Movie Reviews
Film and television reviewed the way I’d want to read them — with a rating that means something, an honest accounting of what works and what doesn’t, and craft notes for writers who want to understand how the machinery operates.
Each review includes a craft notes section for writers — specific observations about structure, character, world-building, and what the film does that you can actually use. Not theory. Technique you can steal.
Courtroom Drama (15)
A Few Good Men (1992)
1992 Rob Reiner courtroom drama with Tom Cruise as a Navy lawyer and Jack Nicholson as the Marine colonel who can't handle the truth.
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
1959 Otto Preminger courtroom drama with James Stewart as small-town Michigan lawyer defending an Army officer charged with murder.
Inherit the Wind (1960)
1960 Stanley Kramer courtroom drama fictionalizing the Scopes Monkey Trial. Spencer Tracy and Fredric March as opposing attorneys.
JFK (1991)
1991 Oliver Stone conspiracy drama with Kevin Costner as New Orleans DA Jim Garrison prosecuting Clay Shaw for the Kennedy assassination.
Juror #2 (2024)
2024 Clint Eastwood courtroom drama with Nicholas Hoult as a juror who realizes he may have caused the death his trial is examining.
Liar Liar (1997)
1997 Tom Shadyac comedy with Jim Carrey as a defense lawyer cursed to tell the truth for twenty-four hours after his son's birthday wish.
Michael Clayton (2007)
2007 Tony Gilroy legal thriller with George Clooney as a corporate law firm fixer entangled in a class-action chemical case.
My Cousin Vinny (1992)
1992 Jonathan Lynn comedy with Joe Pesci as a New York personal-injury lawyer defending his cousin in rural Alabama. Marisa Tomei Oscar.
Primal Fear (1996)
1996 Gregory Hoblit thriller with Richard Gere as a Chicago defense attorney and Edward Norton's breakthrough as an altar boy accused of murder.
Runaway Jury (2003)
2003 Gary Fleder thriller from John Grisham. John Cusack manipulates a New Orleans gun-manufacturer trial with Rachel Weisz.
Sleepers (1996)
1996 Barry Levinson drama with Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon. Hell's Kitchen friends face their abusers in court.
The Caine Mutiny (1954)
1954 Edward Dmytryk courtroom drama with Humphrey Bogart as paranoid Captain Queeg. The strawberries, the ball bearings, the mutiny.
The Devil’s Advocate (1997)
1997 Taylor Hackford supernatural thriller with Keanu Reeves as a defense lawyer recruited by Al Pacino's New York firm.
The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
2011 Brad Furman drama with Matthew McConaughey as a Los Angeles defense attorney working out of his Lincoln Town Car.
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
1957 Billy Wilder courtroom drama from Agatha Christie. Charles Laughton as defense barrister, Marlene Dietrich as the wife.














