La La Land movie review: city of stars, shining just for us
A marvel. Funny and exuberant and bittersweet and cliché-busting and unexpected as hell. We are going to need more movies like this one.
Fred Astaire
from Pinterest: Fred Astaire and Charlie Chaplin graffiti (London photo)
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Brick Mansions review: bombs away
This absurd and pointlessly convoluted remake of a decade-old French action flick feels dated and out of step in more ways than one.
question of the day: What actor could most use the Coen Brothers as a director?
There are lots of actors whom I’d love to see work with the Coens, to see how their unique and hugely entertaining talents could be amplified by the brothers’ idiosyncratic perspective — James Franco, Amy Adams, Timothy Olyphant, Colin Firth, Steve Coogan, Maria Bello, and on and on — none of them really need that boost the Coens could give them. Unlike my top five candidates for Coen-ification…
Unleashed and Crash (review)
With its clear and obvious choices — think Eddie Izzard’s ‘cake? or death?’ bit — *Unleashed* really is a fairy tale next to *Crash,* where half the time when you think you’ve got a grasp on what’s the ‘right’ thing to do and the ‘right’ way to live, you turn out to be wrong, even if the other guy is wrong, too.
top 11 movies of 1999
Like Nigel Tufnel’s amp, this one goes to 11. I agonized over this, trying to whittle down a list of about 25 great movies of 1999 to a mere 10, and I just couldn’t go that far. It pained me to eliminate some wonderful — and wonderfully adult — dramas from the list. The Cider … more…
Holiday Inn movie review: two guys and a girl
God, I love those snarky 40s comedies in which there’s just a bit of meanness under the humor. Holiday Inn is, of course, filled with the kind of pretty Christmas songs and picture-postcard scenes of snow and horse-drawn sleighs that make for beloved holiday movies. But there’s also some darkness lurking here.
