Disney’s Oz the Great and Powerful is neither an unwatchable, awful film, nor is it anything that anyone not dragged to the theater by coat-tugging children has any need to see. I’m not a hard-core fan of the original Victor Fleming/Judy Garland film (though I certainly don’t dislike or disparage it), and I’ve never read … More Oz the Great and Powerful: Mickey Mouse Owns Your Childhood

Israeli director Dror Moreh’s Oscar-nominated documentary The Gatekeepers comes at the seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian Conflict from a previous silent (and secretive) angle: Through the eyes of six former heads of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security or “secret service” agency. The Shin Bet organization has, over the past four decades, been at the front line … More Interview: The Gatekeepers Director Dror Moreh

As Hollywood continues its quest for the next Twilight/Harry Potter/Hunger Games franchise sensation, it’s also continuing its laudable practice of (usually) seeking out genuinely talented young actors to personify young adult lit heroes and heroines. This week’s offering is Beautiful Creatures, based on Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s YA supernatural romance. The 2009 novel, the … More Interview: Beautiful Creatures Co-stars Alice Englert and Alden Ehrenreich

The enjoyable zombie romance Warm Bodies might seem at first like some sort of unholy hybrid of the Twilight “I’m in Love with a Monster” teen fare and zombie-apocalypse pop-culture trends. But in fact, as directed and adapted by Jonathan Levine (The Wackness, 50/50) from Isaac Marion’s yearning, existential 2011 novel, Warm Bodies feels more … More Interview: Warm Bodies Co-stars Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer

During the holiday/awards season, most “prestige” films aim big–big messages, big emotions, big spectacle, big casts, and especially big running times. Based on a true story, The Impossible centers on the devastating spectacle of the 2004 tsunami, specifically on how it caught up and separated a real Spanish family vacationing in Thailand. And in doing … More Interview: The Impossible Director J.A. Bayona

I’m almost envious of a movie-goer approaching Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey with no fore-knowledge of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels or Jackson’s previous The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Not because they have such sumptuous treats of adventurous imagination ahead of them to discover, though I suppose that’d be nice. But to … More The Hobbit: An All-Too Expected Journey… or Been There and Back Again

In recent years, long-time character actor John Hawkes has slowly moved from strong but low-key supporting roles in television shows like Deadwood and Eastbound and Down and indie faves like Me You and Everyone We Know into attention- (and Oscar nomination) grabbing roles like the quietly menacing Teardrop in Winter’s Bone and the, yes, the … More Interview: The Sessions Star John Hawkes

Skyfall is a good movie. It’s a good action movie. It’s a good Bond movie. Fans of action movies and Bond movies will love it. It’s already made a lot of money at the box office, and it will continue to make a lot more in the coming weeks. You should go see it. You’ll … More “It’s Not You, Mr. Bond, It’s Me”

Despite its scandalous, salacious title, the Danish film A Royal Affair is as much about the 18th-century struggle between faith-based fear and Enlightenment ideals as it is about a queen’s furtive glances during court dinners. There is a passionate affair in the film: between the British-born Queen Caroline Mathilde of Denmark (Swedish actressAlicia Vikander) and the … More Interview: A Royal Affair Writer-director Nikolaj Arcel

When Ben Lewin decided to tell the story of poet and journalist Mark O’Brien, the Polish-born Australian-American writer-director knew he had a few hurdles to overcome. O’Brien, who died in 1999, was a childhood polio victim and spent most of his adult life in an iron lung. That presented several challenges: How to make an engaging, … More Interview: The Sessions Writer-Director Ben Lewin