HollywoodandFine.com At this point, it seems pretty pointless to review a new entry in “The Hunger Games” series. If you’re not already interested, you’re unlikely to plug in and buy a ticket to see this film, just as the story revs up for its conclusion. It would be a little …
HollywoodandFine.com The culture surrounding college sports has become so polluted with commercial concerns – from bowl games and TV revenue to paraphernalia, video-game money and beyond – that the recent events at Florida State (involving player lawlessness) only seem to underscore the issues. They also make it more apparent that …
HollywoodandFine.com I don’t want this to sound condescending, because I’m a big admirer of Jon Stewart’s work and admire his courage in taking on something as massive as directing a movie while holding down a full-time job. So when I say that this is not bad for a first film, …
HollywoodandFine.com When I saw Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher” at the Toronto Film Festival in September, I wrote that “Miller, in my estimation, has jumped into the class of Steven Soderbergh and other great directors of the past 25 years (who don’t worship at the Tarantino altar).” Not that I’ve got anything …
HollywoodandFine.com No good deed goes unpunished in Tommy Lee Jones’ “The Homesman.” And that’s how the West was won. Punishment is a running theme in this film, which Lee and two writing partners adapted from a novel by Glendon Swarthout. Lee directed the film, and plays a central character: George …
HollywoodandFine.com Romantic dramas seem to be few and far between these days. So it’s both refreshing and encouraging to see one as good as Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “Beyond the Lights.” It’s an area she has mined in the past, in films like “Love & Basketball” and “The Secret Life of Bees.” …
Hollywoodandfine.com There are so many movies released every Friday that no single critic has a prayer of seeing them all. But as it happens this week, I’ve seen several that deserve comment, if only briefly. Let’s start with “The Theory of Everything,” which some are touting as an Oscar contender. …
HollywoodandFine.com The same Disney folks that brought you “Bolt,” “The Emperor’s New Groove” and “The Princess and the Frog” return with “Big Hero 6,” a wildly imaginative action-comedy about super-tech-savvy kids somewhere in the near future. Set in San Francisco (rechristened San Fransokyo for reasons that are implied but unexplained), …
HollywoodandFine.com Christopher Nolan’s philosophy of filmmaking apparently is this: Why make one movie when you can make three? Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. “Interstellar” works much more often than it doesn’t. While the script by Nolan and his brother Jonathan wants to traffic in ideals and ideas about gravity, …
HollywoodandFine.com TV news has long since surpassed the excesses that seemed far-fetched in Paddy Chayefsky’s “Network” almost 40 years ago. Indeed, what’s shocking about Dan Gilroy’s “Nightcrawler” is how not shocking it is – while still being a rousing and visionary piece of work. In depicting the world of local …