Paul Giamatti – New York Film Critics Circle

‘San Andreas’: Rumble. Tumble. Yawn.

Marshall Fine May 27, 2015 May 27, 2015 Members / Recent News

HollywoodandFine.com “San Andreas”? I thought we critics drove a stake through this film’s heart when it came out 40 years ago under the title “Earthquake.” But each generation of special effects creates its own avalanche of disaster films: movies about disasters that are themselves disastrous. The latest iteration of cutting-edge …

Week in Film: ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ and more

Marshall Fine April 30, 2014 April 30, 2014 Members / Recent News

HollywoodandFine.com Yes, yes, I know – spidermanspidermanspidermanspiderman. I’ll get to it. But my favorite movies of the week, as usual, are the small ones. Let’s start with Amma Asante’s “Belle,” a Jane Austen-ish film based on a true story. The central character is Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the daughter …

‘Parkland,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

Marshall Fine October 3, 2013 October 3, 2013 Members / Recent News

HollywoodandFine.com Fifty years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, “Parkland” still has the power to hit you like a fast-moving bus. A recreation of Nov. 22, 1963, as seen through the eyes of people who were directly involved, Peter Landesman’s film has the immediacy of a documentary, though it …

‘All Is Bright,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

Marshall Fine October 2, 2013 October 2, 2013 Members / Recent News

HollywoodandFine.com Paul Giamatti is one of our great screen actors, an absolute poet of frustration and regret with the range to play a wide variety of roles. Watch him in Tom McCarthy’s delightful “Win Win” and then in “Cold Souls” and then in “American Splendor.” He can play everything from …

‘John Dies at the End,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

Marshall Fine January 25, 2013 January 25, 2013 Members / Recent News

HollywoodandFine.com Based on a cult novel by David Wong, Don Coscarelli’s “John Dies at the End” suffers the same problem as its source book: an elaborate imagination in service to writing that is never anywhere near as funny or clever as the writer seems to believe. As a result, this …

‘Cosmopolis,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

Marshall Fine August 13, 2012 August 13, 2012 Members / Recent News

HollywoodandFine.com I rarely take notes during movies, but when the pretentious aphorisms started flying in David Cronenberg’s “Cosmopolis,” I dove for my notebook. I missed a few of the early ones, but managed to scribble down several of the ripest, most ridiculous pronouncements, starting with: “Life is too contemporary.” Or …