HollywoodandFine.com Over the years, I’ve developed what I refer to as the 20-minute rule. It basically says that a movie that hasn’t hooked me in the first 20 minutes probably isn’t going to. I tend to apply it most forcefully when I’m watching films at festivals or when I’m sorting …
HollywoodandFine.com “Mud” is a coming-of-age tale that feels a bit like a modern “Huckleberry Finn,” mixed with a young-adult romance novel. Yet there is something both engaging and unique about Jeff Nichols’ plain-spoken tale of youngsters learning hard lessons about the nature of love and the darker side of the …
HollywoodandFine.com Francois Ozon’s “In the House,” opening Friday (4/19/13) in limited release, gets in your head, slowly at first, then with greater and greater speed. Initially seeming like a comedy about the vicarious voyeurism of a literature teacher at a Paris high school, it casually transforms itself into something else: …
HollywoodandFine.com Painfully derivative, “Oblivion” is Strike Two against director Joseph Kosinski, who made the vacantly gorgeous “Tron: Legacy.” Unfortunately reminiscent of many other, better movies, “Oblivion” is a comic-book – excuse me, graphic novel – adaptation that has one thing in its favor: It’s not in 3D. Otherwise, this Tom …
HollywoodandFine.com Jacob Hatley’s documentary about the late Levon Helm (who died in 2012) is a flinty valedictory to a rough-hewn but cagey and soulful musician. “Ain’t In It For My Health” is a title that comes with two meanings. One is the issue of Helm’s mortality, on painful display in …
HollywoodandFine.com I recall a while back that a fellow critic took offense when I referred to Noah Baumbach’s “Greenberg” as “not an audience-friendly film.” He felt that I was using the term pejoratively – as though I was saying there was something wrong with any film that didn’t make a …
HollywoodandFine.com Brian Helgeland’s “42” is an old-fashioned film in the most modern sense of the term. Even as it embraces big-screen storytelling that takes us back to a golden era of history, it gives uplift without ignoring the pain and sacrifice that went into the achievements being depicted. This story …
HollywoodandFine.com If Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” was too much the dialogue-driven, story-heavy film for your liking, you’ll probably be more in the mood for his latest, “To the Wonder,” which features Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Olga Kurylenko in its cast. I hesitate to say that it stars …
HollywoodandFine.com “Disconnect” is in the “Crash”/ “Nashville”/ “Short Cuts” school of story-telling, bringing together three disparate storylines that ultimately provide echoes and resonance between themselves, while involving people of tangential connection. But in Henry-Alex Rubin’s film, from Andrew Stern’s script, the connections – or the way they’re made – is …
HollywoodandFine.com Danny Boyle is one of those filmmakers – like Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese – who obviously enjoys every minute of making his movies, including editing the last, most minute detail. His films pop and jump with energy and excitement – even when they’re not actually showing something exciting. …