HollywoodandFine.com “Art and Craft” is a potent title that can be taken in several different ways, in this fascinatingly complex and endlessly entertaining documentary from a trio of filmmakers: Sam Cullman, Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker. It examines the conflicting notions of art and imitation, finding an extremely bizarre middle …
HollywoodandFine.com There is a growing canon of films built around a man/woman-alone against the elements. Two of last year’s most gripping films – “Gravity” and “All Is Lost” – and two to come shortly focus on the tininess of man in nature and the lengths and limits of his strength …
HollywoodandFine.com When you consider that Tom Cruise has been a major movie star for more than three decades, it’s surprising how few out-and-out stinkers he’s made (can Tom Hanks say the same thing?) and how much of himself he can still hold in reserve, with which to surprise us in …
HollywoodandFine.com I’m not going to apologize for laughing my ass off at Seth MacFarlane’s “A Million Ways to Die in the West.” And I’m not going to compare it to “Blazing Saddles.” Yes, they’re both spoofs of westerns with their own unique brand of gross-out humor. But that’s as far …
HollywoodandFine.com Here’s a misleading metric: This new film of “Godzilla” is miles above Roland Emmerich’s turgid mess of a film from 1998, which starred an embarrassed-looking Matthew Broderick and a bemused Jean Reno. Duh. There are lots of movies that make Gareth Edwards’ new “Godzilla” look like a masterpiece. That, …
HollywoodandFine.com Even as the brain-dead “Godzilla” is somehow getting a pass in its early reviews, you can bet that “Million Dollar Arm” is going to get savaged by the same critics, who are uncomfortable with movies that deal, ultimately, with feelings instead of ideas (or, in the case of “Godzilla,” …
HollywoodandFine.com Yes, yes, I know – spidermanspidermanspidermanspiderman. I’ll get to it. But my favorite movies of the week, as usual, are the small ones. Let’s start with Amma Asante’s “Belle,” a Jane Austen-ish film based on a true story. The central character is Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the daughter …
HollywoodandFine.com There are so many potentially interesting elements swirling around Wally Pfister’s “Transcendence” – something old, new, borrowed and blue – that the disappointment when they don’t add up to a significant movie is acute. Written by first-timer Jack Paglen and directed by Pfister (Christopher Nolan’s go-to cinematographer), “Transcendence” trolls …
HollywoodandFine.com Maybe it’s because the studio movies at this time of year are so universally dreadful, but I find myself drawn to the smaller films that bite and snarl and generally have bad manners: “Bad Words,” “The Raid 2” and, this week, “Dom Hemingway.” Written and directed by Richard Shepard …
HollywoodandFine.com How do I love the work of Wes Anderson? Let me count the ways. Anderson may be the most consistently original filmmaker to emerge during the 25 years I’ve been writing about film in New York. He has a distinctive style that only gets deeper as he matures – …
HollywoodandFine.com If you crossed a disaster film from the 1970s with a low-budget action-thriller from the last five years, you’d get something that looks like “Non-Stop.” It’s no wonder that Liam Neeson looked so chagrined to talk about it on “60 Minutes” this past Sunday. But as he noted, they’re …
HollywoodandFine.com Love and murder – are there more crucial or basic ingredients for a good story? It’s like cooking and starting with chicken or beef stock: They are the building blocks from which the best recipes are constructed. Charlie Stratton’s “In Secret” is based on Emile Zola’s “Therese Raquin” – …
HollywoodandFine.com Who is the traitor? That question of loyalty, deception and betrayal haunts the Oscar-nominated film “Omar” by Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad, whose dark, weirdly funny “Paradise Now” was also an Oscar nominee. This thriller is about more than the sum of its parts. Adam Bakri is Omar, a young …
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 …