HollywoodandFine.com From time to time, I offer an installment in my “Annals of the Overrated.” But I don’t believe director David Gordon Green is worth an entire installment – so let this review of his latest film, “The Sitter,” serve as his induction. Consider him officially overrated. Green, you may …
HollywoodandFine.com Thrillers and spy tales have devolved in movies to a hash of slice’n’dice editing, prefabricated plots and outlandish action and gunplay that makes all espionage into James Bond or, worse, a video game. Which is why “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” is such a welcome relief. Like the John Le …
HollywoodandFine.com When is a comedy not a comedy? When it’s one of what apparently is becoming a series of holiday-themed movies by Garry Marshall. “Valentine’s Day” was the 2010 date movie from hell – an all-star cluster-grope that had fewer laughs than a rerun of “Laverne & Shirley,” Marshall’s signature …
HollywoodandFine.com People in Minnesota have this reputation for being “nice” that Diablo Cody seems determined to undermine – which she does in slashingly funny style in Jason Reitman’s “Young Adult,” opening in limited release Friday (12/9/11) before going wide on Dec. 16. The film reteams the “Juno” duo with a …
HollywoodandFine.com Perhaps I’m not qualified to write about “Sleeping Beauty,” the debut film from Australian director Julia Leigh. I am, after all, a middle-aged man. And this meandering movie, which manages to make nudity monotonous and presents sex as a distasteful commercial venture, seems to be about a kind of …
HollywoodandFine.com The fact that the dim-witted and near-sighted MPAA has slapped an NC-17 rating on Steve McQueen’s “Shame” implies that there is something prurient about this film, whose central figure is a sex addict, struggling with his demons. But, as intense and involving as this film is, the last thing …
HollywoodandFine.com “The Artist” may be the year’s most brightly imaginative and purely enjoyable film. It may also be the toughest sell. How many people, after all, will be turned off if they’re told they should see a silent black-and-white film? And yet this movie by Michel Hazanavicius is not only …
HollywoodandFine.com It’s hard now to conceive of just how huge a star Marilyn Monroe was at the peak of her fame in the mid-1950s. Take Lady Gaga, multiply her by Brangelina at their most visible – and then take it to the 10th power. You get a hint of that …