It was June 29, 2001. I was in film school. I opened the local paper, read my friend, the film critic’s, review of “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence,” Steven Spielberg’s distillation of a project he and legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick had developed together for years. I was nervous. I had, for one, hit a post-adolescent anti-Spielberg stretch [...]

Continue reading »

I’m thinking I’ll write something formal up tomorrow, as this film and I have enjoyed quite the journey over the past decade. For now, I’ll let the beautiful work of Janusz Kaminski tell the tale.

Continue reading »

This column has been the elephant in my living room for months. Putting together a list of the year’s best films is easy. It’s fresh. It’s in your mind. It’s, in many ways, the expected culmination. Putting together a list of the decade’s best films is a different chore altogether. Yearly rankings fly out the [...]

Continue reading »

Looking back over the previous Oscar winners for Best Picture since 2000, the start of a new century (and a new millennium), I find myself wondering sometimes what the hell the Academy was thinking.  It’s no secret I disagree with the Academy a lot, but I can also admit that when they get it right, [...]

Continue reading »

Can he do it? After becoming (in his own eyes) a serious filmmaker with “Schindler’s List,” “Amistad,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “A.I.” and “Munich,” is Steven Spielberg able to re-create the magic he almost always brought to his pure entertainment blockbusters? It takes a look at his journey as an artist to even attempt a reasoned [...]

Continue reading »