The advantage of seeing outstanding actors in a middling film is that you can appreciate just how good they are on a whole new level. And INSURGENT is certainly a middling film, though that is an improvement on the last installment in this franchise, DIVERGENT. With a new director, Robert Schwentke, bringing Veronica Roth’s YA… Read More »
Going Beyond BLACK OR WHITE
Mike Binder has a particular genius for showing people brimming with good intentions, but flawed, stumbling through life without the operating instructions that would help them negotiate the bumps along the way. He has the gift of showing humor and pathos as elements that are not so much disparate, as entwined, manifesting at oddest moments… Read More »
GET ON UP
James Brown was no ordinary star, and GET ON UP, the film about him is no ordinary bio-pic. It is as kinetic and as kaleidoscopic as the radical new approach to music Brown introduced. Chadwick Boseman, star of 42, essays another real-life character and with the same intensity and passion that be brought to Jackie… Read More »
THE HELP
THE HELP, based on the novel of the same name by Kathryn Stockett, gently but firmly peels away they dry rot of racism that festered beneath the gracious, etiquette obsessed façade of southern gentility before the civil rights movement. What is remarkable, and a remarkably difficult line to walk, is that it does so while… Read More »
Emma Stone Helps THE HELP
When I talked with Emma Stone in July 11, 2011, the issue of Vanity Fair with her on the cover had just hit newstands. It seemed wrong not to acknowledge this milestone in a career that is relatively new, but has already shown so much versatility. Bouyant but grounded, Stone spoke with engaging conviction about… Read More »
Tate Taylor & Octavia Spencer Bring THE HELP to Life
Click here to listen to the interview. Tate Taylor and Octavia Spencer have a special insight into THE HELP. The novel on which Taylor based his script, which he also directed, was written by his lifelong friend, Kathryn Stockett. Spencer was Taylor’s roommate when she got to know Stockett, and was the inspiration for the… Read More »