To qualify as a Hollywood blockbuster, historical epics have to have several things: an anachronistically modern hero, a ruthless villain, a contrived love story, cataclysmic battle scenes and, of course, beheadings. But historical epics also have to have something else: a Big Idea, typically an idi

They don’t make movies the way they used to, and Cinderella Man shows why. Before it opened, Universal thought it had a certain hit on its hands. The film features two of the most bankable names on any marquee in the world: Russell Crowe and Renée Zellweger. Its director, Ron Howard, had team

It’s hard. Reviews of Woody Allen’s new films generally break into two categories: The master hasn’t lost his touch, or the master is in decline. Those of us who have followed Allen’s career closely over the last 30 years and consider him the greatest American filmmaker of th

Most people drink in order to enjoy wine. Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti) enjoys wine in order to drink. Surely there are as many definitions of alcoholism as there are drinkers, or even as there are people who have ever thought about it, but Miles has enough classic symptoms to give friends reason to

In 1931, as the Depression tightened its grip on the American imagination, a very young Bing Crosby recorded a Harry Warren jazz ballad with the words, “I found a million dollar baby in a five-and-ten-cent store.” The song became a hit, and its singer went on to become one of the great i

The Catholicism in Martin Scorsese’s films involves much more than crucifixes on the walls of his Italian-American characters. It lies at the heart of the conflicts faced by his tragic heroes. These are men (sic) who because of their own actions find themselves separated from the community tha