A balanced account of America’s love affair with drugs.
The history of American drug laws have not been as cut and dried as one might think. Most of our first drug laws were rooted in misunderstanding and prejudice rather than a feeling of helping those in the throes of an addiction.Today, our drug laws stem from the 1970 Comprehensive Drug Abuse Act, which removed state regulation of existing drug laws…

The true story of a well-to-do white boy who wanted to play at what so many of us struggle against every day.
In January 1991, I began working in downtown Los Angeles, close to the Union Mission and near St. Vibiana. I walked through a kind of war zone, where the homeless (drunks and druggies and mentally deficit mostly, I thought at the time), the parking lot attendants, and even visiting businessmen thought women walking alone were fair game. I learned…

Good movie, even if the formula is apparent.
With The Great Debaters Denzel Washington returns to the director's chair for the first time since Antwone Fisher in 2002. This is his second turn as a director. The film tells an inspiring story that helped plant the seeds for the civil rights movement. It is an important story that is enlightening and puts a positive spin on a dark spot in…

An inspirational, visually stimulating film about an extraordinary man.
In Scaphandre and le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), filmmaker Julian Schnabel uses an artisan's eye in adapting this true story of former French Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominque Bauby (Mathieu Amalric). It’s the rare inspirational and imaginative film about relinquishing the fight and striving for more. Using his deft eye…

This is a great set for Indy fans, but some won’t be happy with George Lucas’s edits.
George Lucas is rarely a man of small ideas. In 1992, Lucas decided to transfer the character of Indiana Jones, popularized in three mega-successful films, to the small screen. Conceived as The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, the series began as an hour-long drama but surprisingly poor ratings forced George Lucas to revamp his idea into a series of…

The people who really need to see it might not care to be so educated by blackness — park your fears.
The fine cast of The Great Debaters, this well-told, sane and safe drama directed by Denzel Washington includes Nate Parker as Henry Lowe, Denzel Whitaker as James Farmer Jr., and Jurnee Smollett as Samatha Booke. The screenplay written by Robert Eisele chronicles just one of the achievements of Melvin B. Tolson, debate coach extraordinaire, during…

The great surprise in Sweeney Todd is that Johnny Depp can sing.
The great surprise in Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is not that Tim Burton can handle a darkly, gothic tale — we've seen that already in Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow. Nor is it that Stephen Sondheim's musical is sublimely witty — he has garnered enough awards to prove it. The great surprise is that Johnny Depp…