HollywoodandFine.com More than 15 years in the making, “A Walk in the Woods” is an entertaining and enjoyable film, if a formulaic one. Adapted by Rick Kerb and Bill Holderman from the book by Bill Bryson, the story chronicles the decision by Bryson (played by Robert Redford) to hike the …
HollywoodandFine.com We take our mentors where we find them in life, though it’s not always apparent who’s teaching who. That’s the case in “Learning to Drive,” a comic drama by Isabel Coixet that offers beautifully matched performances by Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley. They are strangers drawn together by coincidence …
HollywoodandFine.com In a summer filled with cinematic bombast and overkill, it’s always a nice surprise to find a charming little comedy with heart like “People Places Things.” Directed by Jim Strouse, the film stars the reliably droll Jemaine Clement as Will, a seemingly happy father of young twins living with …
HollywoodandFine.com Guy Ritchie’s “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” is a day late and a dollar short — actually, make that several seasons late, for anyone who watches the outrageously funny animated series, “Archer.” Watching Henry Cavill deadpan his way through this film as CIA agent Napoleon Solo (the name says it …
HollywoodandFine.com I tend to blow hot and cold on the films of Noah Baumbach though, truthfully, more hot than cold. I like his spikiest, least-audience-friendly films (“Margot at the Wedding,” “Greenberg”), as well as more mainstream offerings like his breakthrough “The Squid and the Whale” or this year’s “While We’re …
HollywoodandFine.com Jonathan Demme’s “Ricki and the Flash” is one of those near-misses that feels as though a lot of discussion went into the rationale behind every wrong-headed decision. No doubt Demme (and screenwriter Diablo Cody) can explain why a failed singer playing in a bar band is someone we should …
HollywoodandFine.com When the subject is immigration, outrage tends to outshout empathy. There’s a lot of fear but not a lot of humanity. Which is why “Samba” is a film that could make a difference. The story about an undocumented immigrant in Paris, this is a film about one man’s life, …
HollywoodandFine.com The idea of human consciousness going mobile is an intriguing one: What if you could actually trade minds with another person? That’s the premise of “Self/less,” a disappointing mind-transfer tale notable for its performances if not its dramaturgy. Writers David and Alex Pastor and director Tarsem Singh take a …
HollywoodandFine.com The creators of “Minions” obviously never heard either of two complementary expressions: “A little goes a long way” and “too much of a good thing.” If they had, there would be no “Minions” movie. Except, of course, what am I saying? This is a Hollywood studio, where too much …
HollywoodandFine.com The wish of a terminally ill child as the subject for a documentary? I know, cue the cliches: strength in the face of tragedy, laughter through tears, the whole “Steel Magnolias” shtick. Except that Dana Nachman’s touching, funny nonfiction film, “Batkid Begins,” is sheer delight. Instead of something maudlin …