by Richard von Busack
Valery Todorovsky’s energetic Russian hit musical Hipsters (tickets here) concerns the “stilyagi”—the few but proud counter-culturists of Moscow in 1955. In Moscow, clean cut Mels (Anton Shagin) is running with his Party-member …

By Richard von Busack
Gary Oldman was in town to promote his lead role in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (showtimes here) as John le Carre’s smaller than life mole-hunter George Smiley. Oldman is tightly focused, shrewd …

By Richard von Busack
After concluding an exceptionally busy year, the Irish/German actor Michael Fassbender is sure to be short-listed for the Oscar nominations for his role as the sex addict Brandon in Shame.
The poster, showing …

By Richard von Busack
In setting up the career of the ultimate arch-villain, Arthur Conan-Doyle may have introduced him wrong-way round. We don’t witness the moment of discovery when Sherlock Holmes first pieces together the vastness …

By Richard von Busack
Sometimes a movie is particularly irritating just because it’s about 10 degrees away from something that might have worked.
In Young Adult, Diablo Cody gets away from the arch slang of Juno: Oscar-winning …

by Richard von Busack
TAKESHI KITANO’S new film is almost plot-free but rich with incident, visual skill and loads of violence. Outrage shows the Japanese filmmaker at the top of his craft. The action consists essentially …

By Richard von Busack
(Opens today at CineArts at Palo Alto Square).
Introducing the year’s best documentary… Some might be avoiding the new Werner Herzog film Into the Abyss because of its subject matter: a triple murder …

by Richard von Busack
“People like symbols. I’m the symbol of certain things.” At about age 40, Steve Jobs unfolded on his career to journalist Robert X. Cringely; a small portion of this interview was used …

By Richard von Busack
In the ancient days, the godless tyrant Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) is on the warpath, furious that the Gods let his family die despite his prayers. On his murderous path is a small …

Right Turn, Clyde
By Richard von Busack
Clint Eastwood’s muddled, stodgy, peculiar, and shot full of curare bio-pic J. Edgar is ultimately nothing but ambitious, and perhaps it’s the ambition that’s making big-name critics call it a …