This movie is a well-crafted slice of life that is too painfully realistic to be enjoyable and concerns people who are so pathetically stuck that all you want to do is scream at them to get off the pity pot and go see a good action flick. If the characters in The Secret Lives of […]

Matchstick Men has it all — a flawless script (by talented first-timer Nicholas Griffin, and based on Eric Garcia’s novel), energetic and enigmatic direction (Ridley Scott), and unforgettable performances by both tempered pros and a young tyro. Without fireworks or train wrecks or a cast of thousand costumed extras, Matchstick Men works its magic with […]

The opening scenes of Confidence, in which a team of young con artists pulls a deadly scam on a hapless small-time crook, are so intense, so visceral, so shockingly terrific that my movie companion and I looked at one another in total surprise. “Whew!” we whispered.”That was good!” In fact, Confidence was so good up […]

There is more than what (or whom) meets the eye to the obviously talented Mountain Xpress staffers — one of them, production artist Jean Williams, turns out to be a hobbling (she recently broke her ankle) encyclopedia of information about film. I had been bugging her to critique a movie, but she was too shy […]