A corrosively funny, semiautobiographical account by writer-director Bruce Robinson (How to Get Ahead in Advertising) about a couple of destitute roommates, young actors living in drunken squalor in 1969, the twilight days of swingin' London. Withnail (the astounding Richard E. Grant in a definitive performance) is a kind of depraved, modern-day Os... [Read More]

This dark comedy from 1989 was a good showcase for Winona Ryder, playing a high school girl brought into a clique of bitchy classmates (all named Heather), and Christian Slater, doing his early Jack Nicholson thing. While Ryder's character mulls over the consequences of giving up one set of friends for another, her association with a new boy (Slate... [Read More]

If you set out to create the worst movie you could imagine, what would be your second step (we're presuming you've already hired Cuba Gooding, Jr. as the lead.) Maybe to cast a 300 pound Swedish wrestler as LA Police Chief? Make some flying saucers out of tinfoil and string? Perhaps see if a guy named Dudley Manlove could fill a supporting role? An... [Read More]

It's easy to understand why the late, great screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky removed his name from the credits of Altered States and substituted the pseudonym Sidney Aaron. After all, Chayefsky was a revered dramatist whose original source novel was intended as a serious exploration of altered consciousness, inspired by the immersion-tank experiments o... [Read More]