By Armond White Whatever else is going on in Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess (now playing at Film Forum), it is also–unmistakably–a satire on film culture’s extinction. The weird weekend gathering of chess and computer geeks at an early 80s conference (they’re testing whether a machine can outplay a human being) …
HollywoodandFine.com One of those movies that worked much better than it deserved to, 2010’s “Red” offered action that was smart, funny and well-cast enough to make you forget just how ordinary it really was. Unfortunately, its sequel, “Red 2” is a movie of a very different and unwelcome type: the …
HollywoodandFine.com Everything that I loved about Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 film, “Drive,” all the things that I found immediate and evocative – those are all the things that struck me as wrong-headed, self-indulgent and pretentious in his newest, already much-vilified “Only God Forgives.” Working once again with a nearly silent …
Why Kanye West’s New Slaves matters as cinema By Armond White Performance Art is dead. At least it felt that way until Kanye West’s New Slaves–an in situ projection that played in 66 cities around the world. Kanye’s single-take recitation of his song “New Slaves” stared back at its spectators, …
HollywoodandFine.com The older I get, the less interested I am in horror films, for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the modern horror film has evolved into a choice between torture porn (violent and grisly for its own sake) and special-effects extravaganzas. Most of the horror I see (or …
HollywoodandFine.com It’s been four years since “The Cove” – and 20 years since “Free Willy.” And yet, as the upsetting new documentary, “Blackfish,” shows, man’s inhumanity to mammals continues unabated – as commercialized and heartless as ever, even when it includes collateral damage. That’s the story of “Blackfish,” a controversial …
Must-See Movies Beyond the Blockbusters A kindergartner kisses her teacher on the lips in the school playroom. Taken aback by the unexpected intimacy, the teacher nonetheless sets her straight: little girls do not kiss grown men on the lips. Then a little boy interrupts to initiate a pillow fight. Ashamed, …
By Armond White Two visions of America compete in Grown Ups 2 and Pawn Shop Chronicles–each different, each impressive. Adam Sandler’s follow-up to his 2010 hit continues the celebration of friendship and community while director Wayne Kramer’s film confronts the hostility and hysteria that define the era’s dissatisfaction. Both movies …
By Armond White After Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel brought visual ingenuity, emotion and moral gravity to the sci-fi spectacular, it’s hard to settle for over-the-top childishness like Pacific Rim. Director Guillermo del Toro favors frivolous exaggeration–the world under attack by Kaiju, gargantuan sea monsters. Mankind fights back by building …
HollywoodandFine.com I know people for whom watching Michael Cera act in anything is akin to nails on a blackboard – or even bamboo splinters under those fingernails. He’s the contraindication of an enjoyable film. For me, “Crystal Fairy” is further proof that Cera has a lot more range (and daring) …
HollywoodandFine.com Ryan Coogler’s “Fruitvale Station” arrives in theaters as this year’s independent film to beat when it comes to year-end awards. Quiet, stirring, enraging and sometimes quite funny, Coogler’s film, which took the two top prizes at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is a snapshot of the dialectic of race …
By Armond White And it was hell tryin’ to bail to the ovaries With nothin’ but the Lord lookin’ over me I was white with a tail But when I reached the Finish Line— YOUNG BLACK MALE! –Ice Cube’s “The Product” Young Black males rarely get such a smoothly beautiful …
HollywoodandFine.com In some ways, movies are about our childhood: about the dreams, fantasies, fears and hopes we saw reflected from our own lives on a big screen when we were at an impressionable age. So how much you enjoy Guillermo del Toro’s sprawling, exciting and exceptionally imaginative “Pacific Rim” may …
HollywoodandFine.com For years, I’ve read about the so-called “Black List” of screenplays: allegedly great scripts which, for some reason, Hollywood ignores because it would rather make dumb crap like “The Lone Ranger.” Then I see a movie like “Killing Season,” written by Evan Daugherty, a script billed as one of …
