Christopher Saunders

LATEST ARTICLES ( 659 )

• Rosa Luxemburg

  

  "I can't dance with you tonight and argue with you tomorrow."Margarethe Von Trotta's Rosa Luxemburg (1986) takes on the monumental task of humanizing Germany's... Read more

  Posted on 15 May 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• A Most Violent Year

  

  (2014) is a measured thriller, impeccably shot and well-observed dramatically, yet occasionally distant and cold. Writer-director J.C. Read more

  Posted on 14 May 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• History: Richard Nixon Tells Archibald Cox, You're Fired!

  

  Prior to July 16th, 1973, the Watergate scandal remained containable. Despite the revelations of the Washington Post, the high drama of Sam Ervin's televised... Read more

  Posted on 10 May 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Whiplash (2014)

  

  From its earliest scenes, Whiplash (2014) is unremittingly, intensely violent. Damien Chazelle, more recently of La La Land, treats music as psychological... Read more

  Posted on 09 May 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Winter Kills

  

  "I'm all that's standing between you and darkest night, son. The other side of me, there's Chaos."Winter Kills (1979) came too late for the '70s conspiracy... Read more

  Posted on 07 May 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Viva Villa!

  

  "You can't win a revolution with love, you need hate!"Here's the granddaddy of every Mexico-set "Zapata Western," from Vera Cruz and A Bullet for the General... Read more

  Posted on 06 May 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Adapting Philip Roth: Goodbye, Columbus and Portnoy's Complaint

  

  Let's rewind the clock to 1959. Philip Roth, at twenty-six years old, publishes his debut, Goodbye Columbus, a novella accompanied by several short stories. Read more

  Posted on 05 May 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Adapting Philip Roth: The Human Stain

  

  The Human Stain (2003) is another underwhelming Philip Roth adaptation. Robert Benson approaches the material with respect, but can't overcome the material's... Read more

  Posted on 04 May 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Adapting Philip Roth: American Pastoral and Indignation

  

  Philip Roth's novels have long frustrated filmmakers, who seem incapable of rendering his complex, neurotic world-building in cinematic terms. Read more

  Posted on 03 May 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• La La Land

  

  Calling La La Land (2016) old-fashioned isn't a knock but a complement. Damien Chazelle's musical is a swoon-worthy throwback to classic Hollywood, with catchy... Read more

  Posted on 02 May 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Jackie

  

  Pablo Larrain's Jackie (2016) is one of those prestige dramas so caught up in being an actor's showcase that it forgets to work on any other level. Read more

  Posted on 01 May 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Immigrant

  

  "I am not nothing."James Gray's The Immigrant (2013) is a remarkable movie, almost an anachronism. It offers the look and staging of Classic Hollywood... Read more

  Posted on 27 April 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Miss Julie (2014)

  

  "We are all forced to face ourselves as less than we'd hoped to be."Liv Ullman gives August Strindberg's most famous play respectful but not especially cinemati... Read more

  Posted on 25 April 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Hell Or High Water

  

  "I've been poor my whole life, like a disease passing from generation to generation."Hell or High Water (2016) makes a good argument that the Western, even if... Read more

  Posted on 24 April 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Moonlight

  

  "At some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you're going to be."What a marvelous film Moonlight (2016) is, sensitive, searching and attuned to human... Read more

  Posted on 23 April 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Miss Sloane

  

  "Career suicide's not so bad when you consider the alternative is suicide by career." Miss Sloane (2016) is a gripping, occasionally awkward merger of message... Read more

  Posted on 23 April 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Innocents (1961)

  

  Jack Clayton's The Innocents (1961) offers a superb study in psychological terror. Adapting Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, it's unsettling in a way that fe... Read more

  Posted on 22 April 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Women (1939)

  

  "A woman's compromised the day she's born!"It's hard to approach The Women (1939), a "sophisticated" dramedy that's embarrassingly dated. Read more

  Posted on 19 April 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Grand Hotel

  

  "People come. People go. Nothing ever happens."Grand Hotel (1932) is the granddaddy of the Hollywood ensemble drama. Everything from Stagecoach to '70s... Read more

  Posted on 13 April 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Captain America: Civil War

  

  Anthony and Joe Russo delivered one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's highpoints with Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), a slick, high-powered thrille... Read more

  Posted on 11 April 2017 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES