It isn’t put together very well, the story, but it has such affection for its characters, and it believes uncynically in what it’s trying to be, and it is trying to be a sad, beautiful …

The crime
Diane Downs, a postal worker, claimed a burly stranger had carjacked her and her three children, shooting one fatally and leaving the other two permanently impaired. At least she didn’t blame an African-American male…but …

Apparently, Arbitrage is getting some Oscars notice. True, said “notice” may consist primarily of its own PR team, but Couch Baron and I decided to check it out, mostly to see if yet another “high-finance …

The Age of Innocence‘s 1934 iteration is an interesting prospect. The stymied romance between old-money lawyer Newland Archer (John Boles) and his bland but correct fiancée’s bohemian cousin Ellen Olenska (Irene Dunne), recently escaped from …

“Bruno was the consummate racketeer. Scarfo, on the other hand, was a gangster.”
The crime
It’s about the self-destruction the Philly mob, so: pick your felony. But implied also is a metaphorical crime, an affront to the …

So, I started rewatching The X-Files from the beginning — or, really, “watching it,” because during the series’ run, I came in late and only watched casually. It holds up pretty well almost 20 years later, despite …

Though [Bourdin] emphasized his cunning, he acknowledged what any con man knows but rarely admits: it is not that hard to fool people. People have basic expectations of others’ behavior and are rarely on guard …

So, I started rewatching The X-Files from the beginning — or, really, “watching it,” because during the series’ run, I came in late and only watched casually. It holds up pretty well almost 20 years later, despite …

It’s written too well, Half a Life. And that’s understandable. Darin Strauss’s “memoir” — a poor fit, that word, but the closest available — concerns the death of a girl half (his) lifetime ago; Celine …

Two TV movies about the Menendez case came out within five weeks of each other in 1994: Honor Thy Father and Mother: The True Story of the Menendez Murders, and Menendez: A Killing in Beverly …