Daily Archives: January 2, 2013

 As anybody who’s watched The Discovery Channel knows, if you’re looking for moonshine, the place to start is in the foothills of south central and southwest Virginia. As the new movie “Lawless” makes clear, ‘shine was never a passing fancy … Continue reading →

By Pixar’s own standards, “Cars,” the scenic animated amble on the backroads of the Roadrunner’s desert southwest, was the company’s worst film. Laugh-starved, lacking much in the line of action, it was a triumph of toy sales and product tie-in … Continue reading →

“Dangerous Minds,” “Stand and Deliver,” “Lean on Me” — movies about heroic teachers changing students’ lives, and all movies shown in Miss Elizabeth Halsey’s seventh grade English class at John Adams Middle School.

It’s been thirty years since Alfred Hitchcock died, and more than fifty years since his most famous film — “Psycho.” So while his name, reputation and image remain in the public consciousness, generations have grown up not knowing much more … Continue reading →

A Palm Beach Post cops reporter who typed her bucket-list styled memoir on her iPhone with the one finger she still had command of in the later stages of ALS (Loud Gehrig’s Disease) has gone Hollywood before the book even … Continue reading →

“Killing Them Softly” is, in its own chatty and slight way, the “Unforgiven” of hit-man thrillers. It’s a gritty, riveting nuts-and-bolts-of-murder tale that vividly illustrates what it is that these much-glamorized thugs do, and the gruesome, agonizing fate of their … Continue reading →

  To think it might take an animated film, with her playing a fiesty redheaded teenager, for the world to discover the wonders of Kelly Macdonald. The Scottish Macdonald, 36, is already on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” and already known to … Continue reading →

 The oddly unsatisfying big screen career of Gerard Butler takes another unfortunate turn with “Playing for Keeps,” a sexualized romantic comedy built around kids soccer. It makes its way into theaters as Butler’s last effort, “Chasing Mavericks,” beats a hasty … Continue reading →

It’s been five years since Kristen Stewart was plucked from supporting player/indie-film obscurity and thrust into the spotlight as the female face of the “Twilight” franchise. Five years, and as of this month, five films will have passed, as Stewart … Continue reading →

The new “Anna Karenina” is as regal, romantic and tragic as ever. The Tolstoy tale of a bored wife and doting mother martyred by her scandalous love for a rakish cavalry officer in Imperial Russia is a perfect period vehicle … Continue reading →