HollywoodandFine.com Almost from the moment the economy collapsed during the 2008 presidential campaign, there has been a war to control the narrative of what led to the disaster – nearly a catastrophe – that almost brought down the nation’s (and the world’s) economy. One of the earliest was Charles Ferguson’s …
HollywoodandFine.com “Labor Day” is one of those movies that either gets you to buy in and play along, or loses you at a crucial moment, earning only your mockery for the rest of its running time. I understand that urge to mock – and yet I’m not mocking: Jason’ Reitman’s …
HollywoodandFine.com Godfrey Reggio makes the kind of movies I think Terrence Malick longs to make. While Malick has already rejected story and plot, as well as dialogue, character development and, occasionally, even characters, he’s never made a film where he ignored all of these things completely. And that’s all that …
HollywoodandFine.com Based on a true story, “Gimme Shelter” is one of those films that means well: It’s earnest, filled with the spirit of forgiveness – indeed, it wouldn’t seem out of place on the Lifetime network. But this story about an abused, homeless and unwed pregnant teen – played with …
HollywoodandFine.com Hirokazu Koreeda’s “Like Father, Like Son” is a delicate but daunting tale, one whose quietly self-contained story manages to churn great waves of emotional complexity. The set-up is a popular literary and cinematic plot contrivance: the switched-at-birth trope. But it is acted out in movingly stark relief in this …
HollywoodandFine.com It’s easy to understand what they’re going for in the odd-couple action-comedy “Ride Along.” It’s the classic comedy-team set-up of the tough, cynical straight man and the big-hearted stooge. Whether it was Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, Hope & Crosby, Martin & Lewis – or such modern attempts …
HollywoodandFine.com There is a lovely simplicity to Jillian Schlesinger’s film “Maidentrip,” which includes the credit “made with Laura Dekker.” Dekker was the Dutch girl who, in 2010, at the age of 14, set sail from Gibraltar in a quest to be the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe alone …
HollywoodandFine.com Arvin Chen’s “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” examines several different kinds of love in a gentle, engaging tale of two couples, each struggling at a crucial point in their relationship. Set in Taiwan, the film begins with Mandy (Kimi Hsia), who is about to marry San-San (Stone), a …
HollywoodandFine.com Awards season is a phrase that makes it sound as though everyone is armed with shotguns, combing an empty cornfield in hopes of flushing statuettes from the brush. It implies a hunt, a focused pursuit whose sole goal is to return with an armful of trophies. Awards season is …
By Armond White The false politics of film culture 2013 (films exploiting race, class, sexual politics) paralleled the continued diminishment of cinephilia that has subordinated movies to TV, shifting cinema from a popular art form into political soccer games for media’s power elite. Lots of good film but also lots …
By Armond White It was a rich year for new theatrical releases but the DVD releases have also been extraordinary. Film History lessons begin here: Nashville (Criterion) Following Disney’s years-ahead lead packaging Blu-Ray discs with digital copies of new releases, Criterion finally begins offer movies-worth packages of classic films. No …
By Armond White DeNiro and Stallone’s first face-off was at the Oscars 36 years ago when Rocky won the Best Picture Academy Award over Taxi Driver. Turns out that was a defining moment for pop culture: Feel-good entertainment defeated thought-provoking art cinema and the challenge of serious life-reflection represented by …
HollywoodandFine.com It’s the time of year when critics release their lists of the year’s best films. It feels like a competitive sport – or a provocation, which all of these lists are, by nature. As in: “This is my list of the best films. If you don’t agree, you’re wrong.” …
HollywoodandFine.com A few years back, a practice known as “bum fights” – in which young adults would pay homeless men to brawl with each other, then post videos on the Internet – shocked sentient adults for its cruelty, callousness and what it said about the breakdown of the social contract. …
