Kelly Jane Torrance

Costner’s ‘Swing Vote’

Kevin Costner is an old-fashioned movie star. He's an Oscar-winning director and a financier-producer, too. He's also a plain ol' movie lover.

August 1, 2008

TORRANCE: Bumpy road to ‘Brick Lane’

Tannishtha Chatterjee really made herself at home on the set of "Brick Lane."

August 1, 2008

TORRANCE: Goode’s star rises with recent works

Matthew Goode knows firsthand that many in his native England didn't see the need for a new adaptation of "Brideshead Revisited."

July 25, 2008

MOVIES: ‘Brideshead’ revisited again

When producers announced a new adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's lush 1945 novel "Brideshead Revisited," the question on many lips was: "Why?"

July 25, 2008

A telling thriller

Combine the tricky twists and turns of the American thriller with the subtlety and sophistication of French cinema and you have "Tell No One" ("Ne le dis a personne"), a highly charged piece of work that grabs you by the neck and doesn't let go.

July 18, 2008

MOVIES: Mamma Mia, what kitsch!

How do you like your kitsch? With a heavy dollop of irony? Or straight-up, on the rocks? If it's the latter, you'll love "Mamma Mia!"

July 18, 2008

Crystal skulls and Kermit: Museums no relic of past

When British scientist James Smithson died in 1829, he left his fortune to the United States, a country he had never visited, for an "Establishment for the increase & diffusion of Knowledge."

July 16, 2008

TORRANCE: Elegant ‘Angel’ of Canada

"The Stone Angel" is a Canadian classic. The novel by Margaret Laurence is required reading for almost every high-schooler up north.

July 11, 2008

Media Room

"The Bank Job" might seem like it has a pretty preposterous plot. The thing is, the story is true — at least partly.

July 11, 2008

Media Room

"The X-Files: I Want to Believe," the second feature film based on the cult television show, hits theaters July 25.

July 4, 2008

MOVIES: A smart, spunky ‘girl’ for tweens

"Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" is likely to do brisk business among families this weekend. What could be more fitting this Fourth of July than to take your daughter to a movie about a spunky young girl helping her friends and family struggle through the Great Depression?

July 2, 2008

TORRANCE: Maddin’s Winnipeg

Canadian auteur Guy Maddin is known as much for how his films look as for what they say. Most of his films, which include the Isabella Rossellini musical "The Saddest Music in the World," look as if they were shot in the 1920s or '30s rather than the present day.

June 27, 2008

TORRANCE: The carry-on library

We've all done it. Rushing to get clothes, kids and currency properly packed, we arrive at the airport ready to relax and realize we've forgotten a book for that four-hour flight. Or we remember but finish it by the time we land and have nothing left to focus on but our fellow sunbathers as we sprawl out on the beach. So we stop at the airport bookstore and, all too often, are stuck choosing between the latest Stephen King and the last few Jodi Picoults.

June 27, 2008

Sage Advice

Dear Christie Brinkley: As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.

June 25, 2008

Media Room

Radio talk-show host Adam Carolla understands if some people forever associate him with "The Man Show." Still, he hopes people - especially film critics - will watch his new-to-DVD film "The Hammer" without considering his comedic baggage.

June 20, 2008

TORRANCE: ‘Beauty’ leaves one spellbound

"Beauty in Trouble" ("Kraska v nesnazich") was inspired by a song that was inspired by a poem. This moving and surprising Czech film, however, is very much down to earth, its concerns informed as much by modern, complicated Czech life as by an age-old, universal narrative.

June 20, 2008

With gadgets, early adopters now wary adopters

Do you pride yourself on being an early adopter of new technology? Perhaps you were envied as the first on your block to have the stylish Apple iPhone last year - only to find that those who waited a mere two months got theirs for $200 less.

June 20, 2008

Sage Advice

Woo hoo! I did it! The jurors may have thought it was me on that tape, but they had to admit there simply wasn't enough evidence to convict. What I'm most interested in now, besides a digital video camera with password protection, is how my next album is going to sell. It should be out in July. Is that enough time for the hubbub over these accusations to die down? After all, I was found not guilty.

June 18, 2008

Expanding Silverdocs festival increasingly international

Silverdocs just keeps getting bigger. Now in its sixth year, the documentary festival presented by the American Film Institute and Discovery Channel at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring goes from six days to eight days this year. There's now less chance that you'll find every showing you want to attend sold out before you've had a chance to pick up tickets.

June 13, 2008

Media Room

Funny Games (Warner Home Video, $27.95) - "Funny Games" is brilliant. Judging from its domestic box office, though, not too many people realized that. Perhaps the problem is that American audiences don't want to think too much about their love of violent cinema. At the time of its theatrical release earlier this year, I wrote that the people who most need to see the film are also the people least likely to view it - and it seems I was right.

June 13, 2008