3/10/10: Searching Eastern Europe Where “Everything Is Illuminated”
2/3/10: “Lemon Tree”: A Contemporary Israeli Response to Terrorism
1/26/10: “Operation Thunderbolt”: Israel Responds to Terrorism in the 1970s
1/13/10: A Discussion about Barry Levinson’s “Liberty Heights” with a Guest Reviewer
1/3/10: “The First Israeli in Space” Doc Lacks Tragic Impact
12/27/09: Tarantino’s Jewish Revenge Fantasy, “Inglorious Basterds,” Draws You In
12/21/09: Three Generations of Hungarian Jews Struggle with their Society in “Sunshine”
12/14/09: “Noah’s Ark” Takes Biblical Spin on End-of-World Disaster Film Fad
12/11/09: A Sudanese Christian Boy Must Pretend to Be an Israeli Jew in “Live and Become”
11/18/09: “Sixty Six”: Bar Mitzvah Boy Versus the World Cup Final
11/9/09: “The Bubble”: Different Views Inside and Outside Tel Aviv
11/1/09: “A Serious Man” Needs to Know What Is the Jewish Response to Misfortune
10/27/09: “Europa Europa”: A Jewish Boy Driven by the Winds of War
10/21/09: A Young Jewish Woman Pays Her Dues along the Road to Maturity in “The Tollbooth”
10/18/09: “Hiding and Seeking” Doc Addresses Some of the Great Post-Holocaust Questions
10/6/09: Engaging “Sleep Dealer” Tackles Contemporary Issues in the Future
9/30/09: Free Roman Polanski
9/26/09: Low-Budget “Bureaucracy” Is a Labor of Love
9/22/09: No Sex, But Plenty of Lies and Tape in Soderbergh’s “The Informant!”
5/12/09: Trying Something Different This Time: My Review of “Milk” Is Set to Rhyme
5/9/09: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Chizfilm
5/5/09: State of Journalism Underlies “State of Play”
4/30/09: Great Shorts by, for, and about Women at This Year’s Lunafest
4/14/09: Two Sisters from Albuquerque Clean Up in “Sunshine Cleaning”
4/9/09: FFF 09 Part II: “Original Cinema” Features
4/6/09: “Original Cinema” Shorts at the Eighteenth Annual Florida Film Festival
3/22/09: Critic’s Desperate Attempt to Like “Knowing” Fails Miserably
3/5/09: “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”: Four Fascinating Characters and Their Riveting Romantic Relationships
3/1/09: What Does “Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?” Have to Say to the World of Barack Hussein Obama?
2/25/09: The 2008 Chizfilm Awards: Oh, the Anticipation Has Been Building!
1/9/09: Heroic Nazi Officers Attempt to Take Out Hitler in “Valkyrie”
1/5/09: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Examines Life by Aging Backwards
12/29/08: “Doubt” the Evidence But Not the Humanity
12/13/08: Second Time’s the Charm for “Synecdoche, New York”
12/10/08: Pursuing Happiness in Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky”
11/29/08: An Examination of Three Shorts: “The Beekeeper,” “Good Night Valentino,” and “… Jasper Morello”
11/22/08: “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”: The Holocaust through the Eyes of a Child
11/3/08: Responding to Aliens at the 2008 Virginia Film Festival
10/27/08: “Itty Bitty Titty Committee”: A Comic Look at Radical Feminism
10/21/08: Oliver Stone’s “W.”: Artistic Rendering of Dysfunctional Father-Son Relationship
10/16/08: Halloween Treat “Without Warning” Pays Homage to 1938 Fake Alien Invasion
10/4/08: “Religulous” Ridicules Religious Rightness
9/28/08: Can’t We All Just Get Along? Not on “Lakeview Terrace”
9/24/08: The Eleventh Annual Manhattan Short Film Festival Makes My Day
9/17/08: “Hamlet 2”: Perchance to Dream
8/17/08: Movie Stars, Not Mentally Challenged, Lampooned in “Tropic Thunder”
8/11/08: Language Barriers Not Serious Problem in “The Band’s Visit”
7/31/08: Escape Reality in Mediocre “Mamma Mia!” Musical
7/27/08: Critic Makes Mistake by Waiting Two Years to See “The Queen”
7/12/08: “Vantage Point”: Unique Assassination Thriller Set in Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor
7/10/08: The Patriotism of “1776” and Contemporary Liberal Politics
7/1/08: Celebrate Independence Day by Watching “1776”—My Favorite Film of All Time
6/24/08: Last Year’s CFA Best Doc, “Moving Midway,” Gets Distribution
6/9/08: “Goya’s Ghosts”: Spanish History Through the Eyes of Its Greatest Painter
5/5/08: Recent Hollywood Films about War on Terror Try to Balance Emotion
and Intellect
3/21/08: Ode to Videotape: “Be Kind Rewind” Celebrates Film as Escapist Fantasy
3/12/08: The 2007 Chizfilm Awards: Better Late than Never
2/29/08: “Sydney White”: Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, It’s Back to College I Go
2/18/08: Enter the World of Shorts through the Magic of YouTube
2/12/08: “Right at Your Door” Reflects Post-9/11 Fears
2/4/08: Can Penance Bring “Atonement” in Best Pic Nominee?
1/1/08: “Clean Freak” Expected to Be Big on Festival Circuit in 2008
11/15/07: Who the Hell Is Alan Berliner?
11/9/07: Four Fun Days of Fantastic Films about Families at the VFF
10/29/07: “Across the Universe” and Back in Time with a Powerful and Emotional Musical
10/24/07: Preview of the Virginia Film Festival and Good News about “American Messiah”
9/27/07: The Manhattan Short Film Festival Brings the World’s Best Shorts to You
9/23/07: Delightful “2 Days in Paris” Strains Precarious Romance
9/16/07: “Seraphim Falls” Lacks Dramatic Substance
8/26/07: “Broken English” Breaks in Too Many Places
7/15/07: Mother Returns for Unfinished Business in Almodóvar’s “Volver”
7/12/07: Piaf Fans Will Be Pleased with “La Vie en Rose” But Unlikely That Others Will
6/18/07: Sophia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette”: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
6/14/07: Verhoeven’s “Black Book” Far More Grey than Black
4/2/07: FFF Midweek Activities from Screenings to Special Events
3/26/07: Excitement and Some Disappointment at the Opening Weekend of the Florida Film Festival
3/12/07: “The Illusionist” Is Movie Magic, Misdirection, and Mystery!
2/24/07: The 2006 Chizfilm Awards Recognize the Best in Contemporary Cinema
2/7/07: “The Proper Care and Feeding of an American Messiah” Proves You Don’t
Need Money to Make a Great Film
1/30/07: The Reality of “Pan’s Labyrinth”
1/2/07: “The History Boys” Are Up for an Education – Are You?
12/19/06: “Copying Beethoven” Is an Ode to Joy
12/12/06: “Bobby” Takes Us Back to 1968 with an Eye on 2006
12/8/06: Can Oscar Buzz Deliver in “For Your Consideration”?
11/27/06: “Stranger Than Fiction”: Not as Strange as One Might Hope
11/10/06: “Art School Confidential”: How Can You Best Mold Great Potential?
11/3/06: As Election Day Approaches, Check Out 1992’s “Bob Roberts”
10/30/06: Finding God at the 2006 Virginia Film Festival
10/24/06: Is “Flags of Our Fathers” Really about the Flags of Their Sons?
10/11/06: “Quinceañera”: Life’s Not Easy When You’re About to Turn 15
10/4/06: Good Reason for the Surrealistic Confusion in “The Science of Sleep”
9/18/06: “Gone with the Wind”: Does it Still Hold Up After 67 Years?
9/11/06: “World Trade Center” and “United 93”: How Appropriate Are They for
Today’s Anniversary?
8/26/06: History Turned Upside-Down in "CSA" Mocumentary
6/18/06: "An Inconvenient Truth" with Al Gore
3/23/06: Eisenhower’s Warning Unheeded in “Why We Fight” Documentary
2/6/06: The 2005 Chizfilm Awards
1/27/06: "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" Finds Its Comedy in American View
of World
1/20/06: “King Kong” Remake Too Long and Clichéd, but Otherwise Great
3/1/04: Is Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" Anti-Semitic?
9/1/01: Keeping the Faith
5/1/01: The Chosen
3/1/01: Talk Radio
9/1/00: The Great Dictator
6/1/00: Crimes and Misdemeanors