Movies starring Philip Seymour Hoffman

Usually, the problem with romantic comedies is that, although the "romantic" part of the equation works, the "comedy" aspect falls flat. With Along Came Polly, it's the other way around. The film, written and directed by John Hamburg (Safe Men), ...

An Irish toast goes "May you be in heaven half an hour... before the devil knows you're dead," and it's from this source that the latest movie by 83-year-old veteran director Sidney Lumet derives its name. With films like Serpico,Q&A, and Night Fa...

In a word, The Big Lebowski is a mess. But what a glorious, wonderfully-entertaining mess it is. This film, the Coen Brothers' follow-up to the critically-lauded Fargo, isn't likely to generate the same degree of universal praise. In fact, those...

Capote tells two stories, presenting both without hiccups. The first is an exposé of how the title author's In Cold Blood was written. The second shows the emotional and psychic dissolution of the man who starts out the film as a brilliant eccentr...

It's a curious thing. Whenever this much talent is assembled for a motion picture, the result inevitably seems to be a letdown. And to say that Charlie Wilson's War is topheavy with talent is to understate the matter. The cast features three Osc...

It's not often that, when the primary thread of a movie fails, the secondary storylines are compelling enough to make the overall experience a positive one. However, that occurs with Cold Mountain, a Civil War era romance where the love affair fiz...

It's one of life's bitter ironies that one of the first things lost to moral certainty is the capacity for compassion. Righteousness is a cold, hard position, and an unshakeable one. It allows no room for one of the most basic tenants of human exi...

Anyone who saw Todd Solondz's breakthrough feature film, Welcome to the Dollhouse, has the kernel of an idea about what to expect from the director's latest effort, the ironically-titled Happiness. Welcome to the Dollhouse is a dark comedy tha...

Have we reached a point where the term "young adult literature" has become pejorative? Have books like Twilight and its ilk promulgated a negative connotation? If Stephenie Meyer's scribblings represent an exhibition for the prosecution, perhaps Su...

Apologists will no doubt argue that bifurcating Suzanne Collins' final novel in The Hunger Games cycle, Mockingjay, is the right way to go. There's no doubt that stretching it over 4+ hours allows for a more complete adaptation, but movies are diff...