HollywoodandFine.com Sarah Polley’s “Stories We Tell” is one of the year’s best films: funny, moving, thought-provoking – and so personal that it strikes universal chords. While critics often score indulgent filmmakers by referring to their efforts as “home movies,” Polley has turned that insult on its head. She takes her …
HollywoodandFine.com You probably have to be in the right mood to appreciate “Sightseers” – a mood that involves dark thoughts, perseverance and a grisly sense of humor. If you ever imagine gruesome deaths befalling people who annoy you in the course of your day – people you may not even …
HollywoodandFine.com Apparently, it’s already open season on Baz Luhrmann’s version of “The Great Gatsby,” which blasts off in 3D on Friday before opening the Cannes Film Festival next week. I have a hunch the knives have been out since it was postponed from its 2012 release date. But don’t believe …
HollywoodandFine.com Fashion entered my life in junior high school, when it suddenly became imperative that I own a Gant dress shirt, the kind with a loop on the back. These were deemed the ne plus ultra of cool – and the only place you could buy them was the Northbriar …
HollywoodandFine.com So is the third film the decider in a series? Two out of three good enough for immortality? In the case of “Iron Man Three” (as the closing credits have it), I’d say it’s probably too close to call. Jon Favreau’s first two “Iron Man” films were a split …
HollywoodandFine.com “Love Is All You Need” is an unexpectedly upbeat film from the chronically downbeat Susanne Bier – if you can use upbeat to describe a romance between a cancer survivor and a still-grieving widower. Labeling this film a romantic comedy is probably a mistake; romantic dramedy is more like …
HollywoodandFine.com It seems startling to me that so few people recognize the name of actor Michael Shannon when they hear it. Perhaps “The Iceman” will make the difference. Shannon, after all, has an Oscar nomination under his belt (for “Revolutionary Road”). He has been the star of a handful of …
HollywoodandFine.com Adapted and extrapolated from Henry James’ novel of the same name, “What Maisie Knew” is a film that puts the audience right in the title character’s world – and forces it to experience it the way she does. In this case, Maisie is a 7-year-old girl (played by the …
HollywoodandFine.com Though a bit literal for a film that traffics in magical realism, Deepa Mehta’s “Midnight’s Children” is both dreamy and dramatic, a fascinating view of Indian history seen through the prism of a personal – and occasionally twinned – story. Adapted by director Deepa Mehta and screenwriter Salman Rushdie …
HollywoodandFine.com Over the years, I’ve developed what I refer to as the 20-minute rule. It basically says that a movie that hasn’t hooked me in the first 20 minutes probably isn’t going to. I tend to apply it most forcefully when I’m watching films at festivals or when I’m sorting …
HollywoodandFine.com “Mud” is a coming-of-age tale that feels a bit like a modern “Huckleberry Finn,” mixed with a young-adult romance novel. Yet there is something both engaging and unique about Jeff Nichols’ plain-spoken tale of youngsters learning hard lessons about the nature of love and the darker side of the …
HollywoodandFine.com Francois Ozon’s “In the House,” opening Friday (4/19/13) in limited release, gets in your head, slowly at first, then with greater and greater speed. Initially seeming like a comedy about the vicarious voyeurism of a literature teacher at a Paris high school, it casually transforms itself into something else: …
HollywoodandFine.com Jacob Hatley’s documentary about the late Levon Helm (who died in 2012) is a flinty valedictory to a rough-hewn but cagey and soulful musician. “Ain’t In It For My Health” is a title that comes with two meanings. One is the issue of Helm’s mortality, on painful display in …
HollywoodandFine.com I recall a while back that a fellow critic took offense when I referred to Noah Baumbach’s “Greenberg” as “not an audience-friendly film.” He felt that I was using the term pejoratively – as though I was saying there was something wrong with any film that didn’t make a …