David Edelstein

Interview is an American remake of a film by Theo van Gogh, the outspoken Dutch director who was murdered in 2004 by an Islamic extremist. It's not politically incendiary, but it's dramatically charged. It's a psychological duel to the death. Steve Buscemi plays Pierre Peders, a war correspondent stuck doing puff pieces on celebrities; Sienna Miller is Katya, the gorgeous prime-time soap goddess and horror-film actress he's assigned to talk to. She shows up very late to the trendy restaurant, feigning ordinariness but radiating entitlement.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews “The Simpsons Movie.”

There's something about the journey of John Waters' Hairspray to its current incarnation as a candy-colored, big-budget movie musical that I can't quite believe.

David Edelstein reviews "Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix."

Rescue Dawn, the first Hollywood feature from German New Wave director Werner Herzog, is the true story of Dieter Dengler, the only U.S. pilot to sucessfully escape from a North Vietnamese-controlled prison. This dramatized version, starring Christian Bale as Dengler, marks the second time Herzog has told the story.

Two momentous films open nationwide on the same day. Sicko radically challenges our perspective on health care. Ratatouille radically challenges our perspective on rats in kitchens. Cynics will say there's a better chance of a rodent becoming a chef than of universal health care for Americans. That underestimates the big fighting rat at the center of Sicko.

A Mighty Heart tells the story of the hunt in Pakistan for kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl through the eyes of his very pregnant wife, Mariane. The film is gripping: Apart from flashbacks that dramatize Mariane's idyllic memories of Daniel, it's clipped, blunt, and grimly realistic. It's almost a police procedural, with a focus on the nuts and bolts of the investigation. Our suspense is lessened, though, by our knowledge that it will end badly.

The zombie comedy Fido offers satire along with splatter; Fresh Air's film critic says it's "the blood wedding of George Romero and SCTV, and it's a treat for those who don't mind gnawed-off limbs with their hijinks." It's set in a '50s-flavored, Fiestaware-colored retro society, which can be a bit tiresome, because the decade's father-knows-best archetypes have been picked clean. Still, Edelstein says, "director and co-writer Andrew Currie treats his characters with so much affection that even the stereotypes have a fresh life."

George Clooney and the gang return to Vegas and to the casino caper for this third installment in Steven Soderbergh's hit franchise.

While Ocean's Twelve was all over the place, this one's as elegant and streamlined as hero Danny Ocean. As the plotting gets knottier, Soderbergh's technique gets more fluid — the editing jazzier, the colors more luscious, the whip-pans more whiz-bang.

The premise of Knocked Up is as blunt — as basic — as its title: An attractive and newly successful TV correspondent becomes pregnant after a drunken one-night stand with Ben, who's not just unsuitable but an unholy monument to self-indulgence. Judd Apatow's film is conventional, even conservative, but somehow it plays like one of the hippest movies ever made.