HollywoodandFine.com Elaine Stritch is one of those pop-culture figures who you either know too much about or have never heard of. A star of the Broadway stage for 70 years, she landed in New York at 18, took the town by storm and never looked back. She has a looong …
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 Mid-life romance – the post-divorce kind – is tough all around. You’ve been burned or disappointed or humiliated or all of the above. How do you learn to trust someone new in that way? Nicole Holofcener brings a wonderfully humane approach to the subject with “Enough Said,” a bittersweet …
HollywoodandFine.com Geoffrey Fletcher’s filmmaking debut, “Violet & Daisy,” is the summer’s oddest, most original treat. Imagine a script by Quentin Tarantino, directed by Wes Anderson – and you have an idea of just how deliciously surprising this film can be. It opens Friday (6/7/13) in limited release. The opening scene …
HollywoodandFine.com Let’s see if we can go through this entire review without making any puns or other kind of wordplay about magic as we discuss “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.” Seek elsewhere if you require jokes about the vanishing laughs and mystifying mediocrity of this film. The two big Steves – …
HollywoodandFine.com The annual 10-best list is a critical ritual, one I’ve been practicing for far too many years. Sure, I have opinions about what the best films of the past year are – and so does every other critic. If I think “Argo” should be on the list but not …
HollywoodandFine.com David Chase’s “Not Fade Away” is one of my favorite films of 2012, a heartfelt but clear-eyed look at what it’s like to be a teen-ager who falls in love with rock’n’roll. More accurately, it examines what it felt like to be a teen in 1963, when the Beatles …
HollywoodandFine.com While crime fiction with an edge of both menace and wit have become mainstays on TV, movies haven’t been able to consistently blend the two in recent years, with most attempts seeming either too hyperbolic and action-y or too self-consciously noir-y. Now comes “Killing Them Softly,” which may be …