Bel Powley Amazes in “The Diary of a Teenage Girl”
There are about a million or so ways Marielle Heller’s “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” could’ve flown clear off the rails. While leaving the screening room, I ran into […]
Tag Archives: Twilight
Cheer Up Charlize: Eight Essential Roles
Few performers in modern cinema have managed to reinvent themselves with as much spectacular success as Charlize Theron. Her various transformations over the last two decades have been astonishing to […]
Popcorn Porn: “Fifty Shades” and “Kingsman”
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, audiences around the country have two pieces of cheerfully dumb, studio-approved, hard R-rated pornography to choose from at mainstream theaters. One is Sam Taylor-Johnson’s […]
Neither Safe Nor Still: The Genius of Julianne Moore
Throughout her extraordinary career, Julianne Moore has often excelled at playing characters who are ostracized. Consider her 1950s housewife who develops forbidden feelings for her black neighbor in “Far from […]
How to Train Your Human
Interesting how two of this summer’s most entertaining and expertly crafted blockbusters are ultimately about the same thing. Dean DuBlois’ “How to Train Your Dragon 2” and Matt Reeves’ “Dawn […]
“My Sucky Teen Romance” Screens Aug. 27 in Chicago
I’ve never really understood the vampire craze, though I can see why fans–particularly young women–would respond so strongly to Stephenie Meyer’s wildly popular books and their subsequent film adaptations. The […]
Indie Outlook 