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SMALL MAN, a refugee, his face and clothes blackened by coal, emerges from the darkness of a ship's hold at the beginning of Aki Kaurismaki's new film, The Other Side [...]

THE DARKEST SECRET ALEX MARWOOD Penguin WOMEN CRIME WRITERS: EIGHT SUSPENSE NOVELS OF THE 1940S & 50S EDITED BY SARAH WEINMAN Library of America YOU WILL KNOW ME MEGAN ABBOTT [...]

Movie and TV audiences may have noticed a pattern: good American roles aren't going to Americans. Why the under-40 generation of homegrown leading men is struggling--and what to do about [...]

THE DIRECTOR GUILLERMO DEL TORO won't have a feature film out in 2016, but his brand--and his spirit--seem to be everywhere. His sumptuously gruesome vampire/plague TV series, The Strain, is [...]

The Swedish actor Max von Sydow first entered the consciousness of moviegoers as the medieval knight playing chess with Death in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957). For a significant [...]

''When people talk about the genre, I guess they mention my name first,'' Stephen King once wrote, ''but without Richard Matheson, I wouldn't be around.'' The genre is, of course, [...]

BROKEN RIVER By J. Robert Lennon 276 pp. Graywolf Press. Paper, $16. J. Robert Lennon is a connoisseur of calamity, qualms and paradox, all of which are on profuse display [...]

THE CHANGELING By Victor LaValle 431 pp. Spiegel & Grau. $28. ''I think I hate those fairy tales,'' an evil old man declares in Victor LaValle's strange and wonderful new [...]

SIX FOURBy Hideo YokoyamaTranslated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies.566 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $28. ''Was it possible that, in that silence, all worlds were connected?'' This strange question, which turns out [...]

The good novel that demonstrates not only large, inclusive visions of society but also the 'The Sopranos' created on the vast canvas of imagination is described. The works of two famous writers William Gibson's 'Pattern Recognition' and Richard PriceEs 'Samaritan' resurrecting the lost art of story telling are also discussed,

Billy Collins, a famous personality and a national poet are known for his reader friendly, self-ironic lyrics designed on the subjects to preclude poetic purification. His works and themes of the poetry often begin with jokes; riffs on familiar phrases, which make the readers, enjoy every moment of his poetry.

The report studies about the crime-writers in Scotland where he describes the crime fiction writer. The report also gives details about Tartan Noir by James Ellroy.

The late 50's saw the transition for Hollywood films. However, movies of the past ten years have been heavily reliant on new technology and unrealistic explorations.

A titanic portrait of American Sen. Lyndon Johnson, who used his power to destroy individuals and also to advance the cause of human rights, is presented. Throughout his senate career, he was very eager to protect the interests of wealthy businessmen.

Hollywood has fallen on hard times of late. Disappointing films from major studios, including Pearl harbor and Planet of the Apes to name a few, have alienated American movie-goers from Hollywood. The present generation of filmmakers has shown a penchant for producing navel-gazing movies about movies.

An overview is presented of the depiction of the sport of baseball in motion pictures and what has made the majority of attempts unsuccessful. One of the major problems with most depictions is that they attempt to make the audience feel good, and present only an idealized version of the game.

Issues concerning the life and works of singer-songwriter, Bob Dylan, including Dylan's involvement in the civil rights movements of the 1960s are discussed. Dylan, 60 years of age, is still writing and performing.

Charles Burnett states that filmmakers of his generation are often not willing to compromise. He searches for the uncomfortable truth, even if this negatively affects his popularity.

The influence of Asian filmmaking on Hollywood is discussed. It is argued that the leading studios can learn a number of things from Asian filmmaking, including the nature of film stardom.

Vampires can metamorphosis into such a wide variety of persona that there has been an almost unlimitless supply of characters on which to base new and bizarre films.

Actor Kevin Spacey discusses his attitudes to life and to his work. The author suggests Spacey was always acting and performing during the interview.

Issues concerning the wealth of plots, ideas, and characters that successful crime novelists continue to create are presented. Reference is made to the work of Donald E. Westlake, Lawrence Block and Elmore Leonard.

The work of Motion Picture Director Steven Soderbergh is reviewed. His latest film is 'Erin Brockovich' starring Actress Julia Roberts.

The state of theatrical production in the UK is discussed. The fact that outstanding productions can still be seen on the UK stage is highlighted.

Issues concerning America's cultural focus on 'winners' and 'losers' are discussed, with particular emphasis on historically popular 'loser's' music, such as punk rock.

The popularity of Thomas Harris's novel 'Hannibal,' and other books and films about serial murder, is far out of proportion to its actual occurrence. It shows how jaded, cynical, and morally disconnected most Americans have become.

An analysis of football-themed movies, such as the surprise hits 'Varsity Blues' and 'The Waterboy,' reveals that these films are not aimed at actual football fans. It is ironic that films that actually tackle the sport do not become popular with moviegoers.

Hitchcock's reputation as the Master of Suspense was built on his eye for detail and the use of the available special effects of his era. In addition, he loaded his films with wit and naughtiness to expose dark motives or arouse empathy for villains.

Ellison's unfinished novel 'Juneteenth' sheds some light on the writer's puzzling silence in the 40-odd years after he published 'Invisible Man' in 1952. The unfinished work was intended to become a richly textured comic novel that would surpass the scope and ambition of Ellison's first novel.

Wile E. Coyote and Pepe Le Pew are two of Jones' creations that present failure as the dominant theme of his cartoons. Another theme that is present in Jones' work is the eternal, doomed pursuit which is represented by Tom and Jerry and Tweety and Sylvester.

The argument that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas undermine American movie art has no merit. While it may be true that the two filmmakers had their share of disappointing pictures, it was they who revolutionized the art of filmmaking with their radical approach.

American film actor Steve McQueen deserves a loftier standing in the pantheon of show business. He was hugely popular in the 1960s at a time when British movies and actors such as Sean Connery in the first James Bond movie, 'Dr No,' ruled the tills.

Movie director Bernardo Bertolucci claimed cinema is undergoing a transformation with new approaches to character, psychology and structure. However, what he meant, was an avant-garde movement should be present in the arts.

Famed American novelist Philip Roth's new novel, titled 'I Married a Communist,' reintroduces to readers the travails of Roth's alter-ego Nathan Zuckerman. The 65-year old novelist achieved fame with his series of acclaimed novels, two of which were made into films.

''Suddenly it all struck Misao as impossibly artificial.'' This epiphany comes to a middle-class Tokyo woman about halfway through Mariko Koike's unnerving novel THE GRAVEYARD APARTMENT (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's, $25.99), [...]

RAZOR GIRLBy Carl Hiaasen333 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. $27.95. In Florida it's usually too hot to move very fast, but Carl Hiaasen, a native son of the Sunshine State, likes [...]

There are two dogs in Stephen King's fat new collection, THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS (Scribner, $30). Both of them die. You expect there to be a certain amount -- [...]

Motion pictures often depict life in the suburbs as bleak, unappealing, and devoid of any humanity contrary to what residents in reality experience. The movie 'The Truman Show' stereotypically depicts suburban life as destructive to the typical middle class individual.

Fiction writer Stephen King has produced his best book in years, 'Bag of Bones,' and with it, he has incited renewed interest on the horror genre. Despite the novel's thematic abundance and allusiveness, it is never trapped in self-consciousness or depression.

The romantic comedy genre is undergoing changes, as reflected in Peter and Bobby Farrelly's movie, 'There's Something About Mary.' The movie, which demonstrates the Farrellys' gag humor, appeared to ignore the audience's interest on its romantic angle.

Most of today's actresses should make use of beauty and glamor as well as their acting prowess to gain wide viewership. Actresses should not be inhibited by their physical attributes in portraying a variety of roles and emotions. Beauty should be used to enhance their acting skills.

Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett among others are the early creators of private eyes in detective fiction. Their heroes are portrayed as intellectual pursuers untangling a web of mysteries, while their villains are described to be murderers for reasons.

The box office success of 'Titanic' brings to fore the idea of empowering teenagers in movie scenes. It is a marketing strategy that fails to understand the realities and pains of adolescence. Teenagers never wish to become any of the portrayed characters, but rather be with the character.

Critics claim that boxing movies, such as Rocky I, downplay the real status of the sport. The sport is not interesting to watch in the movies since fighting sequences are given limited coverage. Social ills and dramas related to the life of the featured boxer are common themes.