Daily Archives: January 31, 2013

Clint Eastwood’s late life/late career fascination with mortality, death and grieving devolves, at long last, into a cheap parlor trick in “Hereafter.” This wholly unsatisfying variation on “what lies beyond” shows him to be ill-suited to the subject and to … Continue reading →

In the “Guardians of Ga’Hoole” novels of Kathryn Lasky, owls have mastered fire and metallurgy and have been known to play the lute as they sing their epic poems about epic battles from days of yore. And in the film … Continue reading →

M. Night Shyamalan indulges his messianic side with “Devil,” a quasi-religious supernatural thriller he has released under his The Night Chronicles production banner. It’s a tidy tale about the Devil picking off folks trapped in an elevator in a Philadelphia … Continue reading →

Disney’s effort to turn Kristen Bell into America’s Sweetheart reaches its tipping point with “You Again,” a flat romantic comedy that packages her in a funny setup and surrounds her with funny people. That the experiment tips over backwards isn’t … Continue reading →

Hollywood isn’t exactly beating down the doors to make movies of August Strindberg plays. But Liv Ullman, muse to the late Ingmar Bergman, wants to direct a film of the Swede’s most famous play, “Miss Julie.” She’s got Colin Farrell … Continue reading →

MGM, the studio Louis Mayer led to glory in the 30s, 40s and 50s, has long been Hollywood’s version of Broadway, a “fabulous invalid” always on life support, in and out of comas, selling off its backlot, back catalog, what … Continue reading →

Adele is going to sing her James Bond song, “Skyfall.” Norah Jones will sing the title tune from “Ted,” and Barbra Streisand, 70, has agreed to show up to sing a “special” song. Will it be a Bond tribute, a … Continue reading →

Seth MacFarlane is managing a Conan O’Brien transition the likes of which the movies have never seen. He’s gone from creating cartoons to voicing a potty-mouthed special effects teddy bear to hosting the Oscars to writing, directing and starring in … Continue reading →

Sorry to hear that the small-scale global distributor Indomina has given up the ghost, pretty much, in the US. Most everybody laid off, operations winding down. They released the film I thought was the best documentary of last year — … Continue reading →