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Nicolas Cage doesn’t talk in “Willy’s Wonderland.” That’s not to say he never makes a sound. We do hear the occasional grunt come from him. However, he speaks no words. This is fine. He doesn’t have to talk. Cage is such a vibrant and expressive actor—a requirement for the role of “The Janitor”—that he doesn’t need to speak.

When a movie is 83 minutes long, it’s reassuring when it wastes no time getting right to the action. The last thing a short movie should be is a slog, and it’s amazing that there are so many of them. Thankfully, “Shadow in the Cloud” is no slog.

The great movies are the ones that stick with you. I first saw writer-director-star Albert Brooks’ 1991 masterpiece “Defending Your Life” 30 years ago. I loved it so much that I watched it twice.

Animation company Pixar has been going so strong so for long that its toughest competition is itself. As someone who watches all of its movies, I’ve come to expect a high level of excellence in technical aspects such as character design…

It’s been said many times that it’s impossible to really, truly, completely know someone. This is generally true when considering that most people don’t spend 24/7 with each other. It’s even more true when considering the innermost fears and desires that people keep reserved for only themselves.

Most sports fans prove how dedicated they are by buying season tickets, special cable packages, or multiple clothing articles with their team’s logo on it. In “Damn Yankees,” George Abbott and Stanley Donen’s 1958 movie of the Broadway musical…

As I begin to write this review while listening to Bernard Herrmann’s score to Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal 1958 masterpiece “Vertigo,” I’m reminded of something the Master of Suspense said during his series of interviews with Francois Truffaut in 1962. He said…

Punch monkeys rule. They don’t say much, but they’re very colorful and let their actions, i.e., their punching, do their talking for them. And it’s not just punch monkeys. It’s also kick monkeys, headbutt monkeys, and the dreaded low blow monkeys, to name a few others. All are great and…

The opening scene of “The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee” starts off with Paul Hogan, playing a fictionalized version of himself, walking around the Hollywood Hills when a large group of people ask him to handle a snake that’s on the path. This is because they think…

A good sign that a movie is out to have fun and be entertaining is when it plays with the studio logo. It’s a signal to the audience that what we’re about to see is not a serious prestige picture, but rather something created for our amusement.

Settings matter. At least they should. In the best story writing, time and place have a meaning. They’re not merely incidental to the plot. They inform the characters and action as events unfold. “Let Him Go” has a setting that absolutely matters.

As someone who’s watched a superfluous overabundance of movies, I sometimes ponder if every original idea has been exhausted. Then I watch something like “Fatman,” with a brazenly weird and fantastically original concept, and it gives me hope that there are more great ideas yet to come.

One of the major advantages of comedy over drama is that in comedy, consequences don’t have to matter. Take for example the opening scene of 1990’s “The Freshman,” in which Clark Kellogg (Matthew Broderick) takes one final hunting trip with stepdad Dwight…

Sometimes cliches are cliches for a reason, and oftentimes it’s because there is at least some bit of truth to them. I’ll dust off this old chestnut for “Roman Holiday”: They don’t make them like they used to.

Barbara Stanwyck is a charmer. With her petite frame and inviting smile, she has a sweet, endearing, approachable, girl next door quality that makes her extremely likeable—even if the character she is playing is a swindler, like in 1941’s “The Lady Eve.”