HollywoodandFine.com “Ex Machina” is both tastily minimal and frustratingly simplistic. Alex Garland’s directing debut (he wrote “28 Days Later” and “Sunshine”) is, in essence, a three-hander about three people in a house. OK, a high-tech mansion, but you get the point. Yet, after tantalizing us with increasingly imaginative developments and …
HollywoodandFine.com Based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, “The Two Faces of January” is a movie that sheds layers like an onion, gradually revealing the dark heart at its core. Indeed, writer-director Hossein Amini keeps the viewer guessing until nearly the end of the film as to which of these …
HollywoodandFine.com Love and murder – are there more crucial or basic ingredients for a good story? It’s like cooking and starting with chicken or beef stock: They are the building blocks from which the best recipes are constructed. Charlie Stratton’s “In Secret” is based on Emile Zola’s “Therese Raquin” – …
HollywoodandFine.com It’s the time of year when critics release their lists of the year’s best films. It feels like a competitive sport – or a provocation, which all of these lists are, by nature. As in: “This is my list of the best films. If you don’t agree, you’re wrong.” …
HollywoodandFine.com We are awash in films examining the Beats and the roots of the generation shift that occurred from the late 1950s through the 1960s – but none with a clearer eye than Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis.” The film is a circular thing: It seems to end …