HollywoodandFine.com When is a comedy not a comedy? When it’s one of what apparently is becoming a series of holiday-themed movies by Garry Marshall. “Valentine’s Day” was the 2010 date movie from hell – an all-star cluster-grope that had fewer laughs than a rerun of “Laverne & Shirley,” Marshall’s signature …
HollywoodandFine.com People in Minnesota have this reputation for being “nice” that Diablo Cody seems determined to undermine – which she does in slashingly funny style in Jason Reitman’s “Young Adult,” opening in limited release Friday (12/9/11) before going wide on Dec. 16. The film reteams the “Juno” duo with a …
HollywoodandFine.com Perhaps I’m not qualified to write about “Sleeping Beauty,” the debut film from Australian director Julia Leigh. I am, after all, a middle-aged man. And this meandering movie, which manages to make nudity monotonous and presents sex as a distasteful commercial venture, seems to be about a kind of …
HollywoodandFine.com Never a popular part of the Shakespeare canon, “Coriolanus” (opening in limited released Friday, 12/2/11) bears a peculiar timeliness, in the muscular directorial debut by Ralph Fiennes. Fiennes directed and stars in this film, which transposes Shakespeare’s drama about a career soldier forced to cope with political reality to …
HollywoodandFine.com Takeshi Kitano has always been a rule-breaker so it’s no surprise that “Outrage,” his latest gangster film, should foil expectations. A good part of that has to do with Kitano himself. Cast as a yakuza underboss in a violent, almost Shakespearean tale of double-dealing underworld power struggles, Kitano lets …
HollywoodandFine.com The fact that the dim-witted and near-sighted MPAA has slapped an NC-17 rating on Steve McQueen’s “Shame” implies that there is something prurient about this film, whose central figure is a sex addict, struggling with his demons. But, as intense and involving as this film is, the last thing …
HollywoodandFine.com Three cheers for Martin Scorsese, who has not only made “Hugo” one of the most lovingly fanciful and heartfelt films of the year – he has also pulled off the subversive trick of introducing a new generation of kids to the magic of silent movies. And, to boot, he’s …
HollywoodandFine.com “The Artist” may be the year’s most brightly imaginative and purely enjoyable film. It may also be the toughest sell. How many people, after all, will be turned off if they’re told they should see a silent black-and-white film? And yet this movie by Michel Hazanavicius is not only …
HollywoodandFine.com It’s hard now to conceive of just how huge a star Marilyn Monroe was at the peak of her fame in the mid-1950s. Take Lady Gaga, multiply her by Brangelina at their most visible – and then take it to the 10th power. You get a hint of that …