The Fall Guy
Stunt performer Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) arrives on the Sydney set of a big sci-fi movie only to learn that the woman (Emily Blunt) he loves won’t forgive him and…
Curb Your Enthusiasm: It’s Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good
Larry David. Photo: HBO In Yiddish folklore, a schlemiel is a person who never wins, ending up in unfortunate situations where his behavior causes distress. The difference between a schlemiel…
The Offer
In the late 1960s, Albert Ruddy (Miles Teller) manages to talk the head of production (Matthew Goode) at Paramount into letting him produce a film adaptation of a novel that’s…
Highlights from 94 Years of Oscars
The first Academy Awards were handed out back in 1929. The “show” looked decidedly different then – it was in fact a dinner, the ceremony itself took 15 minutes and…
Notting Hill
The most popular movie star in Hollywood (Julia Roberts) meets a London book-store owner (Hugh Grant) and they fall in love… but can a romance like that work out? Writer…
La La Land: An Enchanting Year in the Sun
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. Photo: Lionsgate Remember that opening scene from Manhattan (1979)? It’s a montage of different New York City images beautifully captured in black and white by…
Entourage
Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), now a studio boss, agrees to let Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) direct his first movie, but when the project needs more money, the Texas financiers start…
Life Itself: Ebert’s Four-Star Journey
Roger Ebert. Photo: Magnolia Pictures I first approached this film because of my interest in movies and as a fan of Roger Ebert as a film critic. Would it appeal…
Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) is on top of his game, but when he decides to turn a real-life story about a deranged murderer who shared a bed with his dead…
Argo: The Great Escape
Photo: Warner In my reviews of Persepolis (2007) and A Separation (2011), I wrote that those films offer a well-needed opportunity to understand Iran. Argo, however, is not that type…