David Edelstein

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, a robbery thriller directed by Sidney Lumet, is perfectly weighted and expertly crafted.

It's a crime-and-punishment story starring Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman as brothers who are desperately in debt; when Hoffman's character talks Hawke's into a scheme to alleviate the cash crunch, events go from very bad to even worse — to as grotesquely awful as possible.

Under Lumet's sympathetic direction, the brothers' anguish gets into the viewer's bloodstream, and the movie transcends melodrama.

Fresh Air film critic David Edelstein reviews the clunky but stirring melodrama Rendition.

The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Omar Metwally and Meryl Streep. It's about an Egypt-born U.S. resident who gets detained by the CIA and shipped off to be tortured in an unnamed North African country.

We Own the Night is a crime drama starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg. They play two brothers — one a cop, the other a nightclub owner — who find themselves on opposite sides of the law. James Gray directed this thriller.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Michael Clayton, the new corporate thriller starring George Clooney. Despite a routine outline, the film is sensationally well done, Edelstein says, and Clooney is as good as he's ever been.

David Edelstein reviews the film "The Darjeeling Limited."

Fresh Air's film critic reviews the new Sean Penn film, adapted from the best-selling nonfiction narrative by Jon Krakauer.

Fresh Air's film critic reviews Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah, which stars Tommy Lee Jones as a former military MP — and the father of a young soldier who's gone AWOL after returning from active duty in Iraq.

Fresh Air's film critic reviews 3:10 to Yuma, starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.

It's a remake of the 1957 movie of the same title — which was in turn based on an Elmore Leonard short story.

Fresh Air's film critic doesn't much like the new film, based on the best-selling novel of the same name. It stars Laura Linney and Scarlet Johanssen.

Superbad might be the most provocative teen sex-comedy ever made. I hedge because it's just opening, and the only ones provoked so far are nerdy male film critics. We love it! Its heroes are graduating high-school buddies swimming in hormones and uncertainty. Seth, played by Jonah Hill, is blobby and loud. Evan, played by Michael Sera, is skinny and hysterical. Seth is a virgin and likely to remain so for some time but talks of nothing but sex — a nonstop stream of naughty words that would make David Mamet sit up and salute.