Reviewer: Jeffrey M. Anderson
Rating (out of 5): ***

Casino Jack's ace-in-the-hole is Kevin Spacey, once more playing the cynical, snappy type of character he made so memorable in American Beauty. He's clearly enjoying every manic moment here, throwing in the occasional celebrity impression besides, and the screenplay by Norman Snider does a nice job of feeding his frenzy. There isn't much room for others in this kind of one-man show -- such as Kelly Preston, stuck in the sidecar playing Spacey's wife -- but Jon Lovitz gets in some nice moments as a sleazy, small-time hood.

Reviewer: Glenn Heath Jr.
Rating (out of 5): ****½

Mike Leigh's rapturous Topsy-Turvy, now on a lovely new DVD from Criterion (supervised by cinematographer Dick Pope), isn't so much an argument against auteurism, but a concurrence for the beauty of collaboration. Over the course of the sweeping multi-character narrative, Leigh mixes performance, practice, and discourse with effortless precision, showing the "symptoms of fatigue" concerning the artistic process, but also the power of sudden inspiration.

W.S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent), Sir Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner), the troupe of actors led by Richard Temple (Timothy Spall), the costume designers, set decorators, choreographers, producers, and couriers all make a substantial impact on the gloriously textural production of "The Mikado", yet no one artist can claim sole ownership. Leigh's methodical pre-production methodologies (often made up of months of rehearsals) literally appear in front of the camera, and avenues of disappointment and possibility seem organically woven into the mise-en-scene.

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Though the multitalented Tom McCarthy, 45, made his acting debut in Mike Binder's Crossing the Bridge (1992), the nineties gave him very little follow-up work. But in the 2000s things began to happen for him, including small parts in movies like Meet the Parents (2000), The Guru (2002), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), Syriana (2005), and Flags of Our Fathers (2006). However, McCarthy answered his true calling when he was able to write and direct his first film, The Station Agent (2003).

That film may have seemed on the surface a slight, indie comedy, but had subtle depth of character in addition to sharp writing, clever casting, and strong performances, and it was a modest success story. The same thing happened with McCarthy's second film, The Visitor (2008), which still serves as a model for cross-cultural Hollywood tales. An achingly good Richard Jenkins earned an Oscar nomination for his lead performance. McCarthy himself earned an Oscar nomination the following year for contributing to the screenplay of Pixar's Up (2009). Now comes McCarthy's third movie, Win Win (opening today in select theaters), which is a good deal messier, but perhaps even deeper than his previous works.

Reviewer: Steve Dollar
Rating (out of 5): ****

One of 2010's most notable releases, and a critic's favorite at Cannes (where it won the 2009 Jury Prize), Fish Tank is a must-see for anyone addicted to what might be called "visceral realism" in cinema. Those words are suggested by the late Argentine novelist Robert Bolano, writing in an utterly different context in The Savage Detectives, but they are usefully reappropriated as a coinage for director Andrea Arnold's aesthetic. You can read Ian Christie's thoughtful essay in the booklet that accompanies the new Criterion Collection DVD, which lays out Arnold's connections with the long tradition of British kitchen-sinkism (from The Lonliness of the Long-Distance Runner through Ken Loach and Mike Leigh).