‘Lola Versus,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

HollywoodandFine.com Greta Gerwig is a cross between a younger Chloe Sevigny and a young Meg Ryan. She’s somehow backed into semi-“It” girl status, at least among boosters of a certain segment of independent film. She comes off mostly as off-puttingly self-pitying and mopey in “Lola Versus,” a self-consciously quirky-moody rom-drom. …

‘Peace, Love & Misunderstanding,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

HollywoodandFine.com There’s spoof that works and there’s caricature that depends on stereotype – and Bruce Beresford’s “Peace, Love & Misunderstanding” is witless caricature. Watching it makes you wonder what its creators saw in the script by Joseph Muszynski and Christine Mengert. In the world it creates, the town of Woodstock, …

‘Prometheus,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

HollywoodandFine.com As an act of cinema, “Prometheus” is stunningly designed, shot with great purpose in a serious fashion. When it finally shifts gears from “Building Dread” to “Action,” director Ridley Scott is in his sweet spot: cannily designed, well-crafted suspense in the familiar pattern of tension and release, tension and …

‘Safety Not Guaranteed,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

HollywoodandFine.com Small and delightfully self-assured, “Safety Not Guaranteed” celebrates the idea of taking a chance and accepting the unexpected, in ways that are quietly funny. It opens Friday (6/8/12) in limited release. Coming from first-timers Colin Trevorrow (director) and Derek Connolly (writer), the film is built on that hoariest of …

‘Dark Horse,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

HollywoodandFine.com I’m not going to invoke the title of this film to describe writer-director Todd Solondz. But “Dark Horse,” opening in limited release Friday (6/8/12), is pure Solondz, a return to form after “Life During Wartime” and “Palindromes,” which seemed like experiments in style more than anything else. He once …

‘A Cat in Paris,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

HollywoodandFine.com Nominated for the Oscar as best animated feature (which went to the visually brilliant but drastically unfunny “Rango”), “A Cat in Paris” is a slight but entertaining tale, most noteworthy for going old-school, with hand-drawn animation. Directed by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol from a script by Gagnol, this …

‘Wallander: The Revenge,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

HollywoodandFine.com The first “Wallander” novels by Henning Mankell were published in Sweden in the early 1990s. There have been Wallander movies and TV series in Sweden, as well as a British adaptation with Kenneth Branagh as the depressed detective Kurt Wallander that played in the U.S. on “Masterpiece: Mystery.” But …

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