From American Beauty (overrated) to The Night of the Hunter (masterpiece), this collection of Peter Rainer's film critiques spans the course of his illustrious 30-year career, which dates back to the early 1980s. Rainer covers films both well-known and obscure and writes in depth about many film auteurs - Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, the Coen Brothers, Mike Leigh - and up-and-comers, such as Sofia Coppola and Paul Thomas Anderson. The careers of actors ranging from Marlon Brando and Jessica Lange to Robert De Niro are also given an extensive examination.
