The ghostwriter encounters all manner of trouble, including the chance to sleep with a beautiful, vulnerable, angry woman. “Bad idea,” he tells himself in his bathroom mirror. And you, who’ve seen Chinatown, can only mutter, “No kidding.” Read more>>

In case your travel agent hasn’t warned you, don’t plan to visit Ogden Marsh, Iowa, pop. 1,260. Not if you want to come back. Not if you happen to drink the water. Read more

The lawmen facing off with guns incarnate the film’s broader dilemma pretty much exactly: who is crazy here, those who have been made irresponsible by disease or those who won’t take responsibility for the devastation they wreak? Read more>>

Well, at least you can’t accuse them of deceptive advertising: this stereotypical, interracial/buddy action comedy is, indeed, a cop out – in every sense of the word. Read more

Burning women, bloody women, women waifish and sensual, emaciated and menacing. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is haunted by all of them in “Shutter Island.” Read more>>

This disappointing romantic comedy bonbon seems more geared to celebrity-spotting than cinematic storytelling, as it interweaves the lives of several Los Angelinos during the course of one fateful February 14th. Read more

One of the greatest horror classics was “The Wolf Man” (1941), in which Lon Chaney Jr. (son of the silent film icon Lon Chaney) played a hulking, mythological creature known as the lycanthrope or werewolf. So it’s understandable why actor/producer Benicio del Toro (“Traffic,” “Che”) was eager to pay homage in a gothic remake. Read more

We’re barely into February, so there are a lot of 2010 documentaries yet to be released. But I know already that October Country is going to make my top ten list. This haunting first feature collaboration between filmmaker Michael Palmieri and photographer Donal Mosher is magnificent. Read more>>

Revelations about the US government’s realms of secrecy and deceit thirty years ago during the Vietnam War are relevant to considerations of how our current government is behaving with regard to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.Read more>>

D13 Ultimatum is not subtle. It is, instead, boisterous and noisy and in its way, joyous, its political backdrop merely an occasion for more parkour. Read more>>