Dave Kehr

The best moment in Spike Lee`s new film, ''Jungle Fever,'' is a spirited discussion of men and marriage that takes place among a group of women friends, gathered in support...

Ron Howard`s greatest strength as a director may be his absolute refusal to be intimidated by the obvious. Time and again, in films like ''Splash,'' ''Cocoon'' and ''Parenthood,'' Howard delivers...

At least temporarily, ''Switch'' seems to reverse the slide into sentimentality and self-pity that has characterized the recent career of its author, the once hard-as-nails Blake Edwards. This frequently cruel...

It`s a shame that ''A Rage in Harlem'' has been booked only into predominantly black theaters in Chicago, because this is a big, colorful, completely engaging film that recalls, more...

Someday, perhaps, one of the feminist critics who now dominate academic film studies will do an in-depth analysis of the romantic thriller, that strange and perennially successful genre that seems...

''Mortal Thoughts'' is a radical departure for director Alan Rudolph, a highly talented filmmaker who has always preferred atmosphere to plot (''Trouble in Mind''), lyrical evocation to hard-edged realism (''The...

Zhang Yimou`s ''Ju Dou'' didn`t win the Oscar it was up for last month. Instead, the Academy Award for best foreign language film went to the unseen and unknown Swiss...

Occasionally a comedy can be something more than funny, and that is the case with ''Defending Your Life,'' the new and excellent film by Albert Brooks. It has been five...

Made in 1934, Jean Vigo`s ''L`Atalante'' stands today as one of the masterpieces of French moviemaking, the climax of a skyrocket career that included, in addition to ''L`Atalante,'' only one...

''The Five Heartbeats'' is an occasionally ragged but good-natured retelling of one of pop music`s favorite myths-that of the group that rises from poverty to achieve wealth, fame and a...