Monthly Archives: March 2014

“Muppets Most Wanted” is funnier than the last Muppets movie, with far better songs (by Bret McKenzie), punnier puns and all manner of geo-political gags, cultural wisecracks and star cameos.Sure, you can take the kids. But will they get the … Continue reading →

When an esteemed director refers to the movie he’s about to make as a “porn film,” he creates an interesting dilemma for those he’d like to cast. “I was a bit, oh, hesitant,” admits Charlotte Gainsbourg, star of Lars Von … Continue reading →

“Divergent,” the latest outcast-teen-battles-The-System thriller, is similar enough to “The Hunger Games” that hardcore Katniss fans may dismiss it. But it’s a more streamlined film, with a love story with genuine heat and deaths with genuine pathos. And director Neil … Continue reading →

　 It starts with a trip to the bar to drown his sorrows, or at least steel his courage. Craig (Pat Healy) has been laid off. How can he tell his wife (Amanda Fuller) that they’re about to be evicted? … Continue reading →

　Jake Gyllenhaal does tour de force double duty in the intimate thriller “Enemy,” a cryptic essay on identity.He is terrific in both guises, but he is trapped in a frustrating puzzle without a solution. “Enemy” is a fever dream fantasy … Continue reading →

Jeff Goldman was leaning in decades before “Lean In” became a catch-phrase of the moment. You can see it from his earliest movies and TV appearances, Goldblum’s angular frame and wide eyes tilting toward and drinking in whoever is opposite … Continue reading →

“Blood Ties” is a cop-crooks thriller based on a French film, “Les liens du sang.” It’s a period piece set in 1974, when the lapels were wide, the cars were wider and pay phones were the cell phones of the … Continue reading →

To topple the frightening and powerful, the first step is to make them look foolish. That’s the object lesson in “Rob the Mob,” a tragi-comic tale of a couple of idiots who figured New York’s “five families” were just “greasy … Continue reading →

The young actor Ansel Elgort has worked with Shailene Woodley in two films, now. And he has a suggestion for anyone meeting her.“My advice to people, when they’re first meeting Shailene, is to HUG HER BACK,” Elgort says, laughing. “You … Continue reading →