HollywoodandFine.com Is there anything headier, happier and more confusing than first love? Of course not. That sensation is captured perfectly in Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom,” as wonderfully odd and formal a film as Anderson has made. Even in Anderson’s detail-oriented obsession with symmetry and control of his images, he manages …
HollywoodandFine.com “Lovely Molly” is a direct descendant of “The Blair Witch Project.” Aside from the fact that it incorporates the same handheld, shaky-cam, faux-doc technique as that 1999 sensation, it was written and directed by Eduardo Sanchez, one of “Blair Witch”’s co-directors/creators. But this genre of horror film is played …
HollywoodandFine.com Interesting the difference a few months can make. When I saw Tanya Wexler’s “Hysteria” last fall at the Toronto Film Festival, I enjoyed it for its perspective on how far we’ve come in terms of our attitudes toward women having control over their own bodies. Eight months later, “Hysteria,” …
HollywoodandFine.com Maiwenn Le Besco’s “Polisse” is tough and compelling, a police drama with no real plot but, rather, a snapshot slice-of-life of a group of Paris cops coping with what may be the most demanding assignment on the force. They are the members of the Child Protection Unit, charged with …
HollywoodandFine.com Outrageous, offensive and alternately sophisticated and crude, “The Dictator” is also quite funny – as well as being Sacha Baron Cohen’s first comedy that is mostly scripted. Did I say offensive? Put it this way: If you don’t have a sense of humor about race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality and …
HollywoodandFine.com I’m not sure who thought it would be a good idea to try to make a movie out of the self-help pregnancy guide, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” but I have to assume that same person is currently hard at work on the video game. Which will undoubtedly …
HollywoodandFine.com Don’t judge “A Bag of Hammers” by its first 15 minutes. The debut feature from writer-director Brian Crano may start out sounding like a goofy buddy comedy, but stick with it – and it will surprise you. In a good way. The two central characters are Alan (Jake Sandvig) …
HollywoodandFine.com When Tim Burton and Johnny Depp decided, “Oh, wouldn’t it be fun to make a movie out of the campy ’60s TV show ‘Dark Shadows’,” the correct response should have been the following three words: “Wild Wild West.” Apparently no one had the stones to say that to Burton …
HollywoodandFine.com It’s only May and I already have my favorite film of the year: Bobcat Goldthwait’s “God Bless America,” as acidic and funny a movie as you’re likely to see this or any other year. Already available on VOD, it opens in limited theatrical release Friday (5/11/12). An antidote to …
HollywoodandFine.com An all-star comedy in the same vein as such crowd-pleasers as “The Full Monty,” “Calendar Girls” and other British charmers, John Madden’s “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is the kind of movie they seldom make anymore – except in England. When they try to do it in America, you …