HollywoodandFine.com “In A World” announces the arrival of a new triple-threat talent: Lake Bell, already established as an actress. She wrote and directed (and produced) this new film, which was a delight at Sundance and arrives in the dog days of summer like a cool breeze. Bell plays Carol, who’s …
HollywoodandFine.com There’s been a lot of action at the movies this summer, very little of it memorable. So Baltasar Kormakur’s “2 Guns” comes as a welcome surprise: a film with the wit, tension and sheer headlong pace to grab and hold your attention for a brisk 106 minutes. Yes, that’s …
HollywoodandFine.com It’s the rare teen-ager who can see beyond tomorrow. While they may worry about the future, they tend to live in the moment because, among other things, they feel immortal and most have little evidence to the contrary. Certainly that’s the case with Sutter Keely (Miles Teller), the high-school …
HollywoodandFine.com Whatever else you may say about “The Wolverine,” the latest Marvel comic-book adventure to reach the big screen, say this: It takes guts – and, apparently, both a big movie star and a popular hero – to get Hollywood to spend a bundle on a tentpole movie the bulk …
HollywoodandFine.com Aubrey Plaza’s deadpan affect would seem to have limited comic potential. And yet, as she’s shown in the past (in “Safety Not Guaranteed”) and now with “The To Do List,” she’s really a minimalist who knows how to do a lot with a little. A sex comedy with heart, …
HollywoodandFine.com Approaching the age of 80, with more than 40 feature films under his belt, Woody Allen continues to astonish, finding new ways to surprise audiences with each year’s film. With “Blue Jasmine,” he shows once again that he is a master of texture and tone – of creating complex, …
HollywoodandFine.com I’ve posted diatribes the past few years about Comic-Con – an event I’ve never attended and never hope to. But I was going to ignore it this year. For a couple of reasons: For one thing, I feel as though I’ve made my arguments in the past. But I …
HollywoodandFine.com One of those movies that worked much better than it deserved to, 2010’s “Red” offered action that was smart, funny and well-cast enough to make you forget just how ordinary it really was. Unfortunately, its sequel, “Red 2” is a movie of a very different and unwelcome type: the …
HollywoodandFine.com Everything that I loved about Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 film, “Drive,” all the things that I found immediate and evocative – those are all the things that struck me as wrong-headed, self-indulgent and pretentious in his newest, already much-vilified “Only God Forgives.” Working once again with a nearly silent …
HollywoodandFine.com The older I get, the less interested I am in horror films, for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the modern horror film has evolved into a choice between torture porn (violent and grisly for its own sake) and special-effects extravaganzas. Most of the horror I see (or …