By Armond White Why waste spleen on Michael Bay? He’s a real visionary–perhaps mindless in some way (he‘s never bothered filming a good script), but Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is more proof he has a great eye for scale and a gift for visceral amazement. Bay’s ability to …
Cablevision is holding onto its lease for the iconic Ziegfeld Theatre but will turn management over to Bow Tie Cinemas, which has a contract pending to buy almost all of Cablevision’s Clearview Clearview Cinemas chain — 41 theaters, mostly in New Jersey, as well as some in Long Island, Westchester …
I had the fantastic time again over the weekend at my third TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, an event that just keeps getting better and better in its fourth year. This is one brilliantly curated series of films and special events with fantastic celebrities (Norman Lloyd and France Nuyen …
Just-ended April was quite a month for Barbra Streisand and her fans. She was feted last week at Lincoln Center (I wasn’t invited) and a couple of days later a specacular restoration of “Funny Girl” opened the TCM Classic Film Festival (I showed up, she didn’t). Plus both “Funny Girl” …
By Armond White Michael Bay sees like an ad-man gone wild— glorifying everything–a vision that corresponds to the age’s consumerist sensibility: greed and the need for speed. In Pain & Gain this style—and it is a genuine style, not fake flashiness like Trance or Side Effects—expresses the lusty and acquisitive …
HollywoodandFine.com So is the third film the decider in a series? Two out of three good enough for immortality? In the case of “Iron Man Three” (as the closing credits have it), I’d say it’s probably too close to call. Jon Favreau’s first two “Iron Man” films were a split …
HollywoodandFine.com “Love Is All You Need” is an unexpectedly upbeat film from the chronically downbeat Susanne Bier – if you can use upbeat to describe a romance between a cancer survivor and a still-grieving widower. Labeling this film a romantic comedy is probably a mistake; romantic dramedy is more like …
By Armond White The worst Steven Spielberg production ever is, without doubt, his Obama homage, Steven Spielberg’s Obama. Unlike his disingenuous Obama-in-disguise campaign feature film, Lincoln, this two-minute satirical short looks artless and slapdash; it was made for last weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner–an annual event for fatcats that contradicts …
HollywoodandFine.com It seems startling to me that so few people recognize the name of actor Michael Shannon when they hear it. Perhaps “The Iceman” will make the difference. Shannon, after all, has an Oscar nomination under his belt (for “Revolutionary Road”). He has been the star of a handful of …
HollywoodandFine.com Adapted and extrapolated from Henry James’ novel of the same name, “What Maisie Knew” is a film that puts the audience right in the title character’s world – and forces it to experience it the way she does. In this case, Maisie is a 7-year-old girl (played by the …
By Armond White Unmistakably Pal Sverre Hagan’s appearance in Kon-Tiki as Norwegian explorer Thor Heyedahl is modeled after Peter O’Toole’s T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia. Not just tall, blue-eyed with burnished blond hair, Hagan also conveys obsessive determination like O’Toole’s Lawrence, making Heyerdahl’s decision to build a balsa-wood raft …
HollywoodandFine.com Though a bit literal for a film that traffics in magical realism, Deepa Mehta’s “Midnight’s Children” is both dreamy and dramatic, a fascinating view of Indian history seen through the prism of a personal – and occasionally twinned – story. Adapted by director Deepa Mehta and screenwriter Salman Rushdie …
By Armond White Funny that the Film Society of Lincoln Center paid tribute to Barbra Streisand on April 22 with its 40-year-old Chaplin Award even though Streisand’s movies are not the kind typically shown in Film Society programming. As a fundraiser, it was unparalleled. Co-chair of the event, Ann Tenenbaum …
HollywoodandFine.com Over the years, I’ve developed what I refer to as the 20-minute rule. It basically says that a movie that hasn’t hooked me in the first 20 minutes probably isn’t going to. I tend to apply it most forcefully when I’m watching films at festivals or when I’m sorting …
