Category Archives: previews

Casting Amy Adams to star in “Big Eyes” is one of the great no-brainers in Hollywood history. Yes, the movie’s about Margaret Keane, the secret painter behind those “big-eyed waif” paintings and posters that dominated pop art of the pre-Andy … Continue reading →

“Into the Woods,” the Stephen Sondheim fairy-tale musical that sent up every contrivance and cliche that The Brothers Grimm could cook up, earns a lush, grand and star-studded production for the big screen. Disney brought out and bought the big … Continue reading →

So Sony Pictures’ OTHER holiday movie will have to tote the load that it was to have shared with “The Interview,” a film the studio pulled from release after North Korea’s ranting threats against the studio, theatergoers and America in … Continue reading →

There’s a mildly amusing Pompeii gag midway through “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.” It involves a scale model toy Roman soldier (Steve Coogan) and his Old West cowboy pal (Owen Wilson) and a monkey in need of … Continue reading →

Peter Jackson’s “Just Give the People What They Want,” aka “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” sends this not-really-a-trilogy off in style. That means stuffing in everything the fans want, or that Jackson thinks the fans want out … Continue reading →

Mike Leigh, cinematic celebrator of the British working classes, delivers his second sumptuous period biography in “Mr. Turner,” a lovely, lively and languorous biopic that’s almost as painterly as its subject. From the 19th Dutch women who chuckle past Turner … Continue reading →

Alice Howland is a woman of science, a Columbia University academic whose expertise is linguistics, the common ways babies learn languages as infants. So if anybody instantly grasps the consequences of what her neurologist tells her, it’s Alice. She’s been … Continue reading →

The first place will be in select cinemas, nationwide starting today (Black Friday, or black screen with yellow titles Friday). Starwars.com has a link to a list. iTunes posted it this AM, just a few minutes ago. Here it is. … Continue reading →

As I wrap up seeing the last of the potential Top Ten list movies for this year, I keep stumbling across this word “conventional,” which I’ve used in reviews for “The Imitation Game” and “The Theory of Everything” — both … Continue reading →

  A mop-topped six year-old sees something in the back of his mother’s station wagon. His eyes go wild with terror and he lets out a blood-curdling scream. It’s broad daylight. And even though we sympathize with his harassed, widowed … Continue reading →