Email Author Melissa Levine

2005 Stories by Melissa Levine

• Moore's the Pity

  published December 7, 2005

  It's always hard to pan an earnest film, especially one by a first-time director. And The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, a plucky... More >>

• Spent

  published November 23, 2005

  Ever since its Broadway debut in 1996, Rent has generated a loyal, almost cult-like following. Showered with praise, the Pulitzer... More >>

• Spell It Out

  published November 23, 2005

  Richard Gere? That's the first thought that came to mind upon learning that Mr. Salt-and-Pepper-Sexy-Buddhist-WASP had been cast as Saul Naumann... More >>

• Wild, Then Crazy

  published November 2, 2005

  Does Steve Martin have multiple personality disorder -- or is he just brilliantly in tune with some things and wildly out of touch with others?... More >>

• Strange Brew

  published October 26, 2005

  When watching Where the Truth Lies, a film noir about a young celebrity journalist's obsession with a comedy duo from the 1950s, a single... More >>

• Say Cheese

  published October 5, 2005

  Ah, Wallace and Gromit. Who doesn't get a little lift at the sound of those names? Who doesn't feel the edges of her mouth begin to tickle toward... More >>

• The Opposite of Suck

  published October 5, 2005

  About once a year -- twice, if we're lucky -- a first-time director shows up with something original, electrifying and humane, a film that shows... More >>

• Drift Wood

  published September 28, 2005

  The problem with making black-lacquered high school satire is this: Heathers came out in 1989, and it pretty much did the trick. There's... More >>

• Proof Positive

  published September 21, 2005

  In the tradition of A Beautiful Mind and Good Will Hunting comes Proof, a psychological drama about a math genius and... More >>

• Low Yield

  published August 31, 2005

  At the opening of The Constant Gardener, Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' adaptation of the novel by John le Carré, we... More >>

• A Tale of Two Bastards

  published August 10, 2005

  Toward the end of Saraband, the uneven new film from legendary director Ingmar Bergman, a character sits down with his daughter, a... More >>

• Love in Reverse

  published August 10, 2005

  For the first 30 minutes of 5x2, François Ozon's new film about a relationship that fails, the young French director seems... More >>

• Yao More Than Ever

  published July 20, 2005

  It seems unlikely that any American outside of a cloistered, sports-averse, PBS-watching film reviewer would have failed to notice the 2002... More >>

• Miracle on Ice

  published July 6, 2005

  If you're short on reasons to be grateful these days, look no further than March of the Penguins, the astonishing if imperfect... More >>

• The Wedding Stinger

  published June 29, 2005

  Marriage of convenience is not a new subject. In films, in novels and in countless television shows, we have been invited to witness both the... More >>

• Girls Interrupted

  published June 22, 2005

  Not many people saw Lost and Delirious, the 2001 boarding-school drama about two girls in obsessive love, and that was probably for the... More >>

• Chinese Box

  published June 22, 2005

  You're a talented young resident at a New York hospital, first-generation Chinese, and you happen to be gay. In fact, you're dating a new and... More >>

• All the Right Moves

  published June 8, 2005

  Ten is a magical age, when kids are old enough to make articulate statements about their experience and young enough to express their feelings... More >>

• One for the Girls

  published June 1, 2005

  The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is a flawed movie born of a flawed novel, but let this be clear: Girls will eat it up... More >>

• The Grapes of Mirth

  published May 18, 2005

  An epileptic bulldog in the home of the world's most famous wine critic. A snarling Boston terrier on the streets of Tuscany. A loping Labrador... More >>

• Club Life

  published May 18, 2005

  It won't ruin anyone's experience of 3-Iron, the new film by Korean writer/director Kim Ki-duk, to reveal that it closes with a... More >>

• Bad Daddy

  published May 4, 2005

  If it's been a while since you've seen a great work of art, perhaps you've forgotten what it feels like: It feels euphoric. At least, that's the... More >>

• A Lot Like Good

  published April 20, 2005

  Amanda Peet. Ashton Kutcher. Romantic comedy. Who'd have thought it could work? And yet A Lot Like Love is an entertainment success, a... More >>

• Woody and Woody...

  published April 6, 2005

  Does the world really need a new film from Woody Allen every single year? Yes, he is one of America's great auteurs. Yes, he's responsible for... More >>

• Mighty Aphrodite

  published April 6, 2005

  Eros is not a single film but three, each roughly a half-hour, joined in a common goal. The first segment was made by Wong Kar Wai... More >>