One filmmaker is the thorn in an authoritarian state's side--can you guess which one? As everyone knows by now Jafar Panahi was handed down a harsh sentence by the Iranian government. This kind of puts the profession of filmmaker back into perspective, doesn't it? According to Farideh Gheirat, this lawyer, the "Offside" director got six years in jail and will be forbidden to make movies, write scripts or leave the country for the next twenty years. "The sentence is so harsh because the judge said that Panahi had been persistent in his actions," the lawyer said. "It is unacceptable."

She arrived in Fort Smith with two long braids, her [...]

Certifiably jonathan is a comockumentary directed by Jim Pasternak that [...]

For the mainstream audiences that equate Bale with the stoic anti-hero of Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” movies, Bale’s smoking-fuse performance in “The Fighter” could open eyes. This is the first film with popular aspirations in which Bale completely submerges into an edgy character. He lost weight to create a gaunt and wasting appearance, and I’m not sure how any normal human being could voluntarily make his eyes bulge like that. One wonders if he took a pair of pliers and plucked out his own real teeth just to heighten the authenticity.

What a strange year 2010 was. We have been scrolling [...]

Company Men has a nice cast and John Wells is the very talented creator of one of television’s best dramas (ER), but you have to wonder, why would anyone want to watch this dismal film about the economic crisis? Ben Affleck plays Bobby Walker, a sales associate laid off by ship-building company GTX. For Bobby--used to conveying a sense of class with his Porsche and golf-club membership--to come to the realization that he is now just another person in a sea of displaced people isn't easy.

There is never a doubt about how the fights will turn out in “The Fighter,” except the ones that play out within the family of Mickey Ward. Dickey Eklund (Christian Bale) at one time was called "Pride of Lowell, Massachusetts” because he managed to knock down Sugar-Ray Leonard (though some would say Sugar-Ray tripped).