I waited until the last day it played the big Grossmont. My only regret over seeing it with a polite audience of four was missing out on a packed crowd’s catcalls at the mention of Marvel-denier Scorsese’s Goodfellas. The same pull that draws us to weekend binges of episodic TV …
Like something from the pages of Gourmet magazine or, better still, the Food Channel (where it rightfully belongs), the good-natured Spinning Plates is lovely to look at. In other words, first-time director Joseph Levy was smart enough to hire a competent director of photography - in this case, Erin Harvey …
Do not make the same mistake I did and watch Kelly Asbury and Lorna Cook’s timeless tale of a young stallion separated from its herd, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), before checking in with this shoddy sequel. (If anything, this is closer in spirit to the video games and …
Casting the great and powerful Oz (James Franco, making quick reparations for his colorless work on The Wiz prequel) as a tin-grinned hustler opposite a pair of former Disney cuties (Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez) in what amounts to a Girls Gone Wild video with a better DP, will forever …
Three generations of Chinese women residing under one roof: crusading reporter Jianbo (Lei Hao), her huffy mother Minglan (Elaine Jin Yan-ling), and a 9-year-old daughter, Wanting (Qu Junxi), who, in spite of all odds, appears destined to escape with her spirit intact. Jianbo is the type who is quick to …
The five most terrifying words in the English language: From the director of Bridesmaids. Paul Feig’s latest matches Goodfellas “fuck” for “fuck” — the majority are slung, regrettably, by a slumming Rose Byrne — but judging the man solely on his ability to tell a story, you’d swear the dirtiest …
Normally, it’s only when a celebrity documentary garners enough attention that it becomes fodder for a Hollywood biopic. Released this time last year, The Catcher Was a Spy starred Paul Rudd as Moe Berg, the inscrutable Jewish baseball veteran whose contribution to the war effort included spying on the Nazis …
Mile-a-minute spieler Frank Stallone loves to reminisce, so much so that it’s a wonder that director/official Stallone videographer Derek Wayne Johnson’s (40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic) talking-heads doc clocks in at a scant 74 minutes. Frank’s greatest claim to fame is his ability to stand in …
For 28 years, two loyal friends serve a concurrent prison sentence: Val (Al Pacino), behind bars for refusing to finger an associate, and Doc (Christopher Walken), on the outside, waiting to perform the hit when his old partner is released. You might think there isn’t much to this gangsters-get-old fable …
Anxious to keep their flagging brand afloat, a pair of broken-down legends embark on a demanding tour through ramshackle England that turns out to be their last hurrah. If Hollywood makeup wizards can transform Christian Bale into Dick Cheney, an L&H makeover for Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly should …
How do you say "Neil Simon" in French? A professional sperm donor, going by the name Starbuck (Patrick Huard), anonymously fathers hundreds of kiddies. Eventually, he falls victim to a class action lawsuit brought against him by 142 of his 533 “children.” To make matters worse (and to pad the …
Compared to the Gaga/Cooper remake, this is a masterpiece. A charming, occasionally mean dipsomaniac set on collision course (James Mason) meets and marries a rising starlet (Judy Garland). Song and dance was added to this, the third go-round of the oft-told Hollywood staple. The result: a film that stands shoulder-to-shoulder …
Una (Cynthia Nixon) has a big heart — just ask her. Why else would the Eastern European motel owner hire Riz (Geetanjali Thapa), a seemingly manageable Indian immigrant looking to shake a delinquent past? A single-take walk through of the grounds, led by an irritatingly impersonal Una, offers breathing room …
A good cause done bad in this “shoot now, figure it out later” documentary. First-time director Amanda Lipitz follows three members of a step team from an all-girl school. Must everything end in a competition? It’s art, not sports! Can’t children be taught to pursue their dreams without having some …