HollywoodandFine.com At the point when it actually starts to rain blood near the end of the remake of “Evil Dead,” you would think that things couldn’t get any gorier. And of course you’d be wrong. You’ve got to say this for filmmaker Fede Alvarez: He knows how to bring the …
HollywoodandFine.com There aren’t many filmmakers creating the kind of chewy, talkative dramas about real issues that used to be a staple of movie-going because, well, the audience willing to sit still for them is aging out and dying off. So bless Robert Redford: While “The Company You Keep” can’t sustain …
HollywoodandFine.com I will admit that, when it screened at the New York Film Festival a few years ago, I walked out of Antonio Campos’ “Afterschool” after about 30 minutes. And it colored my willingness to see his newest film, “Simon Killer,” opening Friday in limited release. But “Simon Killer” surprised …
HollywoodandFine.com Andrew Niccol’s film of “The Host” starts so well that, when it suddenly slows to a crawl 20 minutes later, your impulse is to give it some slack – to let it find its feet and get back on track. Unfortunately, it never does. So what you end up …
HollywoodandFine.com Derek Cianfrance’s “The Place Beyond the Pines” is a sure-handed effort from a director who proved himself capable of dramatizing difficult human emotions in “Blue Valentine.” “Pines,” opening Friday (3/29/13) in limited release, is perhaps the most linear film of the year. It deals with an overarching theme, even …
HollywoodandFine.com There are movies about movies. And then there are meta-movies like “Room 237,” opening in limited released Friday (3/29/13). Think of it as the movie-buff’s equivalent of the “Paul McCartney is dead” rumor that swept the world in 1969. People who should have known better came to the conclusion …
HollywoodandFine.com A second-rate “Die Hard” knock-off with Gerard Butler playing the Bruce Willis role, “Olympus Has Fallen” is preposterously overblown, an action movie that seems to prove the old saying: If brains were gunpowder, this movie wouldn’t have enough to blow its own nose. Directed by Antoine Fuqua – who …
HollywoodandFine.com A small but compelling story, “No Place on Earth” excavates the lost tale of one Ukrainian family’s survival during the Holocaust, when they hid in a series of deep caves that would intimidate even veteran spelunkers. Indeed, this documentary by Janet Tobias was inspired by the findings of one …
HollywoodandFine.com Ahhh, romantic comedy, that most elusive of genres: often attempted, so rarely successfully. You can count on one hand the number of good romantic comedies in any given year. Not that people aren’t making them – they just don’t do them very well. Which is why “Admission” is such …
HollywoodandFine.com Funny, surprising and full of heart, the French-Canadian comedy “Starbuck” has nothing to do with coffee (that name, after all, came from a character in “Moby-Dick”) and everything to do with redefining notions of family. Directed by Ken Scott from a script he wrote with Martin Petit, the film …
HollywoodandFine.com The darling of the Australian Academy Awards and a hit on the festival circuit, “The Sapphires” is that pure treat: an aggressively entertaining movie about the struggle, uplift, romance and joy of music. Based on a true story, it touches on the deep-seated racism in Australia that kept its …
HollywoodandFine.com As allegories go, Juan Diego Solanas’ “Upside Down” is about as deep as that famous Frank Gorshin “Star Trek” episode – we’re talking classic “Star Trek,” mind you. In the episode, titled “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” the Enterprise picks up two aliens whose faces are split down …
HollywoodandFine.com No one will ever accuse me of being a fan of Harmony Korine’s films. But I was surprised by his newest, “Spring Breakers” (opening in limited release Friday 3/15/13), which seems like a “Girls Gone Wild” video with automatic weapons, but is actually a bit deeper (and even creepier) …
HollywoodandFine.com Why would a movie studio try to stop critics from reviewing movies? It’s called a review embargo – and it seems a little self-explanatory. But still, I’d like to take this opportunity to discuss a little movie-critic inside-baseball stuff. Perhaps we can get a larger discussion going. For those …