http://www.boston.com/ae/movies en-us 2009-11-20T23:24:03Z http://www.boston.com/ http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/bcom_logo_140w.gif http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/new_moon_midnight_showings_earn_record_263_mil?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" has set a box-office record for midnight screenings. Summit Entertainment estimated Friday that it earned $26.3 million after opening early in the morning. 2009-11-20T19:36:00Z http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/21/on_demand_movie_picks?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news THE PRINCESS BRIDE (Encore on Comcast ) Rob Reiner’s loving pictorialization of William Goldman’s modern fairytale classic, a sort of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’’ meet the Grimm Brothers. Without the book’s 2000-Year-Old Man narrative voice, the film sometimes flattens out, but parents will relish taking their children to its wryly affectionate view of swashbuckling preposterousness. (PG; runs through ... 2009-11-20T17:24:24Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/21/movie_capsule_reviews?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news New releases ½ Black Dynamite In the spoof that bears his name, Black Dynamite (Michael Jai White) sports every outfit in the blaxploitation look book: leather, denim, Afro. The movie, meanwhile, strikes many of the genre’s poses. And for its first 50 minutes, it’s as intentionally funny as “Shaft in Africa’’ and “Dolomite’’ are accidental comedies. Tedium overtakes the movie ... 2009-11-20T17:18:51Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/banned_director_brings_romance_film_to_hong_kong?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news A prominent mainland Chinese director banned by Beijing from making movies brought his new gay romance film to Hong Kong on Friday for what is likely the last of a handful of screenings on his home soil. Min Lee, AP Entertainment Writer 2009-11-20T16:25:54Z http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/wesley_snipes_appeals_3_tax_convictions_in_georgia?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Wesley Snipes' attorneys asked a federal appeals court Friday to review an "unreasonable" three-year prison sentence for the film star, who was convicted a year ago on federal tax charges. Greg Bluestein, Associated Press Writer 2009-11-20T14:02:31Z http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/2012_a_home_run_with_patriotic_fans_in_china?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news When the apocalypse comes, China will save the world. Or at least that's how Chinese audiences are interpreting "2012," Hollywood's latest blockbuster disaster movie. Chi-Chi Zhang, Associated Press Writer 2009-11-20T11:11:47Z http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/precious_bluntly_goes_to_a_place_rarely_seen____the_life_of_a_young_black_girl?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news In “Precious,’’ Claireece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) usually comes home from school and prepares dinner for her mother, Mary (Mo’Nique), in their Harlem apartment. Mary could probably make dinner herself. But it’s easier for her to throw the dinner out or at Claireece if she’s not the cook. Mary curses at Claireece, who is dark-skinned, overweight, and, at 16, having ... Wesley Morris, Globe Staff 2009-11-20T01:54:36Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/19/director_pedro_almodovar_is_haunted_by_one_taboo?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Sex. Drugs. Prostitution. Pedophilia. Rape. Pedro Almodovar has been able to translate some of the most delicate subjects to the big screen with grace and humor. Sigal Ratner-Arias, Associated Press Writer 2009-11-19T23:22:02Z http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/movie_review_capsules?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Previously released The Box In the new movie from Richard Kelly (“Donnie Darko,’’ “Southland Tales’’), James Marsden and Cameron Diaz, looking like a Pan-Am flight attendant, play a nice Virginia couple who receive a box that, should they press its red button, will make them rich (for 1976, anyway) but cost the life of one stranger. The beauty of Kelly’s ... 2009-11-19T17:56:15Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/bronson_is_rage_personified?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news ‘Bronson’’ bills itself as the story of Britain’s most notorious living prisoner, Michael Peterson, who early on in his 35 years in jail - 30 of them in solitary confinement - gave himself the “fighting name’’ of Charles Bronson, after the Hollywood star of “Death Wish.’’ Really, though, “Bronson’’ isn’t a story in the traditional sense at all. It’s a ... Ty Burr, Globe Staff 2009-11-19T17:54:17Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/black_dynamite_is_mostly_a_blast?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news In the spoof that bears his name, Black Dynamite (Michael Jai White) sports every outfit in the blaxploitation-look book. While investigating the murder of his junkie brother, he wears a cheap-looking suit with lapels that belong on a pterodactyl. He drops in on a warren of pimps in a leather trench coat, leather pants, and a turtleneck (all black). He ... Wesley Morris, Globe Staff 2009-11-19T17:53:38Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/grant_heslov_finds_a_niche_behind_the_camera?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Rachel Abramowitz, Los Angeles Times 2009-11-19T17:53:03Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/blind_side_sticks_to_the_playbook_on_race_and_renewal?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news It may be based on a true story, but “The Blind Side’’ delivers two heart-yanking hours of Hollywood physics. One kid’s bad existence gets better with the application of a great deal of upper-middle-class pressure. The movie recounts the story of how a tough-loving interior decorator named Leigh Anne Touhy (Sandra Bullock ) invited Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), an enormous, ... Wesley Morris, Globe Staff 2009-11-19T17:52:19Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/planet_51_is_hardly_worth_the_visit?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news As a wise frog once remarked, it’s not easy being green. Not only are the emerald-colored extraterrestrials in “Planet 51’’ terrified by the appearance of a human astronaut on their home turf, they’re imprisoned in a cruddy, reductive version of “Happy Days’’ and forced to spout inane dialogue. Young children and adults with high pain thresholds will enjoy the movie ... Ty Burr, Globe Staff 2009-11-19T17:51:41Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/the_messenger_serves_notice_about_the_casualties_of_war?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news I’ve worried before that it might be too soon for movies about our current wars. They’re too fresh to get a dramatic grip on either the conflicts or what provoked them. What many filmmakers have produced were tracts that cast a skeptical eye. But, as it turns out, the proximity wasn’t the problem. It was the point of view. Americans ... Wesley Morris, Globe Staff 2009-11-19T17:50:07Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/movies_opening_this_week?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire (R), 6 2009-11-19T17:49:37Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/precious_star_shows_her_mettle?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news There are many ways in which the bubbly, gregarious actress Gabourey Sidibe is different from the closed-off, beaten-down character she plays in the film “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,’’ which opens today locally. But perhaps the most striking contrast is Sidibe’s laugh. The monosyllabic Precious Jones has precious little to laugh about in a world framed by ... Sarah Rodman, Globe Staff 2009-11-19T17:48:42Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/the_pattinson_identiy?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news ‘‘Twilight’’ star Robert Pattinsoncq/gb has made no secret that he finds bizarre the celebrity duties that come with being Hollywood’s biggest heartthrob. Watch him on the red carpet enough times and you’ll start to see the nervous tics that remind you this 23-year-old actor isn’t all that schooled in the ways of 24-7 stardom. Above, as he makes the worldwide ... 2009-11-19T17:34:18Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/20/on_demand_movie_picks?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news THE CLASS ( Comcast Movies and Events) In Laurent Cantet’s improvised drama, we are plunked into a Paris public school that has spun beyond control. Not in the way Hollywood has conditioned us to recognize, but from within. Over the course of a school year, we see how the school system disserves education and greatly enables it. In French, with ... 2009-11-19T17:27:51Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/19/jason_reitman_documents_promotion_of_his_new_film?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news The publicity for a Hollywood movie is a machine to behold, especially from the inside. Jake Coyle, AP Entertainment Writer 2009-11-19T16:51:00Z http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/19/new_moon_pales_in_comparison_to_twilight?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Sorry, girls: The thrill is gone. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,’’ the second installment in Hollywood’s adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s mega-selling vampire romance series, is an anemic comedown after the full-blooded swoon of last year’s “Twilight.’’ Where the first film’s director, Catherine Hardwicke, plugged into Meyer’s vision of supernatural teenage lust with abandon, Chris Weitz is stuck with a sequel ... Ty Burr, Globe Staff 2009-11-19T06:46:49Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/oscars/articles/2009/11/19/15_documentary_features_make_oscars_short_list?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Of the 89 documentary films eligible for Oscar consideration this year, 15 were selected for a short list of potential nominees. And Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" wasn't one of them. Sandy Cohen, AP Entertainment Writer 2009-11-19T05:21:51Z http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/oscars/articles/2009/11/18/15_documentary_features_make_oscars_short_list?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Of the 89 documentary films eligible for Oscar consideration this year, 15 were selected for a short list of potential nominees, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday. Sandy Cohen, AP Entertainment Writer 2009-11-19T01:55:37Z http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/19/for_holbrook_its_been_a_lifetime_of_on_the_job_training?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news HOLLYWOOD - It took Hal Holbrook more than 40 years, but he’s finally starting to feel comfortable acting in movies - and he has Sean Penn to thank for that. Susan King, Los Angeles Times 2009-11-19T01:54:46Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/oscars/articles/2009/11/18/oscars_choose_mtv_awards_veteran_to_direct_show?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Academy Awards overseers have chosen an entertainment veteran to direct the next Oscar show. Hamish Hamilton is directing the 82nd Oscar broadcast on March 7. 2009-11-18T19:35:39Z http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/19/on_demand_movie_listings?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE (Encore on Comcast ) More ambitious than the usual Hollywood biopic, and filled with snazzy musical numbers, this easy-to-take film nevertheless misses getting under the skin of single-hit doo-wop sensation Frankie Lymon as it tells the story from the vantage points of the three women claiming to be his widow, all wanting the royalties ... 2009-11-18T16:53:38Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/19/new_moon_units?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Vampires have taken a bite out of pop culture, thanks in no small part to the massive success of the “Twilight’’ books and films. To keep rabid fans of the series appeased, stores from Hot Topic to Toys R Us to Nordstrom have been pumping out all kinds of merchandise to fulfill fans’ every wish (unless, of course, that wish ... Terri Schwartz, Globe Correspondent 2009-11-18T16:49:18Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/19/lutz_of_new_moon_likes_to_stay_in_shape____and_wears_it_well?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Actor Kellan Lutz is a big guy: tall, brawny, muscular. Of course, if you’re a fan of the “Twilight’’ films - the second of which, “New Moon,’’ opens tomorrow - you know that already. For the rest of you (that is, the men reading this), Lutz plays the towering and protective Emmett Cullen, a vampire who can knock some heads ... Hayley Kaufman, Globe Staff 2009-11-18T16:48:18Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/19/movie_capsules?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news New releases 2012 Director Roland Emmerich imagines global apocalypse as a state-of-the-art multiplex circus whose special effects stagger the senses and play like a video game, and whose human drama aims for the cosmic and lands waist-deep in the Big Silly. With John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Amanda Peet. (157 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr) 2009-11-18T16:45:03Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/18/nicolas_cage_visits_kenyan_jail?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Film star Nicolas Cage has visited a Kenyan prison holding suspected Somali pirates awaiting trial to highlight the problem of piracy in the Indian Ocean. 2009-11-18T16:01:42Z http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/18/twilight_tour_harks_back_to_golden_age_of_movie_promotion?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Kellan Lutz, who plays a vampire in the new “Twilight’’ movie, made an appearance at the Natick Collection last week. He signed posters for the 500 fans who persevered to earn that honor, and grinned heartily for the 75 fans anointed with the chance to be photographed at his side. Hundreds more - most of them girls, most of them ... Wesley Morris, Globe Staff 2009-11-17T18:08:29Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/17/on_demand_picks?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news TRANSPORTER 2 ( Comcast Free Movies) The fight machine and underworld deliveryman of the 2002 hit is now transporting kids? How did this happen to the gracefully lethal Jason Statham (above left)? This sequel, which was unnecessary in the first place, is desperate in ways we’d expect from “Transporter 8.’’ (PG-13; runs through Nov. 30) WESLEY MORRIS 2009-11-16T19:27:31Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/17/director_airs_his_familys_dirty_laundry_in_the_maid?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news HOLLYWOOD - Sebastián Silva rebelled against authority while growing up with six siblings in an upper-class household in Santiago, Chile. Susan King, Los Angeles Times 2009-11-16T19:26:30Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/16/twilight_hunks_part_of_films_heartthrob_history?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Fifteen-year-old Chloe Bates is in love. A 10th-grader at an all-girls Catholic school, she lights up when she talks about her handsome 17-year-old honey. Chloe doesn't know too many boys, so she still gets a nervous, buzzy feeling whenever she thinks about HIM. Her friends know all about this guy -- he's a regular text and telephone topic between school, ... Sandy Cohen, AP Entertainment Writer 2009-11-16T05:12:28Z http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/16/babettes_feast_at_coolidge_corner_theatre?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news When you sink your choppers into a favorite food, what is it that triggers your senses to react? Before tonight’s screening of “Babette’s Feast , ’’ part of the Coolidge Corner TheatreScience on Screen Series, food science expert and Harvard prof Guy Crosby will make sense of it all. Gabriel Axel’s Oscar-winning metaphor for love follows two sisters in a ... 2009-11-16T02:07:40Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/16/2012_opens_at_no_1?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Doom spelled dollars at the box office as the global-disaster tale “2012’’ opened at No. 1 domestically with $65 million and pulled in $225 million worldwide. The Sony Pictures action saga tells the story of a scramble to save remnants of humanity aboard giant arks as the Earth’s crust shifts and floodwaters pour over most of the planet. With a ... 2009-11-16T02:03:06Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/15/ben_foster_addresses_grief_and_loss_in_the_messenger?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news NEW YORK - Something is weighing on Ben Foster. The 29-year-old star of the military drama “The Messenger,’’ which opens Friday, smiles easily and jokes readily unless he’s talking about himself. Then he gets pensive, pursing his lips as he slowly winds through complex thoughts and unanswerable philosophical questions. Judy Abel, Globe Correspondent 2009-11-14T18:24:16Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/15/new_moon_star_taylor_lautner_is_ready_for_the_attention_and_the_hysteria?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news LOS ANGELES - Make no mistake. The boy is buff. But Taylor Lautner is human-scale fit. In real life, there’s not a touch of vampire-slaying werewolf to him. His pecs do not protrude until it’s impossible for them not to burst through his shirt. Lynda Gorov, Globe Correspondent 2009-11-14T18:23:58Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/15/dvd_report_this_weeks_new_releases_nov_15?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news ‘GWTW’: the Blue and the Gray on Blu-ray It may have taken 70 years, but now, finally, you can see exactly how “Gone With the Wind’’ (1939) must have looked and sounded on the night it premiered - or should have, had the VIP crowd at Atlanta’s Loew’s Grand Theater had the benefit of catching Gable and Leigh in high ... Tom Russo, Globe Correspondent 2009-11-14T18:23:48Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/14/cinematographer_gordon_willis_to_receive_honorary_oscar?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news The name “movies’’ is misleading. Before they are anything else, movies are appearance, not motion. That being the case, few people alive have so fundamentally affected the movies - have so influenced their appearance - as the cinematographer Gordon Willis. So fundamentally or so variously: The warm and sinister earth tones of the “Godfather’’ pictures could hardly be more different ... Mark Feeney, Globe Staff 2009-11-13T17:25:45Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2009/11/13/fans_flock_for_glimpse_of_twilight_star?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news A throng of young women with fangs on the brain gathered at the Natick Collection last night to glimpse Kellan Lutz , who plays Emmett Cullen in the much-adored “Twilight’’ series. Touring suburban malls to promote “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,’’ the actor chatted with fans at a VIP event at Nordstrom and then faced the masses at Hot Topic, ... Mark Shanahan & Meredith Goldstein 2009-11-13T03:05:35Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/13/understanding_their_father_william_kunstlers_universe?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news suggest a man whose political sympathies bordered on the promiscuous. Wesley Morris, Globe Staff 2009-11-12T17:17:41Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/13/pirate_radio_dials_up_the_rock_ribaldry_and_rowdiness?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Sometimes history just isn’t as much fun as it should be. “Pirate Radio,’’ a rowdy, mostly hilarious British comedy-drama about the offshore radio stations that blared rock ’n’ roll to a desperate young UK audience in the 1960s, would much rather show us a good time than stick to the facts. Writer-director Richard Curtis (“Love Actually’’) has made a party, ... Ty Burr, Globe Staff 2009-11-12T17:17:02Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/13/the_maid_is_untidy_in_a_good_way?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news The unsettling Chilean drama “The Maid’’ opens with deceptive simplicity. In an upper-class kitchen in the suburbs of Santiago, a blank-faced, middle-aged maid (Catalina Saavedra) sits down to dinner. On the soundtrack we hear the family for whom she works bicker and snipe at each other in the adjoining dining room. The maid looks up, meets the camera’s gaze for ... Ty Burr, Globe Staff 2009-11-12T17:16:20Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/13/as_a_portrait_of_the_art_world_untitled_exhibits_humor_not_cynicism?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news The New York art world does such a wonderful job of satirizing itself that further assistance hardly seems necessary. But with “(Untitled),’’ writer and director Jonathan Parker takes for granted the trumped-up stakes, the humorlessness, and the artists’ capacity for opportunism and willful absurdity. The players in this movie are cynical, but, amazingly, Parker is not. His movie works as ... Wesley Morris, Globe Staff 2009-11-12T17:15:37Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/13/director_emmerich_destroys_the_earth____again____in_2012?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news I like to imagine that the director Roland Emmerich had a key transformative experience at the age of 7, when a relative visiting from Bavaria accidentally trampled his scale model of the Reichstag. Suddenly a light bulb went on over our young Teuton’s head as he realized: People will pay for this . Ty Burr, Globe Staff 2009-11-12T17:13:57Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/08/apocalypse_now_and_then_tracing_disaster_films_from_2012_to_when_worlds_collide?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Roland Emmerich is a man who seeks closure. Big time. The director who blew up the White House in “Independence Day’’ - and unleashed a new Ice Age in “The Day After Tomorrow’’ - goes for the gold, apocalypse-wise, in “2012.’’ It opens Friday. Mark Feeney, Globe Staff 2009-11-07T17:46:56Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/06/technology_helps_director_zemeckis_deliver_a_spirited_christmas_carol?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Every generation may get the “Christmas Carol’’ it deserves, from the all-dancing, all-singing horrors of “Scrooge’’ (1970) to the brash comic mugging of “Scrooged’’ (1988) to the sleaze of the recent “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.’’ (The best? All votes for George C. Scott and Mr. Magoo will be counted, but anyone who puts in the research knows the 1951 British ... Ty Burr, Globe Staff 2009-11-05T19:55:03Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/11/06/goats_suffers_from_a_lack_of_concentration?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’’ prompts an obvious question: Will there in fact be any goats stared at in this movie? And, if so, by whom and to what end? The answers - yes; George Clooney; to kill them by remote heart attack as part of a top-secret military initiative - are deliciously absurd even if you don’t know ... Ty Burr, Globe Staff 2009-11-05T18:33:40Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/09/13/the_falls_boston_area_film_festivals?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news What do Uma Thurman, Stanley Donen, James Ellroy, and the CEO of Stonyfield Farm have in common? They’re all part of this fall’s lineup of local festivals and special film events. Mark Feeney, Globe Staff 2009-09-12T16:55:02Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/09/13/a_look_at_this_falls_movies?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news You may have heard that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the folks who hand out Oscars, will double to 10 the number of best picture nominees this year. Right now, the Academy would have a tough time finding five. But that, of course, is what fall is for: promotion and positioning. Ty Burr and Wesley Morris, Globe Staff 2009-09-12T16:54:56Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/07/26/elia_kazan_retrospective_at_the_harvard_film_archive?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news What, exactly, is an Elia Kazan movie? That’s not an easy question to answer. In certain critical ways the acclaimed director fails the auteur theory that has served to define cinematic ambition and achievement ever since the French cooked it up a half century ago. Kazan’s movies were commercial and critical hits - cultural landmarks then and now - and ... Ty Burr, Globe Staff 2009-07-25T16:53:41Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/05/24/maternal_instincts_are_all_wrong?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news CANNES, France - The weather here is perfect this time of year. The suntans could win their owners NAACP membership. And the movies gathered for the Cannes Film Festival, now in its 62d year, provide an invaluable window to the state of the art. Wesley Morris, Globe Staff 2009-05-23T17:00:00Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/oscars/articles/2009/02/23/slumdog_leads_the_pack?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news Globalism came to the Oscars last night. "Slumdog Millionaire," a film set in a foreign country, featuring no known stars, and with a third of its dialogue in Hindi, swept the 81st Academy Awards last night, winning best picture and seven other Oscars. Danny Boyle's independent drama, which came out of nowhere late last year to dazzle audiences and dominate ... Ty Burr, Globe Staff 2009-02-23T05:00:00Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/01/26/the_magic_fades_away_at_sundance_film_fest?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news PARK CITY, Utah - Two decades ago, a young, unknown filmmaker named Steven Soderbergh arrived in this mountain resort town with his first movie under his arm. The 1989 Sundance Film Festival transformed him into an overnight star of the American independent film movement; the critical and financial success of "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" established Sundance as the the white-hot ... Ty Burr, Globe Staff 2009-01-26T05:00:00Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2008/12/28/years_best_films_were_full_of_unlikely_heroes?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news In a year of darkness and hope, the movies struggled to keep up. Things fell apart, the economic center didn't hold, the man least expected to win the presidency at the start of the year created a narrative of historical inevitability that just grew and grew and grew. The most engrossing drama I witnessed in 2008 may have been at ... Ty Burr, Globe Staff 2008-12-27T18:00:00Z liv http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2008/12/28/the_years_best_shook_our_complacency?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Movie+news It would have been tough for the movies to top reality in 2008. Where this year was actually momentous, exciting, and strange, the movies often settled for being merely solemn - which was neither enlightening nor entertaining. The super-successful "The Dark Knight" was solemn, but it was also fun, something increasingly, distressingly absent from the year-end movie-going season. If a ... Wesley Morris, Globe Staff 2008-12-27T18:00:00Z liv