The week in movies: ‘Labyrinth of Lies,’ ‘Mississippi Grind’ and more

HollywoodandFine.com Depending on which source you believe, there are between one and two dozen — yes, you read that right, dozen — films opening this Friday in New York. Here is a brief look at a half-dozen of them: ‘Labyrinth of Lies’: This German film tells an uncomfortable story about …

‘Learning to Drive’: Life lessons

HollywoodandFine.com We take our mentors where we find them in life, though it’s not always apparent who’s teaching who. That’s the case in “Learning to Drive,” a comic drama by Isabel Coixet that offers beautifully matched performances by Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley. They are strangers drawn together by coincidence …

‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’: Broken tentpole

HollywoodandFine.com Guy Ritchie’s “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” is a day late and a dollar short — actually, make that several seasons late, for anyone who watches the outrageously funny animated series, “Archer.” Watching Henry Cavill deadpan his way through this film as CIA agent Napoleon Solo (the name says it …

‘Mistress America’: Greta or not

HollywoodandFine.com I tend to blow hot and cold on the films of Noah Baumbach though, truthfully, more hot than cold. I like his spikiest, least-audience-friendly films (“Margot at the Wedding,” “Greenberg”), as well as more mainstream offerings like his breakthrough “The Squid and the Whale” or this year’s “While We’re …

‘Ricki and the Flash’: Strictly a lounge act

HollywoodandFine.com Jonathan Demme’s “Ricki and the Flash” is one of those near-misses that feels as though a lot of discussion went into the rationale behind every wrong-headed decision. No doubt Demme (and screenwriter Diablo Cody) can explain why a failed singer playing in a bar band is someone we should …

‘Best of Enemies,’ ‘Listen to Me Marlon’: Tasty slices of history

HollywoodandFine.com Half the struggle in documentary filmmaking is finding the right material. The other half is figuring out what to do with it. Two new documentaries get both halves of that equation right. “Listen to Me Marlon” takes previously unheard tape recordings of Marlon Brando and illustrates them with film, …

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