Previous award winners "The Shape of Water," and "The Green Book," went on to win the Academy Award. "The Fablemans" with Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle and Judd Hirsch is a worthy selection as it exemplifies the underlying them of this year's festival  celebrating the Magic of Cinema.   That’s what movies do, elevate our perceptions, thrill our senses, perhaps revealing incites we might not see on the evening news....

  This film is everything you should expect by now from a film starring Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams. Every scene with them both in it has an energy not many could match. The emotional restraint in Williams' performance forces the audience to quiver while Moore's erratic and abusive behavior steers a ship that is stuck in a storm. Abby Quinn delivers a show-stopping performance as a daughter caught between her parents lies. She may be the most slept-on aspect of the ...

This film is everything you should expect by now from a film starring Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams. Every scene with them both in it has an energy not many could match. The emotional restraint in Williams' performance forces the audience to quiver while Moore's erratic and abusive behavior steers a ship that is stuck in a storm. Abby Quinn delivers a show-stopping performance as a daughter caught between her parents lies. She may be the most slept-on aspect of the show. No...

Venom, Review: High-breed Hannibal lecture Alien organisms are brought to earth by a mad industrialist who experiments by hosting them in human bodies, to form hybrid beings. These high-breeds feed on living humans, possess immense strength and can take over the human host at will, both in mind and body. What’s more, they can, and do, talk to the hosts in English, most of the conversations being lectures. Alien organisms inspired by Hannibal Lecter, a Hollywood cannibal who has been eat...

All the Money in the World, Review: Ear today, gone tomorrow Cinquanta to Gail: “Who is this so-called grandfather? How can he leave his own flesh and blood in the plight that your poor son is in? Here is the richest man in America, and you tell me he refuses to find just 10 miliardi for his grandson’s safety. Signora, you take me for a fool.” Two Ridley Scott releases in the same year? Alien Covenant and All the Money in the World mark the repeat of a phenomenon that occur...

The Greatest Showman, Review: Also fraudster, huckster and the King of humbug! Hollywood’s great showman Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) was a grandiose, over-the-big-top tribute to circuses, and won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Story. It was the story of the Ringling Circus and not about Phineas Taylor Barnum, who has inspired the film at hand. The Greatest Showman is about P.T. Barnum, and the reference to the film of 65 years ago is made becau...

Movie memories, by Siraj Syed—Brokeback Mountain (2005): Rough terrain, smooth ride Friendship between the two protagonists of Brokeback Mountain turns to a homosexual relationship that survives their respective conventional marriages and fatherhoods. Director Ang Lee tackles this taboo theme, placed in the Wyoming of half a century ago, and treats it with old-world unravelling, at a gentle pace and accompanied by slow background score. The dialogue is highly accentuated and mumbled, wh...

By Maria Esteves The 54th New York Film Festival 2016 (NYFF54) NY Premiere of MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, press conference with writer and director Kenneth Lonergan, moderated by festival director Kent Jones, NYFF, was held at the Walter Reade Theater Friday, September 30, 2016. Discussions with director Lonergan included film location scouts, casting process, music moments in the film, special scenes, and the film's flashback structure. MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, now in theaters. Watch trailer &n...

  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...

After the screening of Blue Valentine on Friday night, Producer Jamie Patricof gave us a little background on how long it has taken to get this film to the screen. He’s been on board for 9 of the 12 years Derek Cianfance (Brother Tide) was in the midst of both writing  and directing this wonderfully, heart-wrenching depiction of a couple learning each other, needing each other and then needing different things and hurting each other.In the first incarnation of the screenplay Cianfrance had ...