HollywoodandFine.com Amusing and slight, “What We Do in the Shadows” is a mockumentary drawn from the same sensibilities that produced “Flight of the Conchords,” “Eagle v. Shark” and “Boy,” among others. Written and directed by the team of Jemaine Clement and Taiki Watiti, this film presents a flock (coven? pride? …
HollywoodandFine.com There aren’t many films from the past 15 years that bowled me over the way “The Matrix” did. Unfortunately, the Wachoskis – Andy and Lana – haven’t come close since then. The “Matrix” sequels proved that not every successful movie deserves to be a trilogy. “Speed Racer” was an …
HollywoodandFine.com How can J-Lo ignore “The Boy Next Door”? She can’t, obviously, because he’s a blazing wackjob with an erotic obsession for his new neighbor. In this low-voltage thriller by Rob Cohen, she’s Claire Peterson, a high school English teacher (you can tell she’s smart because she wears glasses) whose …
HollywoodandFine.com Submarine movies rarely end well for the characters, almost never for the submarine itself. It’s a claustrophobic genre and, no matter what the actual plot, the story is always about men trapped in a nature-defying environment when that environment is threatened, often by the actions of the men themselves. …
HollywoodandFine.com Here’s my first problem with Michael Mann’s “Blackhat”: Chris Hemsworth doesn’t have the talent to make me believe he’s smart enough to be an MIT-educated, world-class computer hacker. As I watched him, I kept wondering what a real actor – Mark Ruffalo or Edward Norton, say – would have …
HollywoodandFine.com Stephen Belber’s “Match” is a slight but affecting film built around a stirring central performance by Patrick Stewart. He plays Tobias, a one-time principal male dancer who traveled the world with a ballet company and now makes his living as a choreographer and Juilliard instructor. But, on the day …
HollywoodandFine.com I spent years as a critic waiting eagerly for the end of the year, when I could finally (and with great deliberation) craft my 10-best list of movies for the year. No longer. Ten-best lists are, I’m afraid, a dime a dozen. Everybody has their own – and anyone …
HollywoodandFine.com I’ve never felt a particular affinity to the films of the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc: like some, can leave the rest. But their newest, “Two Days, One Night,” pulled me in almost instantly and held me to its gripping conclusion. It’s a small story – an individual’s fight …
HollywoodandFine.com Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” arrives on the big screen 27 years after it opened on Broadway – and with the same second-act problems that have plagued it through the years. Adapted to the screen by Rob Marshall (for whom his first feature, “Chicago,” may end up as the …
HollywoodandFine.com I happened to see Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken” before I read the Laura Hillenbrand book about the life of the amazing Louis Zamperini. My guest for an early screening was someone who had read and loved the book – and was dying to see the film. I came away from …