This week the American Film Institute issued its lists of the top ten films in ten genre categories, based on a poll of filmmakers, critics and academics.

I’m generally allergic to such lists, because consensus opinions are so safe and predictable.…

We critics tend to pounce on patterns, so maybe it means something that somber films divvied up the major nominations for this year’s Academy Awards.

Two grim 20th century Westerns, the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Own Men” and P.T.…

On a day when I thought I’d be blogging about the Oscar nominations, what I really want to say is this: Heath Ledger was a hell of an actor, and it pisses me off that he’s dead. The cops report…

Thanks to my brethren, the striking writers, this year’s Golden Globes ceremony was reduced to a glorified press conference, with no drunken celebrities testing their Oscar credentials. Maybe the embarrassing broadcast and dismal ratings will be enough to permanently take…