Typically, you’re either the person who perks up at a trailer for an English period piece or has learned to completely tune out dress-up dramas. “The Favourite” will ruin expectations for both audiences with its playful and wry demeanor yet consummate production values and performances.

It’s unfortunate that not every film or TV show involving close, interpersonal relationships has a Tamara Jenkins in its writing room. Although she’s only made two films in the last 12 years, Jenkins demonstrates an exceptional talent for creating honest drama around ordinary, conceivable hardships.

An Oscars without a host seems fitting for one of the toughest years of Oscar prognosticating in a long while. Among all the various indicators used to determine how the big night will go, which includes critics groups and pre-Oscar award shows, there is a good amount of disagreement, especially in categories not covered in […]

Films rarely capture real life, relatable moments, let alone with any kind of regularity, but Tamara Jenkins’ “The Savages” does it.

Even if this particular pet project for Drew Goddard won’t leave viewers buzzing in quite the same way as some of his previous accomplishments, he delivers another astute example of mystery-building and storytelling that immediately pulls you in.

“Widows” doesn’t feel like the film you follow up Best Picture winner “12 Years a Slave” with, but thriller genre fans will graciously accept the talents of Steve McQueen anyway. In tandem with “Gone Girl” author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn, McQueen delivers a crooked Chicago crime story with fully-formed characters, noteworthy performances and lots of powerful visual drama.