At one point in Maria Sødahl’s superb drama “Hope,” which concerns a woman facing the onset of an illness diagnosed as terminal, a doctor describes treating cancer as “like peeling an onion.” The same might be said for the film itself. Though the story’s medical premise is quickly announced, what follows peels back layer after…

Sebastian Stan and Denise Gough have wild, spontaneous sex all over the place—on the beach, in a truck bed, on a ferry—in the whirlwind Greek romance “Monday.” But while that sounds passionate and exciting, director and co-writer Argyris Papadimitropoulos’ film is actually a repetitive slog. As the couple’s once-thrilling romance quickly wanes, so does the…

I’ve always had trouble waking up. My parents would take turns yelling my name, trying to get me up for school. (Since I was named after the Katherine Ross character from “The Graduate,” they often found this amusing. “Elaaaaaaine!”) One morning, after a few rounds of shouting my name and even turning on my bedroom…

Break ups are usually never easy, but a break up right before a sibling’s wedding? That’s the pickle the couple finds themselves in Jeff Rosenberg’s romantic dramedy “We Broke Up.” Do they announce their big sad news before the wedding? Or, do they pretend to stay together so not to overshadow the couple getting married?…

Barbara Crampton got her start in the mid-’80s with a regular role on the NBC soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” and she continued to work in various soaps through the years. But it is through horror films that she became an icon, with “Re-Animator” (1985), “Chopping Mall” (1986) and “From Beyond” (also 1986). At…

For nearly 40 years, Gregory Nava has been one of the leading lights in the Latino film community. Long before larger-than-life self-promoters like Robert Rodriguez or Guillermo del Toro or Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nava opted to tell human-sized stories. Oftentimes, his movies dealt with the collision point between Mexican and American cultures. His first major feature…