Author: Ann Hornaday

Starring Richard Gere, Steve Buscemi, Josh Charles, Charlotte Gainsbourg; directed by Joseph Cedar; 117 minutes; R for some obscenity In “Norman,” a delightful semi-screwball comedy from Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar, Richard Gere plays the title character, an aging New York gadfly whose eye is always on the main chance. An inveterate dealmaker, name-dropper and chatter-…

Starring Gemma Arterton, Bill Nighy, Jack Huston, Sam Claflin; directed by Lone Scherfig; 117 minutes; R for coarse language and a scene of sexuality Historical epics have taken it on the chin lately, between the pretty but superficial “Queen of the Desert” and the earnest but inert “The Promise.” Solemn and self-important to a fault,…

Starring Tim Blake Nelson, Jason Sudeikis, Austin Stowell, Anne Hathaway, Dan Stevens; directed by Nacho Vigalondo; 110 minutes; R for language — Hidden behind a dark curtain of hair, her raccoon-ringed eyes peering from under thick bangs, Anne Hathaway seems to be doing penance for the shaved head and gimme-the-Oscar bombast of her award-winning turn…

The writer-director Adam Leon made an impressive debut in 2012 with “Gimme the Loot,” an antic New York comedy about graffiti artists out for revenge. Leon delivers on that promise with “Tramps,” a similarly spirited, lively urban bagatelle, this time about a young couple who go unexpectedly on the lam after a shady deal gone…

Starring Sharlto Copley, Brie Larson, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy; directed by Ben Wheatley; 90 minutes; R for strong violence, pervasive profanity, sexual references and drug use “Free Fire,” the latest cinematic gut-punch from Ben Wheatley (“High-Rise”), gets off to a retrotastic start, with a high-energy credits sequence composed of a fat ’70s-era font and a…

Nicole Kidman. The name conjures many images and associations: the tumble of red curls and pert, blue-eyed face of the star as a newcomer to the screen; the marriage to Tom Cruise and ensuing escape from Scientology; the lithe physique and dewy features that she wears easily to this day. But one phrase we often…

Starring Jim Broadbent, Harriet Walter, Michelle Dockery, Charlotte Rampling; directed by Ritesh Batra; 108 minutes; PG-13 for disturbing thematic elements, a violent image, sexuality and brief strong obscenity “The Sense of an Ending,” Julian Barnes’ elegant Man Booker Prize-winning novel, receives a tasteful if necessarily limited adaptation in Ritesh Batra’s film. Tasteful, because few could…

The rites, rituals and sadistic extremes of fraternity hazing come in for somber if schematic scrutiny in “Burning Sands,” Gerard McMurray’s promising directorial debut. It’s a subject McMurray has wanted to tackle since his undergraduate days at Howard University, and this cautionary tale serves as the darker mirror image – literally and figuratively – to…

Oscar season is over. Let Oscar season begin? Over the past 20 years, awards season has become an effective business model for small and midbudget movies that otherwise might not get made within Hollywood’s blockbuster-centric system. When “Shakespeare in Love” won best picture back in 1998, a new marketing tactic was born, one that leveraged…