X Men-Dark Phoenix, Review: X-Men, ex X-Men and X-Women Every fan knows that the X in X-Men is for Xavier, the teacher-trainer who runs a school for the differently abled (gifted with a power or force other humans do not possess). In Dark Phoenix, there is a lot of play on the ‘word’, if one may call it that, X-Men. There are X-Men, and there are ex X-Men, then there are women members of X-Men who tell Xavier disparagingly that he should consider changing the name to X-Women, in v...

Red Sparrow, Review: Spread-eagled Think of an American film that is 158 minutes long--probably 150 minutes in a country like India, which has a reasonably strict censorship regime—and then read the following lines, found on the 20th Century Fox website, “As for the filming of the scenes and working with her Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence, she (Jennifer Lawrence) added: We talked about it extensively, which was really important for showing up on the day and there being no ...

mother!, review: The allegory category Darren Aronofsky’s reputation precedes him, as milling crowds at Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI)’s 19th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) bore testimony. Every show was packed to capacity and it was only at 10.30 pm on the last day of the festival that I could get to see mother!, thanks to the consideration shown by an event manager earlier in the day. Any director who has names like Black Swan and Noah on his portfolio is bound to generate hi...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent You can literally pin down three “F” words to describe nearly every Darren Aronofsky film from his early work in PI (1998) to best-loved film REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2000) to Mickey Rourke in THE WRESTLER (2008) to Natalie Portman’s Oscar-winning turn in BLACK SWAN (2010) to obsessive Russell Crowe in NOAH (2014). Fixated. Fragile. Freakish. Herein lies the latest work by this Harvard-trained filmmaker, MOTHER!, complete with an exc...

Siraj Syed reviews Passengers: Window seat at the journey of a life-time They’ve got it right. Not perfect, but right. Mind-boggling special effects and a mind-toggling emotional narrative. It’s an elusive, coveted recipé, and for once, somebody nailed it. Use state-of-the-art VFX, but blend them with an equally compelling story-line, sometimes shaken, sometimes stirred, and then pray you hit bull’s eye. Passengers is a journey that starts in outer space, but gets you...

  by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   Most publications have obits written in advance, especially for high-risk stars like Lindsay Lohan who are firmly in the "dead pool," yet the fault is not in our Stars but in the Hollywood Star paradigm itself, where girls and women are concerned. Consider the first movie star, Canadian Florence Lawrence (1886-1938) who reigned on screen from about 1906 to 1912.  The zenith to the nadir of Florence Lawrence (whos...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   If the rumors are true, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 reboot actually nixed Shailene Woodley's cameo, you have to wonder what they were thinking. She's on the cover of Marie Claire (read: "This is What a Badass Looks Like"), giving workout tips in People Magazine, and breaking big at the box office. In fact, Shailene Woodley, 22, went from George Clooney sidekick in The Descendants to fronting Divergent with bullets to ...

  By Adrienne Papp I get invited to a lot of social events  as a journalist / publicist, but there is nothing quite like the Oscars.  Excitement is in the air, everyone is full of wonder, looking forward to this fairytale-like evening with its never ending magic. The unexpected always happens just to keep things fresh year after year ( just likeU2 performing live  on stage.)  The 86th Oscars was really by far one of the best ever produced in Ho...

By Adrienne Papp I get invited to a lot of social events  as a journalist / publicist, but there is nothing quite like the Oscars.  Excitement is in the air, everyone is full of wonder, looking forward to this fairytale-like evening with its never ending magic. The unexpected always happens just to keep things fresh year after year ( just likeU2 performing live  on stage.)  The 86th Oscars was really by far one of the best ever produced in Hollywood. O...

By Adrienne Papp In a star-studded gala ceremony, the International Press Academy celebrated the distinguished accomplishments of artists in thirty-eight categories last Sunday night at the 18th Annual Satellite™ Awards held at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City.  "12 Years a Slave" received Motion Picture and Director honors, while "Dallas Buyers Club's" Matthew McConaughey, Cate Blanchett, and Jared Leto w...

By Adrienne Papp True to their tradition, the 71st Golden Globe Awards,broadcast on Sunday evening from the Beverly Hilton, offered plenty of Hollywood glamour, some humorous and offbeat moments, and also provided a bellwether as to what the odds-on favorites  the Academy Awards might be. The Golden Globe broadcast garnered the show’s highest ratings in 10 years, being seen by 20.9 million total viewers, up 6% from last year according to Nielsen. Co-hosti...

  by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   In the 1920's, Louise Brooks (Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl) famously took a 50 percent pay cut to work with German director G. W. Pabst, from $1000 a week to $500 a week, and flew to Berlin to make the best movies of the Kansas-born actor's career. In 2014, Jonah Hill cheerfully admits he accepted scale, around $60,000 USD, for a chance to be directed by Martin Scorsese in Wolf of Wall Street, for which he, along...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent For France, David O. Russell's Oscar-contender American Hustle is aptly retitled "American Bluff." And recently Russell told Le Monde by telephone interview, "Aujourd'hui, je suis fatigué, j'ai un rhume. Et je plane à 2000," on reaction to the 10 Nominations the film received from the Academy. Tired, with a cold, this is still The Year of David O. Russell as a unique American voice in filmmaking. Wi...

  by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   With the recent Buzzfeed headline that last night's Golden Globes winner Jennifer Lawrence stars in "the First Film with a Female Lead to Top the Box Office in 40 Years," it still stuns many in Hollywood that Hunger Games 2 actually beat up Iron Man 3 in the money race. Catching Fire is the top-grosser of 2013, but, this movie also officially ushers in a new genre.  We've gone from Chick Flicks to Chicks ...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent There are many reasons to wonder silently about the HFPA and their Golden Globe Awards, uhm, maybe the NSA knows more than some of us. (But not likely.) Last year Theo Kingma took the helm, and most of us hoped for the best after the sale to Peter Guber and friends.  What if the HFPA, founded in 1947, came back to its core directive as a charitable institution and gathering place for international journalists in Hollywood? Once w...

By Maria Esteves - February 25, 2013 The 85th Oscar Awards presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (A.M.P.A.S.) for outstanding film achievements of 2012 hosted by Seth MacFarlane commenced Sunday, February 24, 2013, 8:00pm ET at the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood & Highland Center, California, and aired live with 40 million  viewers worldwide. The Oscars celebrated James Bond 007 50th Anniversary with two James Bond theme performances by Dame Shirley Bassey (Goldfinger...

The 28th Annual SBIFF came to a close on Sunday, February 3rd. 

The 11 day festival screened nearly 200 hundred films, hosted various Academy Award nominees and brought out the latest creative forces in independent films, world wide.

 In an assembly such as this, the genre's were eclectic from sexual adventures (An Awkward Sexual Adventure) to meditation (Retreat), extreme sports (Discovering Mavericks) to nature (Revolution).  Features and shorts, both live and animated fille...

Posted by Liza Foreman The Golden Globes 2013 Winners List: Best Motion Picture - Drama
 WINNER: "Argo"
 » "Django Unchained"
 » "Life of Pi"
 » "Lincoln"
 » "Zero Dark Thirty" Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
 WINNER: "Les Miserables"
 » "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"
 » "Moonrise Kingdom"
 » "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen"
...

Oscar Nomination Reactions: Tom Hooper: Director: Les Miserables: “What a wonderful year for movies when nine films with this kind of diversity get acknowledged for the industry's highest honor.  I am so proud that ‘Les Miserables’ joins them and that the Academy noted the magnificent work from Hugh, Annie, our legendary song writers and the superlative crafts experts whose work made our film what it was.”  Mychael Danna: Original Score and Or...

The Independent Film Festival Boston kicked off their 2010 festivities by honoring Kevin Kline with the IFFBoston 2010 Career Achievement Award and screening his new film, The Extra Man.  This unusual comedy pairs Kline with Paul Dano in an unlikely mentor/mentee relationship.  Supported by Katie Homes, John C. Reilly, and Patti D’Arbanville, these seemingly unlikable characters navigate New York City, the written word, and women in a way that turns out to be completely charming.  The Q&...