On a couple of public occasions, I saw Manny Farber, the artist and critic who died last week at age 91, deflect high-flown praise for his criticism and painting with the simple, emphatic words, “That’s a lot of bunk.”
Read more
The great Sam Peckinpah once said, “It’s not just blowing up a bridge, it’s the way you blow up a bridge.”That’s how I feel about apocalyptic or dystopian movies.
Read more
The keenest observation about the Coen brothers’ “No Country for
Old Men” came from its ace cinematographer, Roger Deakins.
Read more
![]()
In the 25 years since “Diner,” Barry Levinson has been one of
Hollywood’s finest writer-director-producers, with credits that
include “The Natural,” “Avalon,” “Toys” and “Rain Man,” for which he
won an Oscar.
Read more
![]()
Pottermania has reached fever pitch with the arrival of the film of
J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (novel No.
Read more
![]()
Movies on the big screen can touch on tinderbox issues with a
resonance and intensity impossible even in a home theater.
Read more
When Hollywood was still adult, they were called “women’s pictures.”
Read more
It can be a curse in disguise to be a critical favorite, even if
you’re a giant like the late director Robert Altman.
Read more
“Buzz” is the most evil of buzz words in the modern entertainment vocabulary.
Read more
![]()
It’s tempting, as some have done, to call Johnny Depp the king of the
weirdo actors – and heaven knows, with charmless, bizarro turns like
his Michael Jackson-esque Willy Wonka, he has on occasion laid claim
to the title.
Read more
