By Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   “Imagine today’s Society as a branch of civilization about to reach a dead end.” You want to defend and explain Francis Ford Coppola’s MEGALOPOLIS just as much as narrator Laurence Fishburne, who tries to make the case during the movie that this oddball gorgeous landscape of mildly psychotic imagery is historic. You want to love Adam Driver and his maniacal urban hive-builder genius as someone amazing and heretofore...

By Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent It's been a while since the obelisk fell among the primates in Stanley Kubrick's seminal film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. And whist there are many Hollywood insiders who whisper his involvement in a "staged moon landing" let's face it, George Méliès faked a moon landing in 1902 with Le Voyage dans la Lune. Imagine where humankind would be without having taken this pioneering adventure into the mind of th...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent When Adam Driver received the Outstanding Performers of the Year Award, presented by Belvedere Vodka, last night at the 35th Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF), there was a little bit of actor family drama as preamble. MARRIAGE STORY co-star Scarlett Johansson was also set to appear, but was said to miss the event due to illness.   SANTA BARBARA, CA - Jan. 17: Adam Driver (Photo by Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for SBIFF) T...

  The Report, directed by Scott Z. Burns, has everything that Hollywood loves; A-list male leads in Adam Driver and Jon Hamm, it's based on a true story, it's political, it’s relevant and it’s made by a proven director. Similar films like Argo and Spotlight have enjoyed massive success in both the box office and critically, and I don't see The Report being any different. The film follows Daniel Jones, played by Adam Driver, as he spends half a decade building ...

The Report, directed by Scott Z. Burns, has everything that Hollywood loves; A-list male leads in Adam Driver and Jon Hamm, it's based on a true story, it's political, it’s relevant and it’s made by a proven director. Similar films like Argo and Spotlight have enjoyed massive success in both the box office and critically, and I don't see The Report being any different. The film follows Daniel Jones, played by Adam Driver, as he spends half a decade building a report o...

Star Wars-The Last Jedi, Review: The Lost Jedi George Lucas maintains that his Star Wars films were for kids. Back in the late 70s, when the trade-mark skewed angle intro rolling text greeted us as the film began, I was not a kid. Maybe the sensibilities of an Indian film-goer at 25 were akin to the school-kids in the West, but I loved what I saw. Since, I have seen most, if not all, the core movies and the spin-offs/anthologies, most of them likeable, but the 40th anniversary release saw me ...

Logan Lucky, Review by Siraj Syed: How to steal millions, with a prosthetic arm and a limp leg After Christopher Nolan wowed audiences with Dunkirk, his friend Steven Soderbergh crafts a never-never heist, with no weapons and unbelievable tools, master-minded by a limping, laid off construction worker, and his one-armed bartender brother. Logan Lucky, not to be confused with the world of werewolves, is a delightfully detailed film that bears many of Soderbergh’s trade-mark touches, and ...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Some good news Down South as Channing Tatum, who stars in LOGAN LUCKY directed by Steven Soderbergh, has gotten James Bond to dye his hair blonde — "Dye Another Day" would be a great 007 title -- wait, that's not real news. Even though Daniel Craig’s surprise Hillbilly-meets-Okie mega-cameo as Joe Bang in this movie is quite a towhead, the real news? Well, over a ways yonder in Tennessee the cast of LOGAN, which will b...

Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson is set in the eponymous New Jersey town, and although its brick mill vibe seems an anachronism in our time-lapse, media blitzed world, it invites us to enter a time warp and ponder eternal themes like love. Poetry is of essence in Paterson, beginning with its soulful protagonist. Adam Driver plays a bus driver who composes verse while working his route, and then scrawls it on the pages of his secret diary. He has the same name as this former e...

While We’re Young, Review: Means and ends Documentary film-maker and lecturer Josh (Ben Stiller) and his wife Cornelia (Naomi Watts) are a middle-aged New York couple who befriend a free-spirited, liberal younger couple, Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried). The young couple claim to be fans of his, and Jamie is an aspiring documentary-maker himself. Josh is struggling on the post-production of his new documentary film about leftist intellectual Ira Mandelstam (Peter Yarrow) ...

What If What If (alternate title The F Word) is the story of medical school dropout Wallace, who's been repeatedly scarred by bad relationships. So, while everyone around him, including his room-mate Allan seems to be finding the perfect partner, Wallace decides to put his love life on hold. It is then that he meets Chantry, a flirty animator who lives with her long-time boy-friend, Ben. Wallace and Chantry form an instant connection, striking up a close friendship, that includes bonding ...