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Kelly Jane Torrance

Articles by Kelly Jane Torrance

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The Duchess (Paramount, $29.98) - The pickings are pretty slim this time of year. Nobody wants to release quality movies after Christmas - it makes much more sense to get them out in time for gift-giving. Somehow, this little gem is being released tomorrow as an exception to the rule. Published December 26, 2008

TORRANCE: The year in movies

This wasn't a great year for great films - but it was a great year for good ones. The year's last couple of months usually are the best in the film critic's calendar, as studios screen their Oscar contenders just before award deadlines. This season, though, I found myself disappointed in almost every big competitor. Film after film seemed very competently made but somehow lacking in soul. Luckily, plenty of great movies were released earlier in the year, as this list should attest. Published December 26, 2008

Sage advice

I showed off my lush mansion, filled with priceless treasures, on television, and now I'm paying the price — I've been robbed. Published December 24, 2008

MOVIES: ‘Reader’ low on emotion

When Miramax Films bought the rights to Bernhard Schlink's novel "The Reader" in 1998, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck hadn't finished film school. It's too bad, because it would have been fascinating to see what the German director would have made of the German novel. Published December 24, 2008

Fun in the key of pink

Even the finality of the election hasn't abated this year's almost unprecedented interest in politics, as the only thing Washingtonians seem to talk about these days is the upcoming inauguration. Published December 22, 2008

Oscar race for best film wide open

The awards handed out at the end of the year by film critics often are harbingers of things to come. Last year, for example, most critics groups named "No Country for Old Men" the best film of 2007. The Coen brothers drama went on to win the Oscar. Published December 19, 2008

‘Timecrimes’ has fun with both

Europe has proved in recent years that you don't need a big budget to make a suitably scary thriller. Horror flicks such as "Them" and "The Orphanage" didn't have expensive special effects, but they more than made up for it with clever plotting and a tense atmosphere borne of mystery. Published December 19, 2008

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The Nightmare Before Christmas (Blu-ray, Disney, $39.99) -- Tim Burton may not have been the actual director of this stop-motion animation classic (that honor goes to Henry Selick) that begs the question: What would happen if Halloween bred with Christmas? Because Mr. Burton's 1993 film has all the hallmarks of his gothic sensibility, one wonders what Christmas was like in the Burton household. Published December 18, 2008

Sage advice

Advice compiled and condensed from actual sources by Kelly Jane Torrance, who composed the questions. Published December 17, 2008

More genial collaborators than Frost/Nixon

Ron Howard and Peter Morgan might seem to be unlikely collaborators. Mr. Howard, 54, is an all-American icon whose boyish face isn't all that different from the one that graced television screens as Opie in "The Andy Griffith Show" and Richie on "Happy Days." He's better known now, though, as the director of blockbuster films such as "The Da Vinci Code" and "A Beautiful Mind." Published December 12, 2008

MOVIES: Many doubts about ‘Doubt’

"Doubt" begins with a sermon. "What do you do when you're not sure?" Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) asks by way of introducing his topic. "Doubt can be as powerful and sustaining a bond as certainty." Published December 12, 2008

MOVIES: Masterful ‘Frost/Nixon’

A film about the creation of a bunch of television interviews doesn't exactly scream high drama - particularly when the audience already knows exactly what was said in them. Published December 12, 2008

Recession lowers curtain on U.S. opera

It's not just business institutions that are in danger of economic extinction these days. Your local opera company could be next. Published December 11, 2008

Sage advice

Advice compiled and condensed from actual sources by Kelly Jane Torrance, who composed the questions. Published December 10, 2008

Kennedy Center Honors outshine politics

UPDATED: This weekend's Kennedy Center Honors marked the last time President Bush and first lady Laura Bush sat alongside the honorees as they watched the tributes unfold on the stage. Published December 8, 2008

President hosts Kennedy Center Honors

This weekend's Kennedy Center Honors marks the last time President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush will sit alongside the honorees as they watch the tributes unfolding on the stage of the institution's opera house. The outgoing president will host not only one of his wife's favorite musicians but also one of his biggest Hollywood detractors. Published December 7, 2008

KenCen ‘08: Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman has one of the most distinctive voices in the world. That, combined with the elegant actor's ease at inhabiting roles of authority, has made him the go-to guy for a certain type of performance. Published December 5, 2008