Buzz comes with backlash for 'Precious'

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MOVIE REVIEW: 'The Blind Side'

Tale of love and football without much kick

Friday, Nov. 20, 2009

"The Blind Side" is a feel-good sports drama about the intersection of race and athletics, with solid if unremarkable performances and a screenplay that strains just a little too hard for social relevance.

MOVIE REVIEW: 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon'

Round two with sparky vampires

Friday, Nov. 20, 2009

The first "Twilight" movie was better than it had any right to be, given its meager plot and cardboard-cutout characters. Director Catherine Hardwicke managed to craft an interesting world for the two leads to inhabit. That surrounding world simply doesn't exist in "The Twilight Saga: New Moon."

MOVIE REVIEW: 'Planet 51'

Little life or color found on barren 'Planet'

Friday, Nov. 20, 2009

The premise of the new animated family comedy "Planet 51" is mildly amusing: What if humans landed on an alien planet, the culture of which was roughly equivalent to that of the United States in the 1950s?

BEYOND HOLLYWOOD: Lee Daniels coaxes memorable performances from cast

Friday, Nov. 13, 2009

Lee Daniels, director of the festival-circuit fave "Precious," alternates between outgoing excess and quieter introspection, sometimes swinging between the two poles in the same sentence.

MOVIE REVIEW: '2012'

Back story delays end of the world

Friday, Nov. 13, 2009

"2012," the new disaster picture from Roland Emmerich, is 160 minutes long. That's two hours and 40 minutes of Earth destruction and cardboard-cutout characters screaming in terror while they drive/fly/boat away from impending blue-screen computer-generated doom.

ON THE EDGE: Grass-roots Oscar campaigns struggle

Friday, Nov. 13, 2009

Just like their distant cousins, presidential campaigns, it seems that Oscar campaigns get started earlier and earlier each year. Filmmakers are already pumping up their movies and performers for award-season consideration.

MOVIE REVIEW: 'The Messenger'

The human side of war

Friday, Nov. 13, 2009

"The Messenger" is a successful examination of the harsh realities of war that too often are put in the back of people's minds.

MOVIE REVIEW: Cast gives 'Precious' a lift

No grand end to look at life

Friday, Nov. 13, 2009

Harrowing and sometimes hard to watch, "Precious" is a tale of unrelenting misery that suggests just enough of a silver lining to keep audiences from spiraling into total depression.

BEYOND HOLLYWOOD: Jared Hess' unique world

Friday, Nov. 6, 2009

Tall, with a bushy beard and wearing a full-zip hooded sweatshirt, Jared Hess can't help but smile at the way things have changed over the past five years.