Yearly Archives: 2013

Oscar contenders are peppering most weekends this October, pretty unusual for Hollywood to roll them out, en masse, pre-Thanksgiving, but there are more to come, so have at it. “12 Years a Slave” is the best picture contender to beat … Continue reading →

More horrific than scary, director Kimberly Peirce (“Girls Don’t Cry”) sees Stephen King’s “Carrie” through the lens of today’s bullying epidemic and all the hand-wringing that has followed it. This remake of the film that made Brian DePalma famous — … Continue reading →

Ed Lauter was the first character actor I ever interviewed. And he was pretty far into a long and hit-packed career, even then. In the years since that chat, I always smile when I see him on the screen, turning … Continue reading →

No, they weren’t film fans taking all the Michael Bay hate rhetoric on the Internet too literally. The Hong Kong set scuffle that involved Mr. Bay appears to have been some sort of old fashioned shake down. Wait, there’s still … Continue reading →

It’s no secret that actors lie, or at least stretch the truth, to get a role. Even Robert Redford.“He kept talking about his boating experience, admitting it might take a while to get his ‘sea legs’back,” remembers director J.C. Chandor, … Continue reading →

Once one of Hollywood’s Young Turks, an acclaimed screenwriter (“The Gambler,” “Bugsy”) and offbeat director (“Fingers”, “The Pick Up Artist”), James Toback’s most recent success was his quite-revealing documentary-interview with Mike Tyson (“Tyson”). He had this idea to make a … Continue reading →

Stallone was always a better actor than Schwarzenegger. That burning question, for those old enough to have asked it and deluded enough to have never figured it out, is answered once and for all in “Escape Plan,” a vintage prison … Continue reading →

Sophisticated, well-cast and heartfelt, “Grace Unplugged” is further proof that a little Hollywood sheen goes a long way in the faith-based film genre. But in blending the “kid corrupted by the music biz” formula with a story of core values … Continue reading →