By Joan Ellis A touching comedy about the Catholic Church is not something I’ve been expecting, but here it is. And it’s good. As Eileen Cleary (Kathleen Turner) makes her way from resolute belief in…
By Joan Ellis Darling Companion is a good news/bad news movie. Reasons to see it: nice idea, good cast. Reasons not to: promise unfulfilled. Who wouldn’t want to see a comedy about a wedding that…
By Joan Ellis The Hunger Games? Should you bother? Suzanne Collins’ successful trilogy has been crafted and acted by talented professionals. I add, with appreciation, that the filmmakers have used restraint in presenting a violent…
by Joan Ellis Welcome to a grand surprise. Without much advance buzz, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen snuck into town to enliven the dustbowl that follows the annual Academy Awards. This is a film that…
By Joan Ellis Game Change is a good movie about a controversial subject. When the Republicans found themselves behind in the 2008 presidential campaign, Steve Schmidt (Woody Harrelson) convinced John McCain (Ed Harris) and his…
By Joan Ellis A long time ago I took an oral history of a woman who drove her five children in a hay wagon from her farm in the Russian Sector of Germany to the…
By Joan Ellis Is Wanderlust just another lukewarm yuppie comedy? Almost, but not quite. Like it or not, it will be remembered as the movie that broke through the barrier of male nakedness. For decades, the…
By Joan Ellis AFTER THE OSCAR fuss is over, think about catching up on the good movies you may have missed. You’ll find them somewhere in the digital nether world of Red Box, Netflix, DVD,…
By Joan Ellis 2011 brought us the usual mix of good, bad, and indifferent movies that were linked, inexcusably, by interminable barren stretches. There were far too many weeks when the listings promised nothing to…
By Joan Ellis Albert Nobbs is a curiously uncomfortable experience precisely because it is beautifully acted by all hands. Director Rodrigo Garcia deposits us directly in the culture and class system of 19th century Ireland…