Hunger Plays TV Games By Armond White On the most superficial level, The Hunger Games is about a futuristic post-war society called Panem sacrificing its young people in a gladiatorial-style survival tournament. Each district in Panem send a female and male Tribute, chosen by blood-type lottery, to fend for themselves …
HollywoodandFine.com Our urban schools are screwed up; our teachers are under siege and burnt out; and the parents of the children who cause the most problems are the least involved. So what else is new? If all this seems obvious to you, it apparently comes as a shock to filmmaker …
John Carter as Wall-E Sequel By Armond White Andrew Stanton’ John Carter fulfills the promise of his previous film Wall-E. The dystopian state of our film culture is apparent in every luckless scene that adapts Edgar Rice Burrroughs’ 1917 adventure novel A Queenof Mars. Burroughs’ boys’ fiction had recognizable influence …
HollywoodandFine.com With each new movie, filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass show greater assurance as writers and directors. Though their films now feature recognizable (even well-known) actors and their production values are a little glossier, they haven’t lost their determinedly personal take on the stories and characters on which they focus. …
HollywoodandFine.com I’ll give Will Ferrell credit for this: There aren’t many actors who would make an entire comedy in a foreign language just as a joke. Now – if only the joke itself were funny… The movie in question is “Casa de mi Padre,” which feels like a spoof of …
HollywoodandFine.com Say “Jump,” and I’ll ask, “How high?” Say “21 Jump Street” and I’ll ask, “Why? Why? Why?” Why, indeed. The answer seems to be in the credits: because Jonah Hill, who was a preadolescent when the Johnny Depp TV show of the same name was on the air, apparently …
HollywoodandFine.com Playing like some disjointed hybrid of “Strangers on a Train” and “The Parallax View” by way of “Death Wish,” “Seeking Justice” is never terrible – just never terribly anything else, either. Having a seasoned action pro like Roger Donaldson at the helm helps. On the other hand, putting Nicolas …
HollywoodandFine.com Adapt and evolve – hey, it’s what we do. But when you get stuck in the rut of your life without realizing it, it’s nice to have someone unexpected come along and nudge you out of it. That, at least, is one of the lessons to take away from …
HollywoodandFine.com “Silent House” is one of those gimmick-movies that you can easily imagine beginning with a conversation along the lines of, “Hey, you know what would be cool?” In this case, the answer to that question is, “It would be cool to make a horror movie in one continuous unedited …
HollywoodandFine.com There seem to be an endless series of student competitions about which to make documentaries – and any number have been made over the years. From “Spellbound” (about the National Spelling Bee) to last year’s “Louder Than a Bomb” (about high-school poetry slams) to “Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon” …
HollywoodandFine.com Jennifer Westfeldt has slowly built herself a respectable filmography as a writer of smart, entertaining romantic-comedies, beginning with “Kissing Jessica Stein,” continuing through “Ira & Abby,” both of which she also starred in. She’s worked outside the studio system for the most part, because Westfeldt tends to go for …
HollywoodandFine.com You shouldn’t see “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” on an empty stomach. Indeed, you should have sushi in ready proximity once you have seen this fascinating look at the world’s greatest sushi chef. And it better be good. Directed by David Gelb,”Jiro Dreams of Sushi” is a documentary portrait of …
HollywoodandFine.com I’d probably seen the placard on the side of New York city buses a half-dozen times – the one for “John Carter” in which what appear to be two giant, eye-less, four-armed apes are shown against an orange background with “John Carter” in big capitals – before I actually …
HollywoodandFine.com I don’t think there was a movie at last fall’s Toronto Film Festival (or New York after that) that thrilled me in the same way that “Footnote” did. Joseph Cedar’s film, about a family of academics, creates a tension that squeezes laughs out of the audience. It’s the kind …