Putting a Still-Vexed Play in a Historical Context By A. O. SCOTT
Shakespeare's most problematic play — at least with respect to modern sensitivities — receives an intelligent interpretation from Michael Radford and a superb cast.
Back With a Vengeance: The Music of the Night By A. O. SCOTT
The screen version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical lacks both authentic romance and the thrill of memorable spectacle.
When Talk Is Sexier Than a Clichéd Clinch By A. O. SCOTT
In spite of the teasing promise of its title, Mike Nichols's deft drama does everything it can to push you away.
The actor's letters offer unvarnished assessments of his colleagues' abilities. And those were the people he liked.
That "Hairspray" is good-hearted is no surprise. The surprise may be that this "Hairspray," stuffed with shiny showstoppers, is actually good.
Geoffrey Wright's brutal and thrilling new version of "Macbeth" envisions the thane of Cawdor as a longhaired, drug-addled gangster.
An itty-bitty movie with a great big heart, "Colma: The Musical" is about how we learn to give voice - joyfully, honestly, loudly - to the truest parts of ourselves.
At first, second and final glance, Susan Minot's "Evening" doesn't seem as if it would translate easily to the big screen. It hasn't.
With "Bug," William Friedkin continues to be more fascinated by the evil inside our heads than the boogeyman outside.
The documentary "ShowBusiness" makes one marvel at the stamina of artists who devote themselves to a world of many miseries and few rewards.
Audiences who go to "Dreamgirls" will have a good time, but they'll be going for old time's sake rather than to encounter anything vital or new.
"The Architect," written and directed by Matt Tauber from a play by the Scottish writer David Greig, feels like a creaky, tone-deaf classroom exercise in mechanical contrivance.
The current of intellectual energy snapping through the ferociously engaging screen adaptation of Alan Bennett´s Tony Award-winning play feels like electrical brain stimulation.
Even better is Martin Short, who snaps the otherwise dead proceedings (the director is Michael Lembeck) to life as the villainous Jack Frost. Mr. Short is the kind of Christmas ham everyone …
As informative as it is, this documentary portrait of the playwright Tony Kushner doesn't have time to do more than scratch the surface of its fascinating subject.
"The Wicker Man" is a comically inept as a horror movie, unable to even manage an effective false scare, or sustain suspense for more than a beat or two.
In an interview this summer, Mr. Barber expressed a long-held desire to direct what he called a "1930's musical"; he might have done well to actually watch a couple before he started shootin…
In this screen adaptation of David Mamet's play, William H. Macy is perfectly cast as a prim Manhattan businessman who heeds his inner demons and plummets into free fall.
This sketchy documentary portrait of a summer camp for teenagers with Broadway stars in their eyes remains a cool distance from its subject.
Who said mainstream Hollywood has a monopoly on dumb, gross-out farces? The gay, independent comedy "Adam & Steve" is as crude and nonsensical as any number of B-list studio equivalents.
The gripping courtroom drama "Find Me Guilty," Sidney Lumet's first feature film in seven years, catches him near the top of his game.
Uma Thurman as a would-be actress is the one bit of genuine radiance in this aggressively and pointlessly shiny, noisy spectacle.