Bruce Altman

A self-consciously modest film from an immodestly talented director, Ridley Scott's "Matchstick Men" comes equipped with a major star (Nicolas Cage), a ripe second banana (Sam Rockwell) and the regulation pretty face (Alison Lohman). The script was co-...

Friday October 18, 1996      You're young, you're successful, and you're in love. Life is a beach, and there is nothing on your horizon but apparent bliss . . . until an ill wind literally blows death your way, knocks your gorgeous wife off the mast of...

At the opening of Michael Cuesta's "L.I.E.," one of the year's strongest--and riskiest--films, 15-year-old Howie Blitzer (Paul Franklin Dano) is standing on an overpass, looking down on the Long Island Expressway. On the soundtrack we hear him...

There's nothing sugar-coated about adolescence as it's depicted in the films of Michael Cuesta. In 2001's "L.I.E.," a 15-year-old is confronted with a recently deceased mother, an incarcerated father and his own burgeoning sexuality, while a sexual...

There are quite a few amusing moments in ABC's new comedy "Help Me Help You." Which is not quite the same thing as saying it's a very funny show. Ted Danson, as apparently renowned therapist Dr. Bill Hoffman, suffering through his own mid-life crisis, is...