferrouskhi used this true story—and the case of Salim Halali (Mahmud Shalaby), a Jewish singer—to create Continue reading »
A funny-scary funhouse ride in which the audience is sometimes in on the joke, Cabin in the Woods delivers for fans of the horror genre. This mind-bending exercise takes classic horror film elements—zombies, horny teenagers, a dark basement, and magic spells—and turns them inside out and upside down. It’s unfair Continue reading »
American Reunion Everything old is new again in this American Pie sequel that is both sweetly nostalgic and sticky from bodily fluids. The entire original cast (including several minor supporting players) return in this amusing entry that opens with Jim (Jason Biggs) sustaining yet another penile injury while pleasuring himself. Continue reading »
When “fist-smart” hockey fan Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott) bashes a penalized minor league player in the stands, he is offered a tryout for the local team in Goon. Suddenly, this aimless bruiser—hired to fight, not play hockey—finds his calling, helps his team, and even wins some games. The joke Continue reading »
AP: What was the, um, genesis of the film? GENESIS: It was Lady Jaye’s idea, really. The process of becoming each other was an instinct from the beginning [1993]. Luckily, we both wore size 7 1/2 women’s shoes. In 2003, when we wanted to take it further with surgery, we Continue reading »
