I enjoy attending theater, opera and movies. However, inconsiderate audience members often ruin the illusion of participating in love, adventure and daring-do. For example years ago while I was enjoying a movie, three young women sat directly in front of me. The problem? All had huge afros creating a 6 feet x 1 foot black…
I have never seen an episode of Dark Shadows, the gothic supernatural soap opera that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971 on which Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s new movie is based. Based on what I’ve read about it, however, I’m pretty sure I’d like it: Vampires. Secrets. Magic. Melodrama. High camp. These are…
Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth in The Avengers The Avengers I just saw a headline online that asked, “Is The Avengers the greatest comic book movie ever?” I don’t know what the writer’s answer was, but I know what my response to the question would be: No, it’s not the greatest comic book movie ever….
dvr this Turner Classic Films, Monday, May 7, 7 p.m. Easily one of the two or three greatest movie musicals of all time, West Side Story is also my favorite. Stunningly shot, directed and choreographed, it is not just so beautiful to look at, but as affecting as any production of Romeo & Juliet, which…
dvds of the week Channing Tatum has suddenly become a very bankable star. The thriller Haywire landed with a soft thud that no one heard, but a couple weeks later the saccharine love story The Vow was a surprising hit. Both are out right now, and they’d be a good double feature. Because he’s so…
dvr this While ‘Weird Al’ has recorded parody songs that make an 8-year-old squeal with laughter, the idea that he could write and star in a movie that keep an adult laughing for an hour and a half is somewhat preposterous. But UHF is so balls-out absurd, so relentless in its physical comedy and so…
dvd of the week Meryl Streep finally won her third Oscar for her brilliant portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Some people thought she was great and the movie wasn’t, but I loved the whole thing. Told in flashbacks from the perspective of an elderly Thatcher heading into the dementia from which the…
(CNN) – The Weinstein Company’s documentary on bullying in schools has received another show of support from teen pop star Justin Bieber. The 18-year-old singer has provided the soundtrack for a new TV spot for the Bully documentary with his song “Born to Be Somebody.” The clip, premiered on Fandango.com, and began airing last week….
Unfortunately, most people only know about the documentary Bully because the Motion Picture Association gave it an R rating for an utterance of the word “fuck,” refused an appeal, and then, following a nationwide outcry orchestrated by the mogul and PR genius Harvey Weinstein, relented and gave the film a PG-13. The rating matters particularly…
Goon For a few years in the 2000s, one of my roommates was a skinny hipster Canadian who loved Belle & Sebastian and Alice Munro and David Cronenberg movies, and so it was surprising to me that the mix he made for the road trip we took to Montreal opened with the theme song to…
