HollywoodandFine.com South Korean cinema has exploded internationally in the past decade or so. I won’t speculate about how South Korean society informs the consciousness of its filmmakers because, well, we probably only see a fraction of the output. It would be like basing your opinions of American culture on the …
HollywoodandFine.com The conventional wisdom about the “Star Trek” movies starring the cast of the original TV show was that the even-numbered films were the good ones and the odd-numbered ones kind of sucked. That began to change when the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” movies kicked in; most of them …
HollywoodandFine.com I’ve mostly been a fan of the films of Noah Baumbach but, with “Frances Ha,” he loses me. Never a filmmaker for whom story seemed particularly important, Baumbach collaborated here with his star, Greta Gerwig, for what feels like an amorphous and fragmentary story of a delusional young woman …
HollywoodandFine.com Having made his name with the kind of horror films that inspired the term “torture-porn,” producer-writer Eli Roth tries to show that there are other tricks up his sleeve with “Aftershock.” Think of it as a 1970s’ disaster movie, spiked with 21st-century horror effects. Irwin Allen meets Robert Rodriguez. …
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 …