HollywoodandFine.com The wish of a terminally ill child as the subject for a documentary? I know, cue the cliches: strength in the face of tragedy, laughter through tears, the whole “Steel Magnolias” shtick. Except that Dana Nachman’s touching, funny nonfiction film, “Batkid Begins,” is sheer delight. Instead of something maudlin …
HollywoodandFine.com It is the rare movie comedy that can encompass the wild events of a single night and keep you both squirming and surprised into laughter for its full running time. Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours” is an example of the style done well; so is Greg Mottola’s “Superbad.” And now …
HollywoodandFine.com I’ve heard Rick Famuyiwa’s “Dope” referred to as “Nerdz ’N the Hood,” which is apt – although a better comparison would be “Risky Business.” Set in the Inglewood section of Los Angeles, the film’s central character is Malcolm (Shameik Moore), bespectacled and unathletic, a nerd who is both intelligent …
HollywoodandFine.com I remember my elation when I saw the first episodes of HBO’s “Entourage” in 2004. Here, at last, was a situation-comedy about backstage life in Hollywood that seemed to have it all: venality, outsized egos, even greater insecurity, greed and self-interest. If that wasn’t a recipe for comedy, what …
HollywoodandFine.com We live in a media culture which constantly insists that we should look and feel better than we do. We try to mimic the images we see, but it’s an impossible task. Obviously, you can never reach your ideal; no one is ever exactly the way they think they should …
HollywoodandFine.com “San Andreas”? I thought we critics drove a stake through this film’s heart when it came out 40 years ago under the title “Earthquake.” But each generation of special effects creates its own avalanche of disaster films: movies about disasters that are themselves disastrous. The latest iteration of cutting-edge …
HollywoodandFine.com I am a big fan of Norwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer. The Norwegian films of his that have made it to American screens – “Kitchen Stories,” “O’Horten” and now “1001 Grams” – reveal a miniaturist dealing in microcosms that reveal the world. In the case of “1001 Grams,” it is …
HollywoodandFine.com Here are some of the names that came to mind as I watched “Mad Max: Fury Road”: Federico Fellini. David Lynch. Pieter Bruegel. Ralph Steadman. Stanley Kubrick. There are images that bring each of those artists to mind, whether for a moment or an extended sequence. At times it gets …
HollywoodandFine.com Be warned. John Maclean’s directorial debut, “Slow West,” practices truth in advertising. But “slow” seems harsh as an adjective for this compelling film. “Patient” would be a more apt description; “studied” or “measured” would be two more. Because, in presenting this Scotsman’s gloss on a tale of America’s Old …
HollywoodandFine.com As squirm comedies go, “The D Train” is a breed apart, a film that puts new spin on the bromance. The bros in question are Dan Landsman (Jack Black) and Oliver Lawless (James Marsden), who haven’t seen each other since high school. Now Dan is on the high-school reunion …
HollywoodandFine.com These feel like cinematic end times – not in terms of Hollywood movies (that horse is already out of the barn), but in the pack-mentality, “hey, it’s good enough” approach of critics to the colossus that bestrides summer movies, otherwise known as the Marvel Universe. I speak specifically of …
HollywoodandFine.com “Ex Machina” is both tastily minimal and frustratingly simplistic. Alex Garland’s directing debut (he wrote “28 Days Later” and “Sunshine”) is, in essence, a three-hander about three people in a house. OK, a high-tech mansion, but you get the point. Yet, after tantalizing us with increasingly imaginative developments and …
HollywoodandFine.com Certainly the pedigree of “Child 44” makes it seem promising. Directed by Daniel Espinosa (“Safe House”) from a script by Richard Price, it features a sturdy, heavily British international cast led by Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Joel Kinnaman, Vincent Cassel and Noomi Rapace. But the timing of the release …
HollywoodandFine.com The directing debut of actor Chris Messina, “Alex of Venice” is as notable for what it doesn’t do as for what it does. This is the story of a married parent suddenly forced to realign priorities when their spouse walks out. Think “Kramer vs. Kramer” – and then make …