HollywoodandFine.com “Chicken with Plums,” opening Friday (8/17/12) in limited release, is a fascinating puzzle: at once a mordant comedy, a tale of unrequited love and a story of heart-breaking artistry. Directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud from Satrapi’s graphic novel, it is magical and mysterious, a story of love …
HollywoodandFine.com I rarely take notes during movies, but when the pretentious aphorisms started flying in David Cronenberg’s “Cosmopolis,” I dove for my notebook. I missed a few of the early ones, but managed to scribble down several of the ripest, most ridiculous pronouncements, starting with: “Life is too contemporary.” Or …
Born Cynical By Armond White Already obsolete, last decade’s financially successful Bourne trilogy–The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy, (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum, (2007)–needed re-booting to suit the new administration’s political pragmatism (the persistence of foreign policies and espionage strategies once deemed unpopular). But the series’ awful rote cynicism (characterizing …
HollywoodandFine.com In her follow-up to “2 Days in Paris,” actress-filmmaker Julie Delpy moves her focus across the Atlantic and switches leading men – from Adam Goldberg to Chris Rock. The result is another shaggy, discursive and amusing film – long on character, short on plot, full of sly observations about …
HollywoodandFine.com It used to be that a movie that celebrated the use of marijuana was considered shocking, scandalous, unacceptable and inappropriate. To some people, it probably still is. These days, smoking weed is a staple in popular entertainment – not just as a cheap punchline but as a regular story …
HollywoodandFine.com Tony Gilroy is the smartest, most intriguing screenwriter since William Goldman was in his heyday. In a variety of films – including his own “Michael Clayton” and “Duplicity” – Gilroy has demonstrated both a toughness and a cleverness that few contemporary screenwriters possess. He comes through again with “The …
HollywoodandFine.com Here’s why I’d almost be willing to give “The Campaign” a pass on the fact that it’s sloppy, inconsistent and only intermittently funny: Because it takes a populist form like a Will Ferrell movie and makes sharp-edged digs (for a Will Ferrell movie) at a political system that’s in …
HollywoodandFine.com The commercials make “Hope Springs” look like some sort of mildly naughty sex comedy about an uptight older-middle-aged couple who rediscover the joys of sex through couples’ therapy. With Steve Carell – that wacky guy! – as the therapist. And the ads trumpet the fact that it’s from “the …
Citizen Kane or Vertigo, which is more fun? By Armond White Now that Sight & Sound’s decadal critics poll has given the #1 spot to Vertigo, toppling Citizen Kane (to #2), it confirms that film culture as we used to know it has toppled as well. Citizen Kane held sway …
HollywoodandFine.com At about the halfway point in the new remake of “Total Recall,” I thought, “Wow, this is pretty good.” But pretty good is all it managed. Though Len Wiseman’s reworking of Philip K. Dick’s story (and the 1990 Paul Verhoeven/Arnold Schwarzenegger film that was extrapolated from it) comes up …