Joanna Coates and Daniel Metz on “Amorous”
An unerring warmth radiates through every frame of “Amorous,” the haunting feature debut of director Joanna Coates. Winner of The Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at the […]
Tag Archives: Star Wars
Top 10 Performances in a “Star Wars” Movie
It sure is a great time to be a “Star Wars” fan, and it sure is a lousy time to be George Lucas, at least according to George Lucas. The […]
Top 20 Films of 2015: Part II
To demonstrate just how spectacular a year it has been for film, this Top 10 list is followed by three “special honorable mentions,” which should be considered a tie for […]
Tea Time with Howard Shore
What do “The Fly,” “Big,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “That Thing You Do!”, “High Fidelity,” “The Departed” and David Lowery’s upcoming “Pete’s Dragon” have in common? They were all […]
To Infinity and Beyond: Top Ten Pixar Movies
Perhaps only John Lasseter could’ve transformed an ordinary table lamp into the next Mickey Mouse. In his Oscar-nominated 1986 short, “Luxo Jr.”, Lasseter ingeniously brought a lamp to life by […]
Top Ten Spielberg Summer Movies
Steven Spielberg is not only the undisputed king of summer movies, he invented them. Films were no longer mere entertainments, they were grand cultural events. The highest compliment one can […]
Why The Latest “Star Wars” Trailer Gives Me New Hope
Like most “Star Wars” fans who grew up with the original trilogy, I have felt a great deal of skepticism regarding the new Disney-produced film. In an article I wrote […]
“Cinderella” (1950) VS “Cinderella” (2015)
It was the holiday season of 1987. Disney had rereleased its 1950 feature, “Cinderella,” in theaters on November 20th, and my parents decided to take their one-year-old son (full disclosure: […]
Birdmen of Tinseltown
A fateful encounter occurs at the Chateau Marmont in David Cronenberg’s perversely entertaining Hollywood satire, “Maps to the Stars.” Grotesquely desperate actress Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore) crosses paths with a […]
“Boyhood”: The Art of Winging It
Perched on the cusp of manhood, Mason (Ellar Coltrane) looks back on the narrative of his life and finds nothing but loose ends. “What’s the point?” he asks his father […]
Indie Outlook 