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Goodbye Toronto

Goodbye Toronto


A few days have passed since the Toronto International Film Festival ended, giving us a chance to reflect on the highlights of our trip there...
By Peter Keough  |  September 18, 2011
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Review: The Debt

Based on the 2007 Israeli film Ha-Hov, the story weaves present and past together, with most of the action surrounding the fateful mission and the perilous web of duty, passion, and betrayal that still haunts the agents.
John Madden's smart, icy thriller
By PEG ALOI  |  September 02, 2011
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Review: Brighton Rock

For Graham Greene, the Catholic Church served more as a scourge than a comfort, but in Rowan Joffe's dreary, incoherent adaptation of Greene's 1939 novel, it merely offers an excuse to add choirs to the soundtrack.
Rowan Joffe's adaptation of Graham Greene's 1939 novel
By PETER KEOUGH  |  August 26, 2011
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Review: The Tempest

There are so many ways to stage The Tempest. Shakespeare's last and strangest play can be a meditation on aging, an exploration of S&M power dynamics, a critique of Western imperialism.
Taymor fails to cast a spell
By S.I. ROSENBAUM  |  December 17, 2010
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Review: Red (2010)

If the late Krzysztof Kieslowski's Red had been a comedy action thriller about retired CIA agents, it would probably be nothing like this adaptation of the DC graphic novel.
Grandfather claws: Willis and crew aren't the retiring types
By PETER KEOUGH  |  October 15, 2010
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Review: Love Ranch

A worthwhile tale might lurk somewhere in Taylor Hackford's latest, but this flaccid look at the early days of Reno's legalized bordello business takes a fictionalized approach to history rather than the more fact-based strategy that enriched Hackford'
"There's no business like ho business!"'
By BRETT MICHEL  |  July 02, 2010
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Review: The Last Station

Traversing the spectrum from farce to tragedy, Michael Hoffman's magnificent The Last Station suggests what the story of Count Leo Tolstoy's final days would look like if Chekhov had told it.
Lions in winter: a Tolstoyan feast
By STEVE VINEBERG  |  February 05, 2010
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Oscar predictions 2010

After years of shrinking audiences and low-grossing Best Picture nominees, the Academy this year is hedging its bets.
With 10 Best Picture noms, is Oscar up in the air? Our critic predicts.
By PETER KEOUGH  |  January 29, 2010
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Engine notes

The big question with Top Gear, the popular British consumer-car show (in perpetual reruns on BBC America), is this: will it succeed in denting my colossal lack of curiosity about cars?
Top Gear hits heavy traffic
By JAMES PARKER  |  May 08, 2009
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Marianne Faithfull | Easy Come Easy Go

The CD cover is deceptively retro Sinatra: here's Marianne encased in a lady's tux in front of a vintage microphone with "Easy" twice on the title and the subtitle "12 Songs for Music Lovers."
Decca (2009)
By GUSTAVO TURNER  |  March 23, 2009
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Review: Inkheart

How novel: a fantasy adventure for children that's not afraid of the dark while espousing the joys of the printed word, with nary a fart joke to be heard.
A nice diversion
By BRETT MICHEL  |  January 20, 2009
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National Treasure: Book of Secrets

In this follow-up to the 2004’s National Treasure , renowned relic hunter Benjamin Gage finds his family line linked to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Taut, but the pieces don't fit
By TOM MEEK  |  December 26, 2007
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America Blows

The United States of America is a nation with a proud history.
Since George W. Bush took office, the United States has sunk to unprecedented lows in sports and pop-culture domination
By MIKE MILIARD  |  June 29, 2007
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Hollywood Babel on

The Academy Awards is one of the few contests where the closeness of the race is in direct proportion to the lack of interest.
In a so-so Oscar field, the most pretentious wins
By PETER KEOUGH  |  February 22, 2007
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Royal pain

Every tragedy reaches a point where mourning turns to kitsch. Watch the trailer for The Queen (QuickTime)
Mirren and Frears save The Queen
By PETER KEOUGH  |  February 20, 2007

Babel rousers

It’s not often that I feel this way, but this year I’m kind of proud of my profession.
Oscar opts for liberal gilt
By PETER KEOUGH  |  January 17, 2007

Doom, gloom and zoom

Given the past year’s headlines, it can’t come as a surprise that some of the best films of 2006 had an edge of darkness to them.
A year in film
By PETER KEOUGH  |  January 16, 2007

Feel-bad cinema

This critic's been carping for decades about feel-good cinema, how lousy it makes me feel, and this year I got the misery I begged for.
Gerald Peary's year in movies
By GERALD PEARY  |  December 21, 2006

Crossword: 'Ribbed For Your Pleasure'


Solving pleasure, I meant
By MATT JONES  |  December 20, 2006
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Ask Spin Cycle

Here at the Global Worldwide Headquarters of “Spin Cycle,” up to several letters have poured in during the past few days seeking our sage advice on all things electoral.
Campaign advice for the vote-lorn
By JOHN CARROLL  |  October 25, 2006
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Off with their heads

The signs are getting bleak for the man in the White House and the party in power.
Recent polls are giving the GOP the willies. So should the movies.
By PETER KEOUGH  |  October 20, 2006

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