If I'm ever interested in finding out whether a movie I want to see is any good or not, I go right to Roger Ebert's site at the Chicago Sun-Times. I could probably count on one hand the number of times over the years that I may have disagreed strongly with his review of a film.

Another place that I tend to read for reviews is the New York Times. While I don't always agree and often don't understand what their critics are even talking about, there is no doubt that they treat film as an art and take the medium very seriously. So when you read a Times review with the following comment......

"Jimmy Markum is not only one of the best performances of the year, but also one of the definitive pieces of screen acting in the last half-century, the culmination of a realist tradition that began in the old Actor's Studio and begat Brando, Dean, Pacino and De Niro."

......you have to be interested. The movie is "Mystic River" starring Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins - directed by Clint Eastwood. Go here to read the entire review. Go here for the trailer.