Joe Wright

Considering its daunting production difficulties and director Joe Wright’s last-minute decision to totally change the look and meta-narrative of the film, there’s an almost storybook quality to the Oscar nominations haul by “Anna...

It's as if this year filmmakers remembered why God made movies. In a world of nonstop data where most of the static is gossip in 140 soul-destroying words or less, cinema has had a transcendent 12 months — a visual renaissance that has burned past...

"Anna Karenina" opens Friday at the Capitol Theatre, and runs through Jan. 10. Based on the Leo Tolstoy novel, the film stars Keira Knightley, Jude Law and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. ANNA KARENINA - 3 stars Joe Wright’s lovely adaptation of the...

A film's music is often considered a character itself, and this season the roles composers have to play aren't getting any easier. Talking about love between the emotionally unstable is one thing, but how, for instance, does that sound? Or when a...

I'm 51 and Bilbo-free. Somehow "The Hobbit" has eluded me my entire reading life. What was I reading in junior high when I first noticed everyone else was reading it? "Big A: The Story of Lew Alcindor," maybe. Or William K. Everson's book on Laurel &...

The Leo Tolstoy classic "Anna Karenina" has seen its share of adaptations. In its latest turn, from director Joe Wright, the love story gets a bold, creative and visually beautiful reworking of the Russian tale with truly inventive costuming. Starring...

Director Joe Wright's vision for the Leo Tolstoy classic "Anna Karenina" has been called "bold," "daring" and "ambitious" — words that could also be used to describe the effect the director and his leading lady, Keira Knightley, have on each other....

Anna Karenina, this week's featured adaptation, is dividing the critics. Shallow, overblown eye candy? Faithful retelling of Tolstoy's tale of doomed lovers? You'll have to judge this one for yourself. But don't be surprised if you get an argument,...

*** (out of four) Writer-director Andrea Arnold’s last film, 2010’s “Fish Tank,” starred Michael Fassbender in one of many fantastic performances that all but guaranteed he'd be a huge star. One year later, Fassbender held his own...

Steven Spielberg is the premier film director of his generation. When he turns his creative spotlight on major historical events, he has no equal. In "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List," he brought forth the reality of World War II like no...

Years ago when I was a student at Northwestern University, a handful of executives at America Online came to my class and explained that you, I and everyone we know would soon find ourselves pleasantly stranded on "information islands." We nodded,...

For most of "Les Misérables," things do not go well for Fantine. Abandoned by the father of her child, she goes on a long spiral down the economic ladder and winds up working in a brothel. And although she's always featured with a splash of color in the...